Does anyone else get discouraged when they forget something they've read?

[cheeseburger_ca]

I recently re-read bill bryson's - a short history of nearly everything. While I was fascinated by many things I read throughout the 500 pages, i can only remember a few things, such as " a cow is 75% water". This is discouraging to me. I wish I could retain more of what I read. Does anyone else struggle with this?

[Adudaewen]

I struggle with that all the time. Sometimes I have to re-read things like 3 to 4 times before things stick. And that's not always a guarentee. SO i feel your pain. ;)

[bazarov]

No, it means it wasn't interesting enough:D

[Adudaewen]

No, it means it wasn't interesting enough:D


I tried that excuse in school, and it just got me into trouble. ;)

[miss tenderness]

nice topic,yes, sadly it happens alot:(

[Niamh]

I think that happens mainly to those of us that dont have a photographic memory or have sponges for brains. I know how you feel.

[SleepyWitch]

I recently re-read bill bryson's - a short history of nearly everything. While I was fascinated by many things I read throughout the 500 pages, i can only remember a few things, such as " a cow is 75% water". This is discouraging to me. I wish I could retain more of what I read. Does anyone else struggle with this?

happens to me all the time and i find it a bit frustrating. it's not 100% bad though coz it means you can enjoy a book all over again :)

[BibliophileTRJ]

Not only do I forget what I've read in books; I often forget what books I've read. I can't tell you how many times I buy a book because the synopsis on the back cover sounds interesting, then get 25-50 pages into the book only to discover that I kinda remember what is about to happen. I'll then go into my library and discover that I already have at least one copy of the book already.

I have FIVE, count 'em, FIVE copies of "Geek Love" by Katherine Dunn...... and that is a VERY memorable book populated with unique and bizarre characters....... you'd think that I'd be able to STOP buying it!!!

[Demona]

Wooooooh!!! YAY!!! I'm not alone with this problem. Unfortunately, my situation is aggravated by a husband who HAS, as Niamh put it, "a photographic memory or sponges for brains". However, I agree we, who tend to forget things, can enjoy the book again!...and again...and again... :D

2 BibliophileTRJ
LOL!!!!

[mtpspur]

As the years go by I have become somewhat alarmed that books I read just a couple of years ago are hazy in the brain cells. For example I started Sue Grafton alphabet books and read one after the other over a 4 month span. At the end of it all I could not have told you the plot to "C" "D" or "E" if free money was presented for the answer. This happening more and more as I get older and I hope it's lazy brain cells and not senility earlier then I expected.

[dramasnot6]

I completely sympathize. THe worst is when you forget books you have to read for school.

[Adudaewen]

Not only do I forget what I've read in books; I often forget what books I've read. I can't tell you how many times I buy a book because the synopsis on the back cover sounds interesting, then get 25-50 pages into the book only to discover that I kinda remember what is about to happen. I'll then go into my library and discover that I already have at least one copy of the book already.


That just makes me so happy to know that someone else has that problem too. I know my family and friends are sick and damn tired of me giving them books for Christmas because I forgot I already owned a copy ;)

[indigopaper]

I was just talking about this a few days ago. I thought I was sort of alone with this. I hardly remember anything I read...books or history or things from school. I read all of the chronicles of Narnia last year. I don't remember a single book other than the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I don't even remember their names. My favorite historical figure is Alexander the Great, and I went through a huge phase of learning everything about him. I was a fanatic. Now I remember hardly anything... The bible in particular is difficult to re-read over and over again. Not that I don't like it (I study religion for fun), but it sure is long.

[ClaesGefvenberg]

IDoes anyone else struggle with this?Not really. Some finer details does get lost in the haze of time of course, but I generally do remember the gist of what I have read. Here, for instance, I have commented on books I read some 25 to 30 years ago. Thus, I suppose I have a good memory, but on the other hand I can be infuriatingly absent minded about every day matters: I need to resort to various tricks and aids to keep that part on an acceptable level...

Anyway: My memory is probably a good one from the start, but there are a number of tools and tricks to help it along. May I, as an example suggest a visit to http://www.mindtools.com/ (and no, I am in no way associated with that site) which I have found very useful over the years.

