If you're able to memorize a book word per word, what would it be?

[Laindessiel]

If you're able to memorize a book word per word, what would it be?

[Adudaewen]

good thread. I would have to say I would love to be able to remember Lord of the Rings. Shocking I know. :)

[PeterL]

I'd have to think about it, but a quick answer is the Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe.

[spacetoon]

Well, to me, if I am able to memorize a word per word. That's becuase I like the writer along with the story or novel.

Like this sentence in "The Death of Ivan Iyllch" by Leo Tolestoy

Ivan's Iyllch's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.

I remember this sentence very well. It's a masterpiece and I am very proud that I get used to memorize Leo Tolestoy's words.

[Annamariah]

The Holy Bible. It would be amazing to remember everything word by word instead of just knowing "well, it's something like this..."

[Alexei]

Is this tread inspired by “Fahrenheight 451”? I have sometimes asked myself the same thing. I don’t really know. There are so many books I would like to know by heart. May be I will memorize one of Oscar Wild’s work, may be “The picture of Dorian Gray”, or may be “Perfume’ by Patrick Süskind, I really love these novels.

[F.Emerald]

The Dictionary.

[RobinHood3000]

The First Folio. :cool:

[kilted exile]

Hard Times, possibly the funniest book ever written.

[Shea]

First choice; Bible.
Second choice; Lord of the Rings

[ranzy]

Dante's Divine Comedy. It should be easier with rhymes and actually both Roberto Benigni and my university professor of italian seem to know it by heart. (I can remember just the first few verses of hell and something here and there)
But also the Bible is a good choice.
And Moby Dick

[Pensive]

The Magus.

[lenoka]

What is the inner side of the wind??? - it is the side that is staying dry, while wind is blowing through the rain.

[LauraJayne]

good thread. I would have to say I would love to be able to remember Lord of the Rings. Shocking I know. :)

Ohh, definately, same here.
Even now, after reading it many times, I find something new everytime I read it.
Then again, memorizing it would take the fun of that away.

Hmmm. Predicament!

x

[smilingtearz]

The Dictionary.

Ditto!.. and the Bible...
and i wish i could remember all of shakespeare word by word...

[sawsan]

The dictionary

[Maria L]

yes, dictionary!

[EAP]

Fahrenheit 451

[Mugwump101]

Dictionary, Shakespeare Complete Works, Les Miserables, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings...

[cuppajoe_9]

Finnegans Wake, just because it would be super impressive.

[Maria L]

oooh..
Fahrenheit 451
will our future ever reach such a point?


What about 1984?

[Cien]

1) Bible
2) The Prophet
3) Too many other things to list.

Actually, The Prophet is rather short... Thanks for giving me the idea.

[Maria L]

Oh!
I Know!


Anthem
-Ayn Rand

[EAP]

will our future ever reach such a point?

Not unless the world is ruled by some pretty efficent and ruthless objectivistic dictators. :p

[Maria L]

Dictatorship.
so
much
power.

so
hard
to
resist

unreal
unjust
un"orthadox"?

[PeterL]

Is this tread inspired by “Fahrenheight 451”? I have sometimes asked myself the same thing. I don’t really know. There are so many books I would like to know by heart. May be I will memorize one of Oscar Wild’s work, may be “The picture of Dorian Gray”, or may be “Perfume’ by Patrick Süskind, I really love these novels.

I was very surprised to see someone select Perfume.

[Maria L]

My list:

Dorian Gray
Anthem
Fahrenheit 451
Dictionary
1984

in no particular order.

PERFUME... why would you want to memorize that?

[Cien]

What's wrong with Perfume? The writing is amazing (or at least the English translation is).

[amuse]

One of Tolkiens, not sure which one of the trilogy...though for pure lightness if I could choose only one I'd pick the double-storied book Farmer Giles of Ham and Smith of Wooton Major. Because Tolkien has the richest words I've ever read, you can hear/feel them lift you right off of the pages as they transport you down the rabbit hole.

One of George MacDonald's short faerie tales, not sure which again; all are excellent and fill me with joy.

