/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.21786275]

>Read book
>A couple weeks after I can't remember 99% of it
>Only and general notion of the plot/theme
What's the point? Am I supposed to enjoy reading just for the immediate moment like I am masturbating?

[Anonymous No.21786288]

what else is there to remember besides objects and general events in the story? specific quotable lines? just write those down or highlight. it's not like you can recall a book page by page.

[Sage No.21786386]

Patience is key

[Anonymous No.21786419]

you don't need to remember everything word-for-word. the purpose of language is to convey ideas. these are abstractions that the author is trying to convey to you through language. trying to remember whether sally stubbed her toe and hopped up and down three times with a yelp doesn't mean shit. whatever the author is trying to convey about sally is what's important; the choices, characteristics, and reactions of sally act as a means to convey something.

think about what the ideas the author is trying to suggest, not the unimportant bits. incidentally, you will remember the little, concrete moments that are used to convey a specific idea. if you take the time to think about it, you will integrate it.

[Anonymous No.21786466]

>>21786419
dis

[Anonymous No.21786535]

>>21786275
The fact that you made this post and put reading a book on a pedestal shows how inexperienced you are as a reader.
It takes time. Read more.
Anything even something so basic as reading is a conscious effort. It’s not a habit or a skill you cultivate or whatever buzzword people use trying to encompass and override any merit in actually doing something. Reading itself is misguided as a term. You don’t read for the sake of reading. You read to learn, and you learn what is written in the book. Read a book you want to read. Don’t read In search of lost time because it’s hard and because pretentious ‘readers’ have read it, read it when you’re interested in French literature, memory and autobiography. The purpose of reading is not to check off a checklist to educate yourself by ‘completing’ certain books, although ‘reading’ which is really not at all might be practised by some as such.
By learning you pursue one of the most genuine things you can do. You learn more about something because you’re interested in it. That’s hardly something someone can do for you at all or for compensation. That’s something you have to do alone out of your self interest.

[Anonymous No.21786544]

>>21786288
Certain passages will be more memorable, but I agree. No book is all memorable or read by anyone in such a way.
If you study a book you might remember more than reading it once. Note that having read some book once shouldn’t need to qualify you as knowing it inside and out or as an expert. Anyone who expects that is an idiot. Even someone with a pristine memory and intelligence to boot can’t and frankly wouldn’t expect or seek to do that.

[Anonymous No.21786561]

>>21786275
There’s a book I read a few years back, I can can pretty much recall nearly the whole thing, and on long driving trips (say 4-5 hour plus) or when we all hang out on a trip and someone can’t sleep I retell it to people

What helped me was it having the modern language I grew up with, so it was easy to absorb, and the way he told it I was able to see the events unfold within my mind, I guess you also have to have that kind of imagination, when you read a story try and make the scenes play out like a movie in your head

This really only works for stories tough, if you reading like economic books or math idk what to tell ya

[Anonymous No.21786584]

>>21786535
There’s merit to this but at the same time, I’ve “forced” myself to read books that end up being extremely enjoyable. I read Moby-Dick because I thought I “ought to” and I loved it.

[Anonymous No.21786656]

>>21786275
You don't need to memorise it but if remember a line or two, can recite tge sequence if events and most importantly, you take away something from it you'll apply to your own life that's the baseline for having read decently.
There's that one quote I'll misremeber if i try directly quoting I think it might've been by Ted Roosevelt. He says he may forget all the books he has read but the effects they had on him and his character will remain throughout the rest of his life.

[Anonymous No.21787553]

>>21786561
what book was it?

[Anonymous No.21787580]

>>21786535
anon here said everything you need to know.

[Anonymous No.21787604]

>...an occasion is required. how much the occasion achieves in the case of memory can be shown by the fact that anyone who has read fifty anecdotes in a book of anecdotes, and then laid the book aside, is sometimes unable to recall even a single one immediately afterwards. but if the occasion comes, or an idea occurs to him which has any analogy with one of those anecdotes, it comes back to him at once; and so do all the fifty as opportunity offers.

>most of what the intellect has dropped it never takes up again, especially as the taking up again is bound to the principle of sufficient reason, and thus requires an occasion which the association of ideas and motivation have first to provide. ... the knowledge even of the scholarly head exist only VIRTUALITER as an acquired practice in producing certain representations. ACTUALITER, on the other hand, it is restricted to one particular representation, and for the moment is conscious of this one alone. hence there results a strange contrast between what a man knows potentia and what he knows actu, in other words, between his knowledge and his thinking at any moment. the former is an immense and always somewhat chaotic mass, the latter a single, distinct thought. the relation is like that between the unnumerable stars of the heavens and the telescope's narrow field of vision;
t. schopenhauer

[Anonymous No.21787621]

>>21786275
this just means the book wasnt that good desu

[Anonymous No.21787829]

>>21787604
What does the 't.' mean specifically. it xan't mean 'to' becayse it serves as tte exact opposite imply who is speaking but there's no t-word that comes to mind.

[Anonymous No.21787833]

[Anonymous No.21787874]

>>21787833
That was the quote I was misremembering.

[Anonymous No.21788039]

>>21787604
>>21787833
Literally this. Although you might not recollect every detail about book you've read, if you find yourself in a specific situation your brain will just connect things with what it already have processed. It's a process, like during a math exam your brain is in a sort of trans and remembers all of the things it has learnt in advance, but might you, out of nowhere, try doing a difficult equation, you won't be able to do it.
In short, your brain is not a library, it's a mechanism. Simply enjoy the process of the book you're reading. Your brain will store the knowledge you've learnt at the moment deep inside itself, ready to use when needed.

[Anonymous No.21788059]

>>21786275
Yes, it's all for passing the time till you get a gf, then you can do fun stuff with her

[Anonymous No.21788061]

>>21787829
It means 'regards'

[Anonymous No.21788065]

Who the fuck cares? Perfect eidetic memory is for 'smart' characters in bad movies written by stupid people who can't write smart people so give them a perfect memory rather than go to the effort of making them smart

[Anonymous No.21788088]

This is honestly why I don't give a shit to hear an opinion about a book from someone who read it only once (which is honestly 99.99% of /lit/ posts).

[Anonymous No.21788089]

>>21787829
It's Finnish, I believe. A 4chan meme.

[Anonymous No.21788145]

>>21786275
You have to learn to read slower and more deliberately.