Episode 122 - Forgetting Books

[Elizabeth☮]

I like the topic of forgetting books. The whole reason I started keeping track of what I read is because I read The Hours twice. I read it when it was first released and then again in anticipation of the movie's release. I told my husband, "I keep predicting what is going to happen. I think I've read this book before." But I read to the very end to make sure I remembered it all correctly. I did.

[Emma]

I got about an episode and a half into Game of Thrones before I realised that I had started to read the book a few years ago before putting it down. I then promptly stopped watching till I had finished the book.

[Jessa]

Sometimes forgetting you read something is a good thing. It shows your tastes are consistent and choosing and being at a different place in your life you might be able to appreciate something you disliked the first time. The first time I read Their Eyes Were Watching God I hated it. I picked it up years later and loved it the second time because I had grown up enough to appreciate it.

[Elizabeth☮]

Good point Jessa. There are books I read as a teen that I didn't even recall as an adult (the great Gatsby comes to mind). And when I read The Catcher in the Rye as a teen, I loved it. When I read it as an adult, I couldn't get the appeal of it.

But I think we can appreciate books more or less depending on our own experiences.

[Karen]

Oh yes I know this experience. It usually happens with the less literary books I've read - crime fiction for example. Maybe because I tend to read them faster. I wrote about this on my blog a little while ago.

http://bookertalk.com/2015/02/08/forg...

[Kathleen]

I also started writing down a list of books I've read because I bought and started the same book 3 times. I am now trying to journal alittle about each book I read now inorder to have a some recall. Mostly my impression of the book and I also jot down what format I used. I started that when I got a kindle to see if I bought more books that way.

[Sue]

I started keeping a notebook with me at all times for my Booktopia reading and I've really enjoyed jotting down impressions, quotes, even just page numbers to refer back to. I forget everything and it's been really helpful and made for a richer reading experience,

Kathleen wrote: "I also started writing down a list of books I've read because I bought and started the same book 3 times. I am now trying to journal alittle about each book I read now inorder to have a some recall..."

[Michelle]

I wish I was so organised to keep notes - it would help with my reviews. I can't remember specifics about re reading books but sometimes I finish a book and can't remember the beginning - how's that for short memory lol!

[Sue]

Forgetting the beginning isn't so bad. I often forget the ending!

Michelle wrote: "I wish I was so organised to keep notes - it would help with my reviews. I can't remember specifics about re reading books but sometimes I finish a book and can't remember the beginning - how's tha..."

[Louise]

I really like the Goodreads feature where you can choose the format of the books you read, thus I can go back and check if I read something as a regular book, an audiobook, a nook book, a kindle book or an ebook from Gutenberg. I tend to forget stuff too - especially if I read it 4+ years ago.

[Dawn]

Hi ! I am Dawn ! I do sometimes forget names of the characters but not their behaviors and descriptions. I never really forget things they do . Although , it is so nice to read a book again if you loved the story and see if you notice differences in you're feelings about the story from a period of time you had read the book to the present reading. Face it there are also books that are so wonderful in my mind that I have to take myself back into their world ! I have read Jane Eyre and Wurthering Heights too many times to count since I was young . I love all of Charles Dickens' and could never choose just one favorite. Lately , I am into Southern literature because I am living in Oxford , MS home of William Faulkner and Larry Brown was a distant relative and great writer of Southern Grit Lit. I attended Ole Miss and have been taught by some of the best writers : Barry Hannah, Tom Franklin, several wonderful writers in residence . John Grisham
was a friend as well as Willie Morris . My favorite professor is a brilliant and lovely poet Anne Fisher- Wirth and another is Tom Franklin's wife Beth Ann Fennelly. I currently help promote artist of all types in a nonprofit Fundraising group begun by a Creative Writing Professor with several great books of his own . It is called VOX PRESS . Louis Bourgeois is this magnificent creative writer . His latest initiative is the release of a book called In Our Own Words: Writing From Parchman Prison . It is an excellent work combined of a class of prisoners from the oldest prison in the Delta of Mississippi. This is the first educational effort to help these prisoners with some useful communication skills which can also help boost their self confidence to go back into real world situations and maybe not come back . Everyone knowledge is Power! I wish I could say as a an English Teacher and Creative writing teacher I could do something such as this. The book is just being sold by Amazon for $20 to help carry on the project next year. These guys are really not bad writers.
Write now I am reading my Sunshine Away by M. O. Walsh . He is a writer from Baton Rouge , Louisiana. The book begins with the rape of a young teenage girl named Lindy and that is the start of the mystery ... It is a page turner!!!

