Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?

#61

Post by gbog » Mon, Jun 04, 2012, 2:26 PM UTC

nhebb wrote: post #23

I think most logical people understand the benefits of reading, so I'm not going to rehash that. I went a number of years only reading technical books, but I've been reading a lot of Project Gutenberg ebooks lately - a mixture of autobiographies, fiction, poetry, and essays. I don't read them to memorize them. I read them because they interest me. I don't seem to have any trouble remembering their content, but even i…

This "main benefit" is how so superficial. You can watch TV series for the same result. The main benefit of reading good books is to open your mind, understand more things and be more curious about the world.

Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?

#62

Post by saturdaysaint » Mon, Jun 04, 2012, 2:28 PM UTC

It's funny that he dismisses the more indirect cognitive gains associated with reading as lacking "rigorous experimental evidence" when the value of rote memorization is often just as uncertain. He should just as soon dismiss the value of mothers if you can't vividly remember most of what they say. He needs to read "Moonwalking With Einstein".

The real bottleneck is that no matter how rigorously you cram stuff into long term memory, you can keep precious few things - some experts think 2 - 4 is a realistic range - in short terms memory. Most of what's on your mind in any given moment is determined by your environment and activity, and we have extremely limited ability to randomly access bits of information at will (both our own memory and whatever we've gleaned from books and teachers).

So I'm sorry, but those connections that we form while learning and experiencing are about all we've got. The upshot is that reading and structured learning seem to be extremely efficient ways of building these connections/schema.

Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?

#63

Post by Tyrannosaurs » Mon, Jun 04, 2012, 2:39 PM UTC

His casual and arrogant dismissal of fiction is remarkable ("I’m usually looking for something more out of my reading"), as if something has to be non-fiction to be educational, informative or have a valid lesson to impart.

There's obviously nothing wrong with a drive for continual self improvement, but it does seem to me (entirely anecdotally) that there are too many people following this track have a very functional, one dimensional approach to it which this seems to typify.

Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?

#64

Post by Tyrannosaurs » Mon, Jun 04, 2012, 2:49 PM UTC

jmduke wrote: post #11

The list that the OP read: - Checklist Manifesto - Made to Stick - Confessions of a Public Speaker - Why Everyone Else Is a Hypocrite - The Power of Habit I think the fact that he's questioning the value of reading such books is fair (and I find it ironic that he's applying such rigor to try and extract value from such books), but these are hardly the books of great literature. Self-improvement and self-motivation bo…

Lists of books like this always reminds me of a friend who asked on seeing a copy of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, whether the first one was not wasting your time reading books like that.

Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?

#65

Post by ctdonath » Mon, Jun 04, 2012, 2:53 PM UTC

YmMot wrote: post #44

When I was very young I developed the habit of rereading almost every book I read multiple times; unless I found it particularly bad or boring. I think most kids do this, but some seem to lose the habit along the way. I tend to be "reading" multiple books at any given time; a new one that gets most of my attention and then 2 or 3 old ones that I will switch to to break up the pace. As a result I tend to retain a fair…

Re-reading books (along with re-watching movies) is sensible when you have infinite time available. When young, you don't grok the concept of a finite lifespan. When you realize life is finite, you stop re-reading and start getting on with reading what you can in what time you have left.

Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?

#66

Post by sparknlaunch » Mon, Jun 04, 2012, 2:57 PM UTC

Sadly memory and recall are not my strong point. In fact I am surprised I even remember anything when I see how quickly it takes to forget things. How much of Hacker News do you remember?

The old adage of you remember 60% of what you read on day 1, 30% day 2 and 5% day 5. Within a day you are already suffering a painful decay rate.

Therefore any method to remember something (rather than nothing) is of importance.

Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?

#67

Post by ctdonath » Mon, Jun 04, 2012, 3:02 PM UTC

My family has twenty-six bookcases. Some books read, some not. We're going thru the agony of culling books for space reasons (and not making much progress). One strategy is: I intend to fill the largest bookcase with those which formed me; I may or may not remember (per se) the contents, but I do know that I am who I am in great degree because of those books. The hope is they act as a reminder of who I am (when I lose sight of that), encourage me to review & expand those parts, and make a physical manifestation of those formative tomes available to my children that someday they may follow a similar path (or at least know the path that lead to them). Culling "me" to fit that space is hard...

Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?

#68

Post by larrys » Mon, Jun 04, 2012, 3:07 PM UTC

ojbyrne wrote: post #21

mb_72 wrote: post #10

"Of course, there’s nothing wrong with those things, and ephemeral delight might be good enough for some people, but I’m usually looking for something more out of my reading (in fact, I don’t read fiction at all any more)." I find this comment slightly arrogant and condescending. By choosing not to read fiction the author deprives himself of experiencing not only "ephemeral delight", but also removes the possibility…

When I hear someone say "I don't read fiction" I almost always think to myself, "You don't have any imagination."

""I don't read fiction" I almost always think to myself, "You don't have any imagination.""

Why? I don't read fiction and I have plenty of imagination. I watch movies and TV. That's not reading but it is fiction. Is that why I have imagination? (I don't know..)

You read fiction because you enjoy it. That's separate from having imagination.

Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?

#69

Post by m104 » Mon, Jun 04, 2012, 3:35 PM UTC

InclinedPlane wrote: post #18

Can anyone remember every detail of their life over say a month long period from 3 years ago? Not likely. Does that make life not worth living?

I doubt remembering everything makes life a lot better, but there actually is someone we can ask: http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/17-04/ff_perfec...

Re: Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?

#70

Post by galfarragem » Mon, Jun 04, 2012, 3:44 PM UTC

If a book gives you one extra idea, one extra concept or one not obvious link between concepts or ideas that you already have it worths a lot to loose time reading it. If you read 500 books like this you get much more intelectual rich than a non reader person. I can regret a lot of stuff in my life but I don't regret reading most of the books I have read.