The only time I re-read a book is when I accidentally take it out of the library for a second time, only to find after a chapter or two that I have read it earlier.
I put this down to a mixture of my failing memory and the indifferent quality of the story.
On the other hand I mainly read non-fiction and generally find I am able to remember 'facts' and can bore family/friends with dull (to them) details.
For eg I've just started Florence Nightingale by Mark Bostridge and am still studying her long and complicated family tree. I have found it fascinating that most of her 10 aunts and uncles all born in the late 1700's lived well into their eighties and nineties. I will retain this information and can already imagine eyes glazing-over as I pass it on to anyone who will listen.
Does this make me a dork? Very probably.

veer, out of the many words that I would use to describe you, dork isn't one of them! The other words are complimentary, of course.

Frieda, I do agree with you. The so-so books, and many mysteries, are mentally tossed aside shortly after I close the back cover. I put it down to my brain needing the distraction, a bit like a vacation, as it were, from reality. It is much the same for me as movies. Only the good ones "stick". In fact, before responding to your post, I paged through years of my reading journal.

Two Lists, the "remembers" and the "cannot remembers"

Remembers
Anna Karenina
The Right Stuff
Old Goriot
New Grub Street
Cry to Heaven
These is My Words
Chesapeake
Nana
L'Assomoir

Cannot Remembers
Surfacing
Cold Fire
A Time to Kill
the entire Sue Grafton mystery series, although I hasten to add that I enjoyed them at the time I read them.
Almost all of Michael Cricton's stuff except Timeline and Jurassic Park

This was an interesting exercise for me, thanks to you. It seemed that to me, the more a book had depth, or complexity in its plot, or multi-faceted characters, the more I was likely to remember it.

This post got to be rather long and rambling, but this topic intrigues me. For what it is worth, I don't think there is anything wrong with your mind. It is simply highly selective - choosing to remember the best bits of your reading life.
PAM

Little Women which I first read when I was 9-and have read at least 20 times since. Used to read it every Christmas vacation.

...and Ladies of the Club
In This House of Brede

There are several but none more so than Anne of Green Gables.

My memory is the pits but always has been. I used to joke that I was the only person who re-read Agatha Christie books and managed to forget 'whodunnit'. If the story is interesting I read very quickly and don't take in much of the book beyond the basics. I used to re-read a lot but since I have been working in the book shop I don't do that.
Interestingly, I actually have a good memory for other things. At work I am good at knowing who wrote what (even if I haven't read it). I remember lots of facts, like Vee, and like her I tell everyone if they will listen *VBG* But book plots? Rarely beyond the basics.

Buried My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown which I read in 5th grade. Every morning on the bus going to school and every afternoon on the bus coming home. This book hit me so profoundly at such a tender age......and stayed with me all these years later.

Heh! Vee, I should have used the word dolt to describe myself. Dorkishness is an entirely different quality. However, I had just been called a dork so it was still on my mind and that's what I typed instead. My younger DS used to call me Mamapedia, but that was replaced with wonk. Respect goes out the window quickly, doesn't it?

PAM, that's an interesting exercise -- the "remembers" and "cannot remembers" -- but I'm afraid the latter would far outnumber the former, in my case. I've found, though, that if I intersperse two or three nonfiction books for every one fiction, I will recall the fiction better. Maybe when a book is fiction I just don't give it as much concentration, when it should really be vice versa. I find fiction so much harder to read.

What is it about age nine that makes books read then stick so magically in our memories? I've heard lots of people remark about books they read at age nine. Thirteen seems to be another momentous book-reading year. Seventeen another. I can't say that I recall any particular book I read at 34 or 46 or 57. But I can remember that I finally read The Little House books at age forty-seven; I don't know why I didn't read them before because I probably would've liked them, but maybe it was meant to be that I would appreciate them more as an adult. It's funny how so much of my reading has been serendipitous.

I have a really bad memory when it comes to books! For that reason, I keep a reading journal...otherwise I'm sure I'd sometimes be picking up mediocre books I've already read.

I do have some that have stayed with me, though. I still remember vividly reading certain books as a child, such as the Little House series, The Babysitters Club books, Christopher Pike novels, and The Outsiders by S.E.Hinton. Some of it may be that I read those particular books over and over again.

From more recent reading, I remember best the ones that I've just really enjoyed. The Beach by Alex Garland, Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo, Lord of the Flies, several others that I read years ago but still *somewhat* remember.

Oh, and I think it is true that the more books you read, the harder time you will have remembering all of them:-)

It depends with me how often I re-read them, and also how much impact the book had with me.

So, sadly, I can remember loads of the early Dick Francis books - I could more-or-less summarize the plots in many of them! - simply because they were my "pick up when bored" books when I was younger, and I've read them multiple times. Same with the 87th Precinct Ed McBain books. Or Lord of the Rings which I haven't actually opened in twenty years or more. Interestingly, since I've joined RP, I've hardly ever re-read books like that - my "pick up when bored" books to re-read tend to be of a higher quality. For instance, I can remember Coming Up for Air by George Orwell very clearly, as I have recently re-read it for about the seventh or eighth time.

Alternatively, some books just stay with me, even if I've only read them once. Blindness by Jose Saramago is one such - a quite magnificent but truly disturbing book. I will probably re-read it, but only after a decent interval of many years - and only when I'm feeling tough.

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one with a "defective" (selective?) memory. It has happened more than once that I check out a book only to find it sounding vaguely familiar, until I realize I had read it several years ago....

A few notable books stand out that I will never forget: Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" comes first to mind. Another is "The Kite Runner."

Others I have read more than once, so I practically know sections by heart, e.g. "Gone with the Wind", "Little Women", "Ethan Frome", "The Wanderer", and "Greengage Summer."

Unfortunately, I am finding that more books seem to be forgettable that I am reading now. Am I just getting "picky" ?

kren, I'm glad to accept your (and my DH's) estimation that reading so many books is bound to make most of them a blur. :-)

Martin, I sure wish I could put my finger (or eyes) on what it is about certain books that makes them memorable -- those would be the only books I read! Alas, I don't think it's possible...too many variables, I suppose.

Mary, I blame "pickiness" on a lot of my reading woes. Interesting -- I won't forget The Road either, but probably for a very different reason than yours: all I did was suffer through it! Le Grand Meaulnes was much more vivid once I read it in English. I think the French made it more ethereal, perhaps because I didn't (and still don't) read French very well. But there was something very appealing to me about that etherealness -- I expect you will know what I mean.

Frieda,
I have been giving much thought to why Howard's "Before the Sun Goes Down" had in my youth, and still does in my latter years, makes such an impression when I read it. I had attributed it to my being young and impressionable, but I now realize that is not a sufficient explanation for my present enjoyment when I read even a small portion of the story. On further reflection, I then supposed that it must be the manner in which Howard writes. Her sentence structure is what my old English teacher would describe as "long and envolved". I would add that it is also "rich in description". I suspect that there is something about her manner of writing that somehow matches my thought processes. I wonder if we readers find that our favourite author's writings tend to match out ways of thinking?
A few weeks ago, I finished a supposedly thriller called "The Pelican Brief", and I cannot remember the author. I do know that his writing style tended to shorter descriptive sentences, and short chapters. It was also had s quite convoluted story line. I had a very difficult time finishing it. I would find myself putting it back down after only ten minutes of reading, and then starting again after an hour or so.
From now on, I am going to pay more attention to the books I like and dislike, to see if this theory holds up in practice.
Happy New Year, and it is good to see you back.

Bob

I agree that sometimes we tend to remember the great books and the good books and just forget the so-so books. Especially if one