/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.22500214]

>read a book
>forget 85% of the plot 2 years later
Do I have brain damage or is this somewhat common?
Is there anything I can do to improve my memory?

[Anonymous No.22500227]

>>22500214
Pretty normal. You should be able to remember the impression it left and the themes though. You will remember the important books

[Anonymous No.22500231]

>>22500214
>Do I have brain damage or is this somewhat common?
its normal
>Is there anything I can do to improve my memory?
read it again, also read less per day

[Anonymous No.22500240]

>>22500214
Perfectly normal. The memory is strengthened through recall, if you dont recall the memory for a long time your brain gets rid of it. For example. I practice mnemonics and can memorize a deck of cards in 2 minutes. If I recide the order of cards 5-6 times every hour I will retain that memory for like a week, but if I dont recite at all I'll forget it by the end of the day. This is the principle of spaced repetition learning, the goal is to refresh the memory the least amount of times to keep it effectively at hand. Books do not exist to be remembered verbatim nor do their plots matter that much. What matters is the emotions and ideas you carry from the books.

[Anonymous No.22500244]

it is normal
or maybe we are all retards here :^)

[Anonymous No.22500253]

Was thinking back on what books I remember from high school and uni, and couldn't remember a majority of the titles I read. My years NEETing have started to merge together.

[Anonymous No.22500271]

>>22500214
This type of statement annoys me because I think it's evidence of a superficial understanding of memory that doesn't understand the importance of forgetting. I think some aspects of modern education can give us the impression that we'd all be better off if we were autistic memory savants, but that's not really the case. What do you think having a good memory means? Would you have the "best" memory if you could repeat completely accurately every single word you read in the book, for example? Or would a better memory be being able to have a sophisticated discussion about the themes of the book, even if you get some important plot details wrong? Why is it significant to you that you remember the plot of a book specifically as opposed to lines or moments or images, and why do you need to remember the plot? Say someone talks about a moment from the plot, and you recall that moment when it was prompted even though you hadn't thought about it for 2 years -- is that not also remembering? Do you remember your favourite books much better than ones you didn't like? Would you prefer to remember every one in the same amount of detail, like remembering the boring and wasted days of your life in exact same detail as your marriage day? Forgetting is an important tool that our minds use to filter and select memories and information we find to be important. We're better off being as receptive as possible to what our memories offer us, when they offer it to us, rather than lamenting the things we can't remember. In general we might be better off to stop thinking of memory as a tool, but rather a gift. TL;DR Read Funes the Memorious.

[Anonymous No.22500324]

>>22500214
The fundamental problem is there is so much shit to read and do these days that everything can feel like a checklist. It's better to commit to a few books you really enjoyed and re-read them to get the most out of them rather than trying to read everything.

[Anonymous No.22500339]

>>22500214
>Do I have brain damage or is this somewhat common? Is there anything I can do to improve my memory?
It depends, personally I think the best way to remember things you read in your books is through taking notes. You should'nt strive to remember every single detail of the story, only the general themes and what the message from the author is (assuming they have one).
In the worst case you can simply re-read the book.

[Anonymous No.22500558]

>>22500214
You think you've forgotten it, try picking it up again. It will come back to you quickly.

[Anonymous No.22500731]

>>22500214
pretty easy, if you remember it 2 years after reading it then it was a probably good book. If random scenes of a book creep up on you years after reading it, then it's a good book and it's worth revisiting it. If it's forgettable, it's a bad book.
Let's understand good in this situations as 'it resonates with you, it delivers a message that's important to you, it matches artistic sensibilities, it creates a sense of wonder, etc, etc' and bad as
none of the above.
Memory as a filter has never failed me t b h

[Anonymous No.22500739]

>>22500214
It's normal. Also, read better books.