Glad to join your group of good discussion ! Are there any books we should choose to read or are we on our own to introduce anything ? I really love every genre except not that fond of some Sci Fi and Fantasy !!! I love good serial mysteries! Not cheesy stuff I like complicated plots and foreign reads except my favorites where I learn new things about forensics and psychology etc... Patricia Cornwell 's Scapetta Character is great and so are Frank Kellerman's books because he was once a Forensic Psychiatrist! I knew a forensic psychologist and his wife a psychologist once ! They were awesomely interesting . After one years with Obamacare approaching they went into practice for themselves. I also loved the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larson . Such a shame his loss was so early! I still feel Eva has a book up her sleeve!
My favorite Southern writers That are not for weak at heart or stomach are : William Gay, Daniel Woodrell, Ron Rash, Cormac McCarthy, Larry Brown , of course William Faulkner, Donna Tartt winner of the Pulitzer Prize this year and former classmate for a short time, William Styron, James Agee, Flannery O'Conner, Eudora Welty, Anne Rice, and I could go on .... I look forward to see what others like too . My latest favorite book was Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See! I believe this hit tops for me and will always be a favorite . I may have to retread it ever so often for the inspiration!!! I write quite a bit about about things I feel passionate . Sorry , such a long post ! Thank you for reading !
I Am Sincere ,
Dawn

[Tom]

I'm revisiting Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins. I vaguely remember it and a little about the ending, but not much else.

[Jahzerah]

Not only do I forget that I've already read books, I've repurchased several. On more than one occasion, I'll buy a book, go to my bookshelf and realize it's already there. At least my tastes are consistent

[Thomas]

Jahzerah, I do the same thing all the time. Although I do it slightly less often than my husband.

[Louise]

For that I can recommend having a list of all your books on your phone. I type all authors/book titles into a Word document, that I keep on my Google drive, then I can always check if I already have a title as book, ebook or audiobook (and I almost never buy doubles anymore :-) Sometimes when a books is publíshed under different American and English titles however, my system fails! :-)

[Jahzerah]

Thomas, I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one

[Kristen]

Jahzerah, I am appalling about buying duplicates and I even have my entire library cataloged and accessible wherever I am yet I still do it. As a matter of fact, I have a bag with two books that need to be returned for that very reason sitting on a kitchen chair beside me right now. Sometimes I take the re-buying as a sign I should read the book now so I quit fondling it in the bookstore and other times, well, I just shake my head and leave the original unread on the shelf for a while longer.

[Jahzerah]

Kristen, we ought to have a massive give-away! I used to participate in World Book Night, and since it's been discontinued here in the U.S., we should stop random people on the street and thrust our extra copies at them! People might think we're crazy, but I'm willing to risk it :)

[Kathy]

I once had a double book-forgetting episode. A friend's father died and she brought over a box of books from his substantial collection for me to choose from. Among others, I picked out a nice first edition hardback of William Lyon Phelps's Autobiography and Letters. Many weeks later, I helped my friend to pack up and clean her father's house. She told me to help myself to books if I wanted them, so I put together a box of interesting-sounding titles. Only after I got home and unpacked everything did I find that I had again chosen Autobiography and Letters...a second copy of a work her father had also forgotten he owned.