February 24th, 2011 / 3:00 pm
Snippets

Your best guess: what percentage of books in your personal library that you have read do you remember enough to feel like you actually read them?

32 Comments

  1. DiTrapano

      I haven’t read any of them so I remember them all quite well.

  2. stefan michael

      Of the ones I have read, I “feel” like I have read them, but when revisiting them realize I don’t actually remember them per se. Of the ones I have not yet read, I also “feel” as though I have read them and remember them equally as well.

  3. Brendan Connell

      All the books that I have read I’ve read, so remember them well. I do feel sometimes when people tell me they are reading 10-20 books a week that they probably are not really reading them. Sometimes the internet might make people feel like they need to brag about having read so many different things express expertise on every new piece of printed matter. Sometimes it takes me years to finish a book…

  4. reynard

      i’ve prolly read most of sixty books in the last three to four months and i remember them as like one larger book that i sort of remember but not well enough to pass a multiple choice test on

  5. Kristen Iskandrian

      9%

  6. darby

      i just did a big book dump at the goodwill last weekend so my library is considerably smaller now, and consists of more of the books i like and remember well enough to want them on my shelves, so i would say its like 90% or something.

  7. Anonymous

      Aside from The Voyeur and The Erasers, I can’t remember any of the Alain Robbe-Grillet novels I read, or even tell them apart.

  8. Ken Baumann

      60%, but the memory is always faulty.

  9. reynard

      what’s weird though is if i like a line i can remember where it was on the page and find it without knowing what number it was

  10. Another Sean

      I feel like I remember to some small degree about 90% of everything I’ve read and currently have on my shelves, but to any extent of being able to intelligently discuss these things, maybe only 10 or 20%. But memory seems to be a funny thing. I think I remember my car, but maybe I only remember to look for a black box when I’m in the parking lot, then as I survey the other black boxes, visual clues help me determine which black box is really mine. I’m sort of feeling like I don’t really remember a lot of things, without those clues to help me along the trail. The problem with a book is that, visually, it is not immediately known or remembered – it’s all inside – holding it up doesn’t reveal itself. But I don’t remember any art well. I think I remember a painting until I try to verbally relay it to someone, but find a missed half of the scenery. I think I know a song until I try to sing along and find I can only really remember the words if it is playing. I think I don’t really remember anything unless I have those clues to help me get back to where I was when I first experienced it, whether it is a book, a painting or my car.

  11. Vasudha Pande

      Effectively complete recall: about 0.01%
      Over 75% of a book’s content: about 25%
      Partial recall: about 74%
      I remember almost nothing about the rest.

  12. Vasudha Pande

      Effectively complete recall: about 0.01%
      Over 75% of a book’s content: about 25%
      Partial recall: about 74%
      I remember almost nothing about the rest.

  13. Jhon Baker

      only the good ones.

  14. math

      100%

  15. Anonymous

      I feel like I can’t even rmember what you just asked.

  16. symmetrical

      85%

  17. Anonymous

      After a 9 or 10 month period, books start to feel like short story collections. I just remember what I liked about the good parts.

  18. Tummler

      Considering that I’ve checked, say…two books out of my local library in the past four years…50%. Man, that place is sad. It would be a complete waste of space if not for its great library smell and giant statue of William McKinley.

  19. Tummler

      Considering that I’ve checked, say…two books out of my local library in the past four years…50%. Man, that place is sad. It would be a complete waste of space if not for its great library smell and giant statue of William McKinley.

  20. Sean

      Define remember. That’s a faulty tool, memory. But you mean I want to talk about and get wood over and slobber about? 7%

  21. Janey Smith

      Blake? Just one: Norman M. Klein’s The History of Forgetting.

  22. Jack M

      What?

  23. ZZZZZIPPP

      ONLY THE ONES ZZZZZZIPPP HAS READ TWICE, AND ZZZZZIPP FORGETS WHICH ONES THOSE ARE.

  24. Alexisorgera

      probably two or three.

  25. RGV

      22.8 percent.

  26. Jon Cone

      My library functions as an armor against the cold. Literally, the books on the shelves help keep my room warm against cold winds. Draughts do not find their way beyond that collection of pages arranged between various covers, various qualities of paper and printing. I scarcely dare take a single book from its proper place. I’ve labored for years to the obtain the tightest insulating weight on those shelves. The question as posed, in my particular case, feels unanswerable.

  27. k.b.

      All of them. I used to have a shit ton of books. I cut it to essentials. I now own only around 60 books. They wouldn’t be there if they didn’t pass this sort of test. If I buy a new book, I read it, and then I donate it to the local used bookstore if I don’t deem it worthy of being on the shelf. I use the library a lot.

  28. John Domini

      I like this question, Blake. Along my walls, not in the office but in the next room over, there are two & a half four-shelvers (give or take) with books I’ve reviewed or featured in essays or like that. Just recently I took out an early Mary Robison collection — a book I wrote about & was paid for doing so — & I discovered I remembered almost none of the stories. Some of her technique & humor stayed w/ me, not the people & what happened to them. Taught me something or other, still figuring out what.

      Though I’m not sure that constitutes a straight answer.

  29. NLY

      All of ’em.

  30. phmadore

      I’m not being a dork, but usually when someone asks a question, they’re willing to give their own answer first. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours etc.

  31. phmadore

      You were less annoying when you didn’t ask the poster’s name before every statement. Tiresome.

  32. BeMighthy

      i rarely read books twice – of the 10 or so that i have i’d say i remember about 70% of the content. the rest of the books i’ve read usually just register over time as ‘liked it’ or ‘didn’t like it’