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Do You Remember What You Read?

direstraits

direstraits

Well-Known Member
I'm interested in knowing (especially from the very well-read members of our esteemed community) whether you remember what you've read, how much do you remember, and your typical retention period of a book's contents. Whether you're keeping a record of what you're reading, and if you do, in what form?

I find myself forgetting stuff I read very easily, especially for non-fiction books that contain many interesting facts that I'd like to retain. Even fiction - I forget the gist of books as time goes by.

So I started a couple of things to help me. I keep a sporadically updated book blog and a very updated written book journal, where I write 'reviews' of what I read.

What about you?
 
it depends on the effect the book had on me or the amount of emotion (good or bad) it generated. Books that made little impact fade quickly while those that made an impression I tend to remember.

I remember the outline with some detail on one reading, subsequent readings add to the depth of detail I remember. I also will remember fairly obscure points about a book if something jolts the memory.
 
I have a much better memory for fiction. My recollection of the books I read years ago is much more vivid than what I have read in recent years.
This I attribute to the natural phenomenon of aging....and accept it.
 
Accept it???? Nooooooooooo!

Apparently Google'll solve your problem, since they are working on solving this little problem of ageing (link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24158924). Soon trivialities like ageing will be a thing of the past, and all we need to worry about is the minor characters in War and Peace and incontinence.
 
But none of you use book journals or anything of the sort?

What about details from things like magazines? There's so much detail in non-fiction books or mags that some I wish I had a place to store them where I could retrieve them when needed.
 
It depends on the book. Some books I've forgotten not long after closing the back cover. Others have stayed with me for years, decades even.
 
direstraits said:
But none of you use book journals or anything of the sort?

What about details from things like magazines? There's so much detail in non-fiction books or mags that some I wish I had a place to store them where I could retrieve them when needed.
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I used to keep handwritten journals. They were fairly detailed with brief summaries and my thoughts about plots, characters, etc. As time went on and with the advent of the internet, I started a small book blog with my reviews. This became quite onerous, so then I went back to listing books on a spreadsheet. Next, I discovered Library Thing and Goodreads for an online way to keep track of books.

Now, I use only Goodreads (some BAR members are my friends there). It's a quick, easy way to keep track of what I've read. Sometimes I write a quick review, often I'll just leave a rating. These are more a means for me to jog my memory about what I've read and how I felt about it at the time rather than true book reviews -- because I'm getting to that age where things don't stick so well in the brain pan. :) I've also found a few interesting discussion groups on GR that I quite enjoy.
 
direstraits said:
But none of you use book journals or anything of the sort?

What about details from things like magazines? There's so much detail in non-fiction books or mags that some I wish I had a place to store them where I could retrieve them when needed.
Click to expand...

You can either get special magazine folders and store the whole magazine or you can tear the pages out and keep them in a folder OR you could go digital and scan the interesting pages and store them digitally :)
 
Hmmm, interesting. This is more to do with non-fiction than fiction I guess, and I think this largely bothers me than anyone else.

I think all the ripping of pages (I don't know why the word 'bodices' is floating in my mind there somewhere - I wonder what triggered this...) is a little too troublesome. Yes, I think actually writing the reviews in a nice little book is a little less so. :D I love my book journal. I'm at the moment cataloguing brief impressions on every single one of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
 
No bodice ripping puhleeze! LOL There is a lot of junk in magazines. If you tear out the good stuff it is surprisingly few pages. The rest is all advertising.
 
direstraits said:
But none of you use book journals or anything of the sort?

What about details from things like magazines? There's so much detail in non-fiction books or mags that some I wish I had a place to store them where I could retrieve them when needed.
Click to expand...

How about this rather old fashioned method for noting down information?
I'm sure you have major areas of interest so you can section out a journal for each topic, have an index, and also allot one section for Misc. Whenever you come across something interesting, you can briefly note it down in the relevant section along with the reference ( book name, magazine issue date ) . When you find something of interest for which you have not created a section, you can note it in the misc. section.
 
Gita V.Reddy said:
How about this rather old fashioned method for noting down information?
I'm sure you have major areas of interest so you can section out a journal for each topic, have an index, and also allot one section for Misc. Whenever you come across something interesting, you can briefly note it down in the relevant section along with the reference ( book name, magazine issue date ) . When you find something of interest for which you have not created a section, you can note it in the misc. section.
Click to expand...

That would be waaay to organised for me. I do have a filing system on my computer, then I forget where I put things, have to search for them, then wonder why I put X in a folder Y
 
A few years back I bought The Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay and started reading it. Some chapters in it starts to feel familiar, which I at first just attributed to having read many of his books, but eventually I found out I'd already read it and found the first copy on my bookshelves.
I don't remember books long, and those I do remember tend to be the fantasy books. Then there are the times I think I remember, but what I really remember is another book or the movie based on the book.

It's not so bad though. I don't aim to be on Jeopardy, so why would I need to remember the books? I assume if there's great thoughts in the book I'll remember some of that, not as how it was written but how I understood it and I'll come out a wiser person for having read it. I enjoy the books as I read them and the thoughts they might or might not spawn, after that they've served their purpose.
 
hay82 said:
A few years back I bought The Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay and started reading it. Some chapters in it starts to feel familiar, which I at first just attributed to having read many of his books, but eventually I found out I'd already read it and found the first copy on my bookshelves.
I don't remember books long, and those I do remember tend to be the fantasy books. Then there are the times I think I remember, but what I really remember is another book or the movie based on the book.
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Wow, dude. Firstly, you forgot you read a GGK. That's a crime. Like murder.

Secondly, you're right, I suppose, in the larger scheme of things. It's just that sometimes I feel I should remember more than 'I liked it', or 'I hated it', or something equally ambivalent like that. But mostly it railing against the reality that I'm getting older, and are forced by the passage of time to forget things that gave me pleasure.

Finally, it's great to see you back. :)
 
The computer has made it so much easier for me -- typing is faster than writing.
I keep a yearly running list of Books Read - title author, brief memory jogger, all on one line.
I move books up from To Be Read as I finish them.
Books I give up on go either into Deferred or Abandoned.
At the end of the year I list Best of the Year from memory, then pick a Best of Best.

And the rest I forget about if I haven't already. :)

You'll see :D
 
I can't always remember titles and I'm even worse with authors, but content I do remember. I have picked up a book to read having forgotten author and title but 2 pages in realised I've read this.
 
direstraits said:
Wow, dude. Firstly, you forgot you read a GGK. That's a crime. Like murder.

Secondly, you're right, I suppose, in the larger scheme of things. It's just that sometimes I feel I should remember more than 'I liked it', or 'I hated it', or something equally ambivalent like that. But mostly it railing against the reality that I'm getting older, and are forced by the passage of time to forget things that gave me pleasure.

Finally, it's great to see you back. :)
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On the positive side I made sure he had one more sale. So be sure to keep that in mind before you sentence me.

Well you're forgetting the obvious advantage. If you forget the book that gave you pleasure to read, then you can get that pleasure again. Getting old is awesome.

Good to be back, and still rocking the banana I see.
 
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