# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![reddog\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@reddog\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reddog_1)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/21 "2012-01-29T00:17:23Z")
> [@faithfool](#): > > 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. I thought I was the only one. I rarely remember things I read. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/22 "2012-01-29T01:31:53Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > 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. My exact train of thought a minute ago: Ha ha! My Antonia! I remember that! Sheesh, how could anyone forget that book? I remember it all. Wait. There was a scene with wedding guests and wolves? 😃 There are a few books where I remember the plot in detail. Mostly, I just remember vague things, some characters maybe, some vivid scenes (apparently not all vivid scenes), and a general idea of good feeling or bad feeling toward the book. I tend to remember books I loathed better than books I loved, which strikes me as extremely sad. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/23 "2012-01-29T01:52:04Z")
Put a gun to my head and I couldn’t tell you the plot, or even name a character in _Neuromancer_. And I just read it last year. I think. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/24 "2012-01-29T01:59:28Z")
I read the whole Lawrence Durrell Alexandria Quartet and I remember not a single, solitary thing about any of the books. ---
**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 29, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/25 "2012-01-29T02:20:42Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > I read the whole Lawrence Durrell Alexandria Quartet and I remember not a single, solitary thing about any of the books. This at least I remember, but that’s because I read it three times. The short answer summary is that Justine is a bitch viewed from three different dimensions, and Clea is his eventual savior in the fourth dimension. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/26 "2012-01-29T02:25:50Z")
Hmm…I really did read the OP, but I have already forgotten the question…damn. ---
**Author:** ![Ludy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Ludy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludy)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/27 "2012-01-29T02:31:35Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > 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. If you saw it in the city I live in, that was my dog! But probably not since we live in different countries.. ---
**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/28 "2012-01-29T03:22:31Z")
Everything I read in the first six months after the Little One was born. In particular, _The Merlin Conspiracy_ (Diana Wynne Jones) and _The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao_, both of which I remember being really, really good, but I don’t actually remember anything about them… ---
**Author:** ![RachelChristine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RachelChristine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RachelChristine)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/29 "2012-01-29T03:24:09Z")
One of my students had Cold Sassy Tree on his desk this week. I picked it up and told him that I’d loved it back in high school. I remember precisely three things about it. And one of them I’m not sure is actually from that book. It bothers me that I forget so many books and movies. I don’t care about the fluff kind, but when they are good, solid stories, I should recall lots of them. The older I get, the more my mind turns into a sieve. And I’m only 35! ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/30 "2012-01-29T05:00:28Z")
Almost every book I’ve ever read. Movies and plays too. Non-fiction too. Makes me wonder why I bother reading anything. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/31 "2012-01-29T05:03:08Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Almost every book I’ve ever read. Movies and plays too. Non-fiction too. Makes me wonder why I bother reading anything. To have really buff eyeball muscles. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/32 "2012-01-29T05:16:49Z")
Someone asked me the other day if I’d read _Oscar and Lucinda_. I’m a huge Peter Carey fan and have read about ten of his books, so I answered yes. Then hang on a minute, did I just see the movie. No I haven’t seen the movie. But I know what happens. So I must have read the book. But in my head the main character looks like Ralph Fiennes. So maybe I’ve just seen the movie. But maybe it’s because I’ve seen stills from the movie. I vaguely remember lying on my bed in my old house reading about it. So I’m fairly sure I’ve read it. But not that sure. But I really can’t remember much about it, apart from trying to build a glass church in the outback. ---
**Author:** ![JessEnigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cdc98d/32.png) [@JessEnigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JessEnigma)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/33 "2012-01-29T11:33:40Z")
After I read Evelyn Waugh’s _Brideshead Revisited_ – most of which I do actually remember – I decided to pick up a couple of his other books. I was in college at the time and I carried a notebook with lists of titles and library call numbers so I could pick up books whenever I had spare time without having to look them up again. I crossed the titles off whenever I checked out a book, though I was occasionally a little lax in remembering to do so. A couple months after I decided to go pick up more of Waugh’s books, I noticed that I hadn’t crossed his _A Handful of Dust_ off my list in my notebook yet and I couldn’t remember having checked it out, so I skipped over to the university library to go pick it up. It wasn’t until after I’d picked it up off the shelf and looked at the cover that I realised I had actually read it. I had to have kept it for a couple weeks, in fact, because the cover was really familiar and not because it was somehow especially iconic. I still don’t remember a single bit of that book besides the cover. I’ve forgotten the exact details of plenty of other books, but at least I tend to remember _something_. ---
**Author:** ![CatherineZeta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@CatherineZeta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CatherineZeta)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/34 "2012-01-29T15:04:31Z")
I read _The Bell Jar_\*\* when I was around 13. I know the general plot and that it’s about Plath’s own life, but whenever I mention that I’ve read it people ask me all sorts of detailed questions (usually about the fact that the main character- I don’t even recall her name- has an abortion) and I’m like, “Uhhh…” I read a lot of other depressing stuff then that I hardly remember like _Prozac Nation_ and _The Virgin Suicides_\*\* although I don’t think I missed important plot points like I apparently did for _The Bell Jar_. I actually liked _Jude the Obscure_\*\*. I read that my senior year of high school. _Heart of Darkness_\*\* was the only assigned book in high school that I didn’t read because I thought it was so terrible (however I am familiar with the plot and enjoy saying, “the horror, the horror”). ---
**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 29, 2012, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/35 "2012-01-29T15:08:17Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > Return of the Native… Diggory Venn the reddleman. That’s all I remember. Oh, well there’s another. I remember “Diggory Venn” and “Eustacia Vye” because they’re such great names, but couldn’t for the life of me tell you who they were or what they did. ---
**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 29, 2012, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/36 "2012-01-29T15:09:50Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Almost every book I’ve ever read. Movies and plays too. Non-fiction too. Makes me wonder why I bother reading anything. I’m counting it as a blessing. All those great books I can reread as though they’re new…although to be fair, when I pick up an old book like that, phrases and events do sometimes seem familiar, like snippets of old songs on my mom’s radio. ---
**Author:** ![davidw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@davidw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidw)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/37 "2012-01-29T15:32:12Z")
I remember tearing through John Dos Passos’ U.S.A. trilogy, and thinking it was just fantastic, about ten years ago. But I can’t remember a thing about any of the three books. ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/38 "2012-01-29T16:10:58Z")
_East of Eden_. I love Steinbeck and can recall details of many of his other books–but I have no clue what this one was about, and I read it in earnest. ---
**Author:** ![Albert\_Rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Albert\_Rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albert_Rose)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/39 "2012-01-29T17:02:06Z")
Nathaniel West’s _Day of the Locust_. I think it was set in Hollywood, and there were giant grasshoppers. ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996/40 "2012-01-29T23:24:13Z")
I’ve read **The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn** twice. Well, okay, the first time it was read TO me, which isn’t the best indicator of how well I remember a novel (since I tend to zone out if the reading is too long). The second time was in high school and I still remember zoning out, even while I was reading it. So it’s gone. One that I forgot about while I was reading it: **Naked Lunch**. I cannot believe they managed to make that one into a movie, because I would turn a page and all memory of the previous one would be gone. **Watership Down** and **The Hobbit** used to be on that list, but I’ve reread them recently, so they’re back in my brain now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-you-read-really-read-and-cant-remember-at-all/610996.md?page=3)