Finally, We should not bash ourselves to hard for forgetting things: We tend to focus on what we do not remember, but consider everything we actually do remember every day. All things considered, I believe the "hit-rate" is very high... ...even for the most absent minded among us. :D
No, it means it wasn't interesting enough:DThat is a good point, actually: Of course it is a lot easier to remember the interesting stuff. The trick then, must be to make them interesting... ...sometimes a daunting task.
I tried that excuse in school, and it just got me into trouble. ;)Er.... I hear you. I tried that too, with similar results :lol:
Not only do I forget what I've read in books; I often forget what books I've read. Wow! I have never done that...

/Claes

[BibliophileTRJ]

I have FIVE, count 'em, FIVE copies of "Geek Love" by Katherine Dunn...... and that is a VERY memorable book populated with unique and bizarre characters....... you'd think that I'd be able to STOP buying it!!!

It's a good book & I highly recommend it...... I'd be happy to send one of my copies to anybody that's interested........ I have plenty of them.

[Demona]

It's a good book & I highly recommend it...... I'd be happy to send one of my copies to anybody that's interested........ I have plenty of them.

too bad I live far-far away :D

[littlewing53]

i recently bought toni morrison's song of solomon thinking i've always wanted to read that...1.50 at a garage sale...what a deal...sat down to read it...darn i've read this book already...well, not all's a waste my son is reading it...what about when you're driving in your car and you go somewhere not intended...just b/c you go to that same place monday-thru-friday and it's saturday and has nothing to do w/where ya wanna go now...

[bacchante]

It's a good book & I highly recommend it...... I'd be happy to send one of my copies to anybody that's interested........ I have plenty of them.


That's one of my favourite books. I'd love to get a copy from you if you (and the copy) are still there. I gave mine, sent from USA, to a friend. And in my country it's hardly possible to find another copy...

[kasie]

I've lost count of the times I've been told, usually with a knowing smile, 'It's your age, dear...'

I've twice recently settled down to enjoy a book only to discover that I've read it before. I concluded that the reason was my reading habits of a few years ago - life was difficult and from time to time I would escape by reading obsessively, nothing too demanding, just something I could consume in a couple of sittings, sometimes late into the night when I should have been getting some much-needed sleep. Those books went in one eye and out of the other (for which I apologise to the authors!) and it was lack of proper concentration that meant I had not really absorbed them. It's attention that results in remembering something, be it dates, formulae, appointments or plot-lines.

[raider60]

I accept that it's all part of the aging process--

[kelby_lake]

I don't read books twice by accident but I can finish a book and not really remember what happened in it.

[Loike]

I don't really have this problem, because I am actually a sponge.

But this also comes with an absolute inability to complete everyday tasks competently. Indeed, whoever has heard of a perfectly functional sponge? I am wholly lacking in common-sense, which can't be that common because I certainly don't have it, and I don't function very well in any other way than academically or intellectually. So I don't know what I'd prefer; to forget what I've read and as such read a book again and again and again (...) as though it were the first time, or read, remember and be able to do very little else. Hmmm.

It's very sad, really. But such is the price of being a sponge.

xx

[blackbird_9]

I'm fairly decent on remembering plots, characters, and maybe a few details about the books I read, and I almost always never get my authors and titles confused... But does anybody else get a kick out of those people who just pull literary quotes out of thin air??? It could have been a book they've read years ago and here they are reciting word for word paragraphs of it. If there is a quote I like or is famous, it takes some work to store it in my memory bank. Oi..

[John Goodman]

I hate it when I see a beautiful line in a story (or the last line) and want to remember it but never can. The only last line of a book I've ever been able to remember whenever I think of it is 1984. Others I either forget or can only remember occasionally.

[kelby_lake]

I'm very good at remembering lines!

[kasie]

I half-remember lines, usually get the gist of it but perhaps not quite word for word - it impresses people who haven't read the book/seen the play because they think I have the quote off pat but for some reason it didn't impress tutors or examiners back in my college days....

