Reading is not about remembering, but about enjoying
A short explanation
Let me ask you a question. Do you remember exactly what you ate 10 days ago for lunch? And 5 days ago? I can assure you that unless it was a very special occasion you will not remember anything. The truth is, you probably have enjoyed your food and, most importantly, it has fed you and kept you alive.
Think about that when you become obsessed with remembering every detail of what you read. Before you read those ten thousand articles that are going to teach you how to remember your readings, let me give you a little preview of what’s going to happen: you are going to forget a lot more than you will remember in your books. The reason is simple, we are not robots or computers, we are human beings.
I have read The Little Prince four times, at different times in my life, and I assure you that, although the central character and some specific scenes remain etched in my mind, I have forgotten most of the details of the book and the order in which they occur. The same with the rest of my childhood and adolescence books: Anna Frank, Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc. All books that I enjoyed too much, but honestly, I don’t remember much about.
Without going any further, studying Philology I have read hundreds of books, obviously, I cannot remember all of them, and even those that have remained more fixed in my memory, many details have been erased. Perhaps you could say that I have not read correctly, or I have not paid enough attention, but if you are honest and think a bit you will realize that the same thing has happened to you and it is perfectly normal.
The memory we have of what we have read has an expiration date, the more time passes, the less you will remember. That is the reason why I try to read the books of my studies as close as possible to the moment when they will be evaluated or if not, I try to reread them. Those books you read a month or two ago may still be a bit fresh in your memory, but the ones you read last year, or two, three or four years ago, have already started to collect dust in your brain.
Of course, when you read a book carefully, especially when you read it more than once, the essence of its text will be permanently etched in your mind. However, don’t expect to remember those little facts, the names of all the characters, all the plot threads. The same goes for non-fiction books.
Disappointing? Well, the truth is I wouldn’t say that. The problem is in our way of thinking about books. We believe that they are only there to teach us what the world is like, to fill us with information, to make us more cultured people. However, from books, we not only take advantage of the knowledge that they can give us, but also the enjoyment.
Just as you do not need to remember the menu of your meals, you do not need to remember all the details of the books you read. You read them to enjoy them and along the way, you also gained other things: you increased your curiosity and your creative thinking, you developed your emotions and way of thinking from the ideas raised in the text, you apprehended the author’s style and unconsciously you even improved your linguistic competence.
Reading has many more benefits than accumulating information and learning things by heart requires much more than just reading and even much more than rereading. On the other hand, if you are still worried about your memory, I can tell you something that is totally true: the more you enjoy what you read, the better you almost always remember it.
In any case, we should not be ashamed of not remembering what we read in the medium and long term, in fact, it is what will inevitably happen. Bad meals, unless they were memorably bad, you won’t remember them either. However, no one wants to eat badly. Choose to read good books with the same care with which you choose your meals and do not obsess if you later forget most of the things you read, it will have been worth it if you enjoyed the bite.
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