And if I could memorize a novel, it would be Les Mis; Hugo astonishes me all the time, with phrases like "neighing marble" and others too countless to recount. I've dog-eared books before so I'd return to worthy spots before, but never before pulled out a pencil to remark on and underline words and phrases before out of sheer pleasure, awe, admiration, and a forlorn hope that one day I might become half as a good a human as a fictional character.

:)

[Maria L]

Man, I never keep a book without a pencil or marker.

Annotation = Life.

Tolkein's works are good
I also really like Tolstoy! Anna Karenina is an all time favourite.

[Cien]

I'm mostly unable to make marks on my books. They are like holy things, and I don't want to disturb them more than I have to.

[Schokokeks]

This is an interesting thread, thanks for opening, Lain :nod:.

My first choice would be The Iliad by Homer, but in Greek, please :p; I would feel immensly enriched by being able to recite these verses to myself any time I liked.
Secondly I'd choose a play by Shakespeare, probably Hamlet.

I think that during the Middle Ages, a scholar's knowledge amounted to the content of roughly nine books. He knew them by heart because during his lifetime he copied them about ten times. It is estimated today that a hairdresser's knowledge is of the same amount, only not exactly whole books, but trivia about stars and the like.

[mir]

My history textbook! :lol:

[Maria L]

I'm mostly unable to make marks on my books. They are like holy things, and I don't want to disturb them more than I have to.

I agree, books are like holy things... but I beleive by writing in them, I'm adding a part of myself into the book -therefore giving it more importance for myself. It makes me feel as though I'm relating with the author, and reading along as they are writing the book. It helps to remmeber concepts better too.

[byquist]

C.S. Lewis' "A Grief Remembered" would be worth memorizing. A subjective meditation.

[vili]

An interesting thread with some interesting choices. I might personally choose Spinoza's Ethics, as it is a bit cumbersome to read because of all the cross-referencing that is going on. And it is something that I keep going back to year after year.

Kant's Critiques would also be a handy to thing to have at the back of the head. As would the vedas. But those are not really a single book, so I guess not allowed.

[Jetxa]

There are relatively few books I have not taken a highlighter to or jotted down some of my own thought on its pages. I mostly read Pagan philosophy and religious themes so I use my books as reference materials to make my point in such discussions.

Books I'd like to memorize are The Pagan Bible by M. Gorham and a good dictionary.

[mtpspur]

I have been trying off and on over the years to memorize 1st Book of John (King James version) but have always crashed and burned. Have gotten very lazy over the years.

[Cien]

This thread has actually made me really want to memorize things. It would obviously take a long time, but seriously thinking about it has made me edit my choices like this:

1) The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran
2) Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare
3) Genesis
4) Revelations

And more, but I'm not sure what.

[chasestalling]

hamlet....

[Laindessiel]

good thread. I would have to say I would love to be able to remember Lord of the Rings. Shocking I know. :)

:eek: :eek2: :eek2: If there's onw book I'd veer away from memorizing, even if given such magical power, is LOTR. I think it's really impossible. :lol:


Is this tread inspired by “Fahrenheight 451”? I have sometimes asked myself the same thing. I don’t really know. There are so many books I would like to know by heart. May be I will memorize one of Oscar Wild’s work, may be “The picture of Dorian Gray”, or may be “Perfume’ by Patrick Süskind, I really love these novels.

I've never read Fahrenheit 451. I know there's a movie Fahrenheit 9/11: I haven't gotten the chance to watch it either. Oh, what a goner. But I like your choices! Especially Dorian Gray. Marvelous Oscar Wilde we got there. As always.


The Dictionary.

Uh-huh, uh-huh. And the thesaurus too.


This is an interesting thread, thanks for opening, Lain :nod:.

My first choice would be The Iliad by Homer, but in Greek, please :p; I would feel immensly enriched by being able to recite these verses to myself any time I liked.
Secondly I'd choose a play by Shakespeare, probably Hamlet.

I think that during the Middle Ages, a scholar's knowledge amounted to the content of roughly nine books. He knew them by heart because during his lifetime he copied them about ten times. It is estimated today that a hairdresser's knowledge is of the same amount, only not exactly whole books, but trivia about stars and the like.

