Howdy, writers!
I'm almost finished reading a fascinating book
about Shakespeare. A month from now, I will remember almost nothing about it.
Reading retention has been a lifelong problem for me, and earlier this week, thinking about this Shakespeare book, I couldn't
help but wonder:
If I'm not going to remember any of these facts and anecdotes, what's the point of reading this book? Or any
book?
With a little help from a New
Yorker piece, one of my own old blog posts, and the writer A.M. Homes, I come to realize that if I had to make a choice, I'd prefer to retain the experience of reading a book rather than retain anything about the book itself.
Because when I'm on my deathbed, one hundred or so years from now, and I think back to Homes' story collection The Safety of Objects, a book I read last fall while visiting friends in Boston, what am I going to want to remember:
The plots of individual stories, or the experience of buying it at one of my favorite old bookstores and reading it at some of my favorite old coffee spots and park benches around Harvard Square?
It's not that I don't wish for better retention skills. Many people can retain a great deal about both a book itself and the experience of reading it, and I envy that.
All I'm saying is, one of the main reasons I love to read is that I can remember where I was (and who I was) when I read a particular book.
The plots, the style, the facts, the themes of a book: These things fade from memory, but the sights and smells and sounds of my environment stay with me.
I want to hear your take:
What's more important, retaining the book itself or the experience of reading it? What
are your strategies for retention? What are some of your fondest reading experiences?
