# Novels you read, really read, and can't remember at all **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 28, 2012, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996 "2012-01-28T16:54:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/1 "2012-01-28T16:54:04Z")
I’m not talking about dime-a-dozen novels, such as formulaic fantasy/science fiction/romance/Westerns, or those doorstop books you can buy at airport stores. Nobody expects you to remember those more than 15 minutes after you finish them. Not even the authors. And I’m not talking about books that you skimmed through back in high school or college only because they were assigned, but you had neither the time nor the inclination to read carefully. No, I’m talking about novels that are considered to be “classics,” the kind that many people would say are great literature, and I’m talking about reading them (at least in theory) for pleasure. And now, whether you enjoyed them or not, they’re just plain gone. You have a recollection of reading a book, but essentially NO IDEA of the plot or the characters, or any recall of any of the scenes or events in the novel, or anything specific (good or bad) about the writing style. My best example: _Howard’s End_ by E. M. Forster. I read it, I really read it, and now all I can remember is that annoying tagline “Only connect!” and some vague recollection that the title referred to a house. And that I didn’t like it, but obviously I didn’t despise it, or I would have remembered it better, yes? Any to add? ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/2 "2012-01-28T17:02:10Z")
Charles Dickens’ _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_. I love Dickens, and even though they are long and convoluted, I could give you a basic idea of what most of the books are about. Even though I saw a stage version of Drood in addition to reading the book, I can’t remember a single thing about the plot. The only thing I remember about the play (possibly a musical?) was that at one point there was a dog on stage. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/3 "2012-01-28T17:04:25Z")
The Illuminatus Trilogy. All I remember is John Dillinger was a character and the nonsense word “fnord.” ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/4 "2012-01-28T17:19:03Z")
A Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich - they ate vegetable gruel ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/5 "2012-01-28T17:23:02Z")
I remember it **now** after having had to read it a second time, but I read [My Antonia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_%C3%81ntonia) in high school and remembered nothing about it other than the narrator was talking about a girl he knew by the time I had to reread it in college. Nothing else. Not even the scene with the wedding guests and the wolves. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/6 "2012-01-28T17:32:41Z")
Oh god, really? I could probably list a score at this point in my life. Start with my Russian phase in college: War and Peace (don’t recall a thing), Heart of a Dog (it amused me, I do recall that), Fathers and Sons (Turgenev, right? I recall nothing), Crime and Punishment (Raskolnikov kills an old lady? his grandmother? and wallows in guilt, but I only know that from popular culture). I recently re-read Stephen King’s Desperation, and other than recalling one phrase (Tak!) it was like reading a new book. Also randomly: The Razor’s Edge, Somerset Maugham. I recall somewhat liking it, and that it’s got some sort of genteel types in it. Also Of Human Bondage. Daisy Miller, Golden Bowl, by Henry James. I think I liked them. Main Street, Sinclair Lewis. I suspect it had some elements of satire. I could probably come up with 20 more. Getting old is great! I can rediscover books for the first time. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/7 "2012-01-28T17:36:08Z")
**Billy Budd** was a good looking cabin boy. That is all I remember. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/8 "2012-01-28T17:45:48Z")
Unless I’ve seen a film version, pretty much everything I’ve ever read falls in this category. A book only stays in my head for a few days, unless it really makes an impression, like _Room_ and _The Road_. The exception is books I hated. I remember more of _The Historian_ and _Twilight_ than I do of hundreds of good books. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/9 "2012-01-28T17:46:33Z")
There are some books that I very much liked that I had trouble remembering the overall plot afterwards. There’s a very good short fantasy novel by John Bellairs called _The Face in the Frost_. When a book discussion group I’m in chose to discuss it several years ago, I reread it. I had already read it many years before. My second reading of it was a couple of months before the meeting when we discussed it. By the time of the meeting, I realized that I didn’t remember much of the overall plot. This was largely because the interesting things in the book were the writing style, the individual scenes, etc., not the overall plot. ---
**Author:** ![svrider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@svrider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svrider)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/10 "2012-01-28T18:37:11Z")
War and Peace. I can’t really really remember anything at all from that book. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Rope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@Mr.Rope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Rope)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/11 "2012-01-28T18:41:20Z")
Wuthering Heights. There was a thing about locks. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/12 "2012-01-28T18:43:09Z")
I have read _The Robe_ by Lloyd Douglas not once but twice, the first time in high school and the last time only 8 years ago. I know as much about it as I did before I read it the first time. It’s about the soldier who won when they cast lots for the clothes of Jesus. Oh, there’s one thing I do remember: Caligula was one of the characters, but I have no memory of what he did or said in the book. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/13 "2012-01-28T19:39:36Z")
Ivan Denisovitch–I, too, only remember the vegetable and fish-head gruel. Every single Thomas Hardy novel is gone from me, and I read them all. Except Jude the Obscure, which I remember only because I read it three times (first for pleasure, second two were assigned). ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/14 "2012-01-28T19:44:17Z")
I can’t imagine using the words “Jude The Obscure” and “pleasure” in the same sentence!!! “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad. High School. Major Fail. I literally cannot remember anything about it at all. Too bad ‘Apocalypse Now’ wasn’t made decades earlier so we could have, you know, faked reading it. Back then, we didn’t even have Cliff Notes. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/15 "2012-01-28T19:57:29Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > Ivan Denisovitch–I, too, only remember the vegetable and fish-head gruel. > > Every single Thomas Hardy novel is gone from me, and I read them all. Except Jude the Obscure, which I remember only because I read it three times (first for pleasure, second two were assigned). Tess! There’s a young girl who I think is emotionally oppressed in some way. There’s a youngish guy who might be an oppressor. There’s at least one scene near a gate in front of a house. Jesus, I only read this like 5 or 6 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/16 "2012-01-28T22:45:25Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > I can’t imagine using the words “Jude The Obscure” and “pleasure” in the same sentence!!! Yeah, it looked strange after I posted but I was too distracted to edit. “Elective” rather than “for pleasure” is probably a better way to put it… since, if I ever got to choose one book to never ever ever ever read again, I’d choose Jude The Obscure. Return of the Native… Diggory Venn the reddleman. That’s all I remember. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/17 "2012-01-28T22:56:33Z")
I have read several books by Dickens, and frankly, I can’t really remember much of any of them, other than the Christmas one. I’ve tried to read Jane Austen, and I find her characters and situations to be incredibly boring. On the other hand, I remember most of the science fiction and fantasy that I’ve read, possibly because I don’t read the formulaic stuff. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/18 "2012-01-28T23:03:14Z")
_Good Omens_. I saw a copy at a used bookstore, bought it. Sitting in the car in the parking lot I was leafing thru it. I had read it! I didn’t remember it because it was so bad. But I’ve read it twice more now, just out of spite (?), and it’s just as bad as the first time. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/19 "2012-01-28T23:33:07Z")
_Ethan Frome_ – there’s a sled. And I liked that book. Anything by Robertson Davies – frustrated academicians. If there were actual plots, I’ve forgotten them. _Beloved_ by Toni Morrison – dead baby? ghost? _Middlesex_ – immigrants and incest ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/20 "2012-01-28T23:46:33Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Unless I’ve seen a film version, pretty much everything I’ve ever read falls in this category. A book only stays in my head for a few days, unless it really makes an impression, like _Room_ and _The Road_. > > The exception is books I hated. I remember more of _The Historian_ and _Twilight_ than I do of hundreds of good books. This is absolutely true for me. I remember vague plot outlines of a few books, but mostly there’s a net zero gain. It makes me sad. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996.md?page=2)