Thanks Schoko. I never knew the extent of a person's mental ability to memorize would amount to 9 books! Ay, we shouldn't underestimate a hairdresser's capabilities!! ;)


I have been trying off and on over the years to memorize 1st Book of John (King James version) but have always crashed and burned. Have gotten very lazy over the years.

Tell me when you've succeeded. ;)

[dramasnot6]

Definetly a play of Shakespeares, i couldnt choose though. Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caeser, Romeo and Juliet...those all sound good to memorize

[Nightshade]

humm welll like the pople who said the bible, Ill say the koran, then Id never have to look things up again, and whenever I starting haveing a panic attack Id have more than a handful of versus to distract my mind with.

But after that the thesurs... who needs a dictioary when they can memorise the thesorus? Or the etmilogical dictionary..or wait best of all law text books then Id be in great demand as law librarian and get paied lots and lots!:nod:

[Bastet]

The Five People You Meet In Heaven, by Mitch Albom.

[rintrah]

Easy Choice: John Milton's Paradise Lost.

[NDL]

Molloy, by Samuel Beckett. I've memorized 3000 words = 7-8 pages.

[Silvia]

Dante's Divine Comedy. It should be easier with rhymes and actually both Roberto Benigni and my university professor of italian seem to know it by heart. (I can remember just the first few verses of hell and something here and there)

I agree with you, ranzy! It would be Dante!!!!
but it is just a dream...is it possible to memorise the whole of it????
I have heard about Roberto Benigni's show dedicated to the Divine Comedy and everyone said he sounded as if he knew it by heart....mmm.....

[Cien]

Some Koranic scholars memorize the entire Koran before their twentieth birthday, so I'd imagine it's very possible to memorize the entire Divine Comedy.

[Laindessiel]

Molloy, by Samuel Beckett. I've memorized 3000 words = 7-8 pages.

Whoa, really? I'll check the book out.

[Reccura]

Harry Potter. Period.

[baddad]

remember a book read, remember every nuance.............. my choice would be EVERY book I have ever read.........and these would number in the thousands, many classics among them.......

What an exciting thought! One would never be at a loss for an appropriate word or statement at any conversation, and one could never avoid enlightenment no matter how well one delved to hide FROM it......................

[FemaleQuixote]

If i could memorize any one book it would have to be Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice or Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities. Both are wonderful books.

[ryguy]

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, by Edward Albee. I have read that play 3 times, and I love more and more each time!!

[Vodac]

If I had to choose an English book, it would be Paradise Lost. No other English books are so wonderfully and magnificently written. But If I could choose a book in another language, it would definitely be Céline's Voyage au bout de la nuit (Travel to the end of the night).

[Bookworm89]

The Iliad by Homer

[Tenacious]

I'd memorize the Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana which is a rad work that deserves careful reading and study considering it was written in ancient India, it also contains profound historical and anthropological insights into the customs of ancient India. I am no sex addict but i'd find it interesting, well the anthropological parts anyway. I would also memorize The Art of War by Sun Tzu, although id memorize and learn almost any book if i had the time.

[aeroport]

Finnegans Wake, just because it would be super impressive.

I was thinking Ulysses myself. Or the Canterbury Tales.

[Matrim Cuathon]

well some people actually can flip thorugh a book and have almost perfectly memorised. wish i could do that. i cant really remember whole texts but i can usually get a pretty large amount of the story. much more than anyone i know, even after a single reading.

i'd have to say that i cannot choose which of the awesome books i have read to memorize. there are too many.

[Adudaewen]

I changed my mind. I'd want to memorize the newest edition of Websters Dictionary and Bartletts Book of Quotations. ;)

[Walter]

For me, The Holy Bible. No doubt about it.

[manolia]

The Lord of the Rings..but that would take ages wouldn't it?

[LPRox015]

The complete works of Sir William Shakespeare or Sir Alfred Lord Tennyson. I would chose either or. ;)

[kawthar]

It is my dream to memorize the wholy Quran by heart... I do not think that any book desirve to memorize other than it for me..it is a never die book..for the past, the present and the future...