Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?
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Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?
#2I had the same problem, and sometimes it's embarrassing to say you read a book but don't remember anything about it. I'm happy I'm not the only one.
I loved the one of the sentences in post "You are all what you read". I would also add "We read what we want to be".
(now starting to forget the post)
Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?
#3I had the same problem, and sometimes it's embarrassing to say you read a book but don't remember anything about it. I'm happy I'm not the only one. I loved the one of the sentences in post "You are all what you read". I would also add "We read what we want to be". (now starting to forget the post)
I am the same way. I read to further my knowledge... sometimes. Other (read: most) times, I read because I enjoy the immersive experience. Taking things from that and putting them in long-term memory isn't really part of the agenda. If it is, I take notes. That helps!
Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?
#4I liken learning to throwing cooked spaghetti against the wall: some sticks, some slides off. The key to being smarter is to make more stuff stick to the walls, whether you can do that by making the knowledge more "sticky" or like what I do, which is to throw even more against the wall.
To twist a phrase from Glengarry Glen Ross: "ABL - Always Be Learnin'."
Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?
#5Maybe try reading more memorable books? I remember "Lord Of The Rings" :-)
Don't know the books he mentions, but the titles alone sound a bit like "I really should read this to prove that I am an intellectual".
Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?
#6I don't relate at all - I believe I remember the content of every book I've ever read, and the main takeaways of it.
Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?
#7I have a poor memory, and it's difficult for me to describe books to friends after having read them. But I know for a fact that they shape me. It comes out in the way I behave and the opinions I hold.
Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?
#8I liken learning to throwing cooked spaghetti against the wall: some sticks, some slides off. The key to being smarter is to make more stuff stick to the walls, whether you can do that by making the knowledge more "sticky" or like what I do, which is to throw even more against the wall. To twist a phrase from Glengarry Glen Ross: "ABL - Always Be Learnin'."
> To twist a phrase from Glengarry Glen Ross: "ABL - Always Be Learnin'."
Bad memory forces you to always be learning, at least trying to learn a bit more than what it's forgotten.
Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?
#9I don't relate at all - I believe I remember the content of every book I've ever read, and the main takeaways of it.
Lucky?
Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?
#10My key take-away from the article was this quote:
“There is a difference,” she said, “between immediate recall of facts and an ability to recall a gestalt of knowledge. We can’t retrieve the specifics, but to adapt a phrase of William James’s, there is a wraith of memory. The information you get from a book is stored in networks. We have an extraordinary capacity for storage, and much more is there than you realize. It is in some way working on you even though you aren’t thinking about it.”
IMO, this quote demonstrates a phenomenon I've long suspected to hold with the books that I read. The essence of a book's or an article's content is captured by a few key ideas and phrases (e.g., 'gestalt of knowledge', 'wraith of memory' in this case), but merely knowing these phrases is not enough. You need to read the entire book to have a sensation of the ideas getting fleshed out. The article on 'metrosexuals', the pamphlet on "the third estate", and the book on 'positioning' are other examples I can think of where this phenomenon plays out.
A rich 3-dimensional idea in the author's mind gets transformed into words. The words themselves are just information. You then fight with the words to reconstruct the idea with all its original potency in your mind. It is not necessary for you to recall every little detail of it unless you are an academic or specialist in the field.