Perhaps when we select books to read them, we only do so in order to describe ourselves as a &quot;Calvino reader&quot; or a &quot;Russophile&quot; as much as the author rejects Bukowski so as to be thought of as &quot;a person who despises Bukowski.&quot; In that case, forming an identity through the art you arbitrarily despise and have not experienced seems only <i>slightly</i> more flimsy than doing so through the art you have experienced and have a real opinion about.<p>But, I think most of us read to learn or to gain new perspectives, etc. So, openly hating things you haven&#x27;t experienced or examined critically is about as anti-intellectual as claiming to have read things one hasn&#x27;t. Why not just say, &quot;I am more interested in [<i>some type of fiction with certain themes</i>], and my reading list is quite long.&quot; Easier and doesn&#x27;t freeze out the conversation quite as badly.<p>I still haven&#x27;t read Bayard&#x27;s &quot;How to Talk About Books You Haven&#x27;t Read&quot;...