Image: Public Domain via Pixabay
Last week, I read, actually listened to, All the Broken Pieces, by Ann Burg. What a powerful novel in verse about Matt, a Vietnamese boy adopted by an American family. His struggles are as big as the Vietnam War and as small as the bully on his baseball team. I cared about Matt. I teared up while listening. I finished the book feeling content and hopeful and richer, all the things we hope books will do for readers. I’ll remember this one.
Except I apparently won’t. I went to note it in Goodreads, and I found that I already read it, back in April of 2011.
I have memory issues. The whole reason I started using Goodreads, in fact, is that I can’t remember which books I’ve already read, especially mysteries (my usual adult fiction fare). But I can’t believe I picked up this novel in verse, listened to the ENTIRE thing, felt it deeply, and didn’t realize I’d read it before. I will try to look on the bright side and say it just allowed me to enjoy it two times!
But it brings home to me, once again, how little I remember about the books I read. Books are as essential to me as breathing, even though I do not remember my individual breaths. Books form me as fully as the lakes, swimming pools, and beach days of my youth formed me, even though all those days in the water swirl together into one beautiful wet blur. Books build me, page by page, bone by bone, tear by tear, even though I do not remember titles, authors, and plot details of most of the books I read.
This causes me no end of embarrassment when I’m talking with other book people. It’s a source of shame, and when I know I’m going to be chatting books with teachers, I bone up by looking at my Goodreads shelves and reminding myself of some recent favorites. Luckily, even though I’m sure I couldn’t pass an AR test on a book if I finished it more than a day before, the knowledge that I won’t remember the book doesn’t stop me from living in its world, caring about my friends there, and growing from what I learn from them.
Fellow reader, I too don’t remember books after reading them. Maybe some things that were particularly striking. I keep the books I loved most. At 79, I have a lot of books. But your mind is a computer and though I don’t remember to tell you, it’s all in there and it comes out when I least expect it to.
Bless you, Connie, for sharing this!
“Too much information,” is a quote that applies. Can’t remember it all. I get upset with myself when I want to remember a detail, like the story associated with the “Bird by Bird” quote by Anne Lamott and I have to stop to look it up. And yes, I read the book.
Thank you, Linda. I am not alone:>)
Laura, I hope you are aware of how much comfort today’s message provided this reader. Whew! I was becoming quite uncomfortable with myself. Your words are better than any Rx.
Thank you, Martha! You guys’ comments are the same back for me!
It’s actually quite comforting to read this, Laura. This is totally me! I thought I was the only one. I felt similarly when I was in the theater world. I couldn’t remember the lines of a play I was in a week after the show closed. And movies? Forget it.
I love you, Michelle. Seriously. I keep coming across things I don’t even remember writing. And I know I would TOTALLY forget the lines of a play the week after it closed. I am so happy to know I’m in good company!
I was recently reading Big Magic. She was talking about an idea for a book that was set in the Amazon rainforest. The more I read I kept saying “I’ve read that book.” Turns out she never wrote it. But (I just turned to my husband for the author’s name) Ann Patchett did. Even whole book ideas can fly from one person to the next. As others have said, I am comforted by your post. But the books we read do live inside us. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Margaret–a friend of mine in my crit group was recently talking about Big Magic and this book idea shared by two writers. Thank YOU for sharing:>)
Memory is a slippery thing. I find that I tend to remember books’ themes rather than details, and I think that’s because I connect emotionally to the themes. If there’s a great character (or recurring character in a series I love), I remember the character like I remember a friend. There’s a saying about rereading a book–it’s different every time because the reader is in a different place in life. And there may be a difference between how you connect to the printed vs. the spoken word! It’s interesting to think about what “sticks” and why, so that as writers, we can craft works with a high stickiness level! 🙂
I love being reminded of that saying, Jane, because I just read a nf pb (that I didn’t remember reading, of course), and I was going to go give it a five on Goodreads. Found I had read it before and rated it three. And in my review, I explained why. Those things were still true–they just weren’t the things I was looking for this time, I guess. This could be another blog post:>) I also agree about the themes. I remember series characters better. And I remember, sometimes, a revelation that a book made me have. Or a way it made me feel. Only a few of those, but what a great goal–to be one of those few for another reader!
Me too! I forget books and movies and which books I have given as gifts. I like to think that this give me the opportunity to enjoy all of these things extra times. 🙂 We should have some sort of club around this. And I do agree that the stories and information and words and images do rattle around in there…we just don’t know where they came from! xx
Do you forget even children’s books? How come it seems like everyone else just rolls them out and remembers everything, if there are so many of us struggling with it? But…I will take this knowledge to heart and maybe be a little less stressed about it:>) THanks!
I think we can form a club..(okay, just looked above and see Amy said the same thing. But I won’t remember that in a minute.) If I enjoy a book (for adults) I now read it two times in a row, and it seems to stick a bit more. And the second time I always notice language and images and plot twists that I missed the first time. And movies….we recently watched something (of course the name escapes me) and it took both my husband and me half the movie to convince ourselves that we had seen it before.
So smart to read it second time…but, I am NOT good at reading something I’ve already read (when I remember it, of course). I read for story, for plot, for surprise and discovery. So I don’t think I could force myself to read a second time right away…I don’t know. I never thought about it. Of course, I mostly read mysteries, so it would feel extra pointless for me. I am a little jealous of those of you writers who focus on language more. There aren’t many writers I read for the language…Ray Bradbury is one of the few. But it’s so smart to do that. Happy re-reading! (And ha on the movie. My husband has an excellent memory–99% of the time, he’s the only one of who knows if I’VE seen something. Even if I saw it without him!)
Oh, hey, Laura, Connie, Linda, Martha, Michelle, Margaret, Jane, Amy, Buffy . . . ! Fancy seeing you all in this boat. Yep, love ’em and leave ’em is my reading style, too. Sometimes it’s embarrassing, but I’m not too worried about it because I get what I want and need at the time I’m reading, and that’s enough. Plus, I’m fairly confident some part of my brain does, in fact, remember stuff my conscious brain does not. My conscious brain can only handle so much, so it tucks those literary nuggets away, tidy, safe, and sound, in unconscious cubbies.