[Tersely]

I think with the amount of books I read (one after the other usually) I just can't retain all the information so like everyone else I forget. It's kind of good in a way because some of the authors I really love and it's like a re-discovery. There's another topic floating around about the books we read in high school. I'm only 21 and my list was pretty much I forget, I forget, I forget, ect..

[Bakiryu]

I have a really bad memory, I don't really know why since I'm young, I just forget everything whether is a book or a movie or what I had for lunch today. And then it just comes into my mind at the most random moments or when I really need it.

[integrity]

I never remember quotes, and sometimes I don't even remember all the events of a book.

But I find that I almost always take away a lasting lesson from each book I read, and I find that more valuable. I can usually tell you how I felt about the book, and what meaning I got out of the overall ideas it conveyed.

Unless it's a book filled with schlock, like all the Anne Rice books I masochistically made myself read in my 20's.

[Drkshadow03]

I have a suggestion that may alleviate this problem somewhat. The whole purpose of my blog (http://beyondassumptions.wordpress.com/)is to help me remember the books I read during the year pretty much. Once awhile I'll bring other issues, literary or otherwise, but mostly it's there for my convenience. For each book I write a little something about my own personal reactions, thoughts, interpretations.

This process: a) forces me to think more deeply about the book than I probably would otherwise have done as it requires me to write something about every single book I read, which in turn helps me remember the book and talk about it more fluently in conversations b) helps me keep track of the books I read in general c) allows me to share with the entire internet my thoughts on a single book and hopefully encourages discussion that in turn introduces new issues I haven't thought about and can learn from. D) If you forgot what you thought about a book or what is was about, all you have to do is click on your blog entry and it'll have your thoughts. Most likely you'll have an "Oh yeah" moment.

You can all just click on the link and check out my blog to see how this works (I actually need to organize some of my older posts better). So for example, if you put a "Booklist 2008" tag on each entry you write for 2008 you can separate it from entries from a previous year. Then at the end of December you can go through all your 2008 entries and just write them all up in one big convenient ordered list and post it as a separate blog post with Booklist 2008 tag. Then when 2009 starts you add a new tag: Booklist 2009 for all those entries. So you can know what you read in any given year, plus if you sum it all up in a list at the end of the year in a single post, all you have to do is click on the tag, say Booklist 2008, and the most recent post should be the first one (which should always be your end of the year total tally) and you now know all the books you read in a given year in one single post. If you need to find out previous years, just click on the tag for that year.

Keep in mind writing something about each book is time-consuming and sometimes difficult depending on the book.

[Pensive]

My memory is not very good either and I read quite a lot so yes, I can relate to that of course. Am especially poor at remembering names. Also there are many times when I want to quote some sentences but can only remember parts which can be pretty frustrating.

[byquist]

This is a good question and memory is an important ingredient in life. I guess a lot depends on how much you read, or if and how often you memorize (say a sonnet that you like or a line from a movie). If you read a lot, it's probably impossible to remember it all--who cares? So I don't think there's anything to feel rotten about. Some profound things repeat themselves, and thus become permanent in thought, whereas most book content (and most pedestrian life-content for that matter) flitters and flies away as it should. If you run into something important, then consciously make it permanent--claim possession of it; don't permit it to fade. Go for quality rather than quantity. One remembered verity is worth thousands of worthless meandering concepts. The mind is not like a bucket that can only hold so much. You always have to have plenty of space in thought for newly encountered ideas. New and fresh ideas can be way more valuable than remembered "book learnin."

[MorpheusSandman]

Ya know, I have a tendency to forget things I JUST read but remembering clear as day things I read a long time ago. Although it is annoying how difficult it is for literature to stick in my mind like the other arts, but that just means it requires more work I guess.

[Dark Muse]

There is one book in which it happend to me, and though I cannot remeber in detail every book I have read I usually have a vauge notion of what it is about to say the least, but there is one book that it is like I did not read it, and I know for a fact that I did.

I draw a complete blank of Persuasion by Jane Austen, and I do like her work as a whole. But that one book, I cannot think of a single thing it was about or bring to mind any of the characters and it does bug me.

[hellsapoppin]

As a recovering amnesiac, I have trouble remembering just about everything. But, like Drkshadow, I often take notes and put them in my diary so that I can remember certain points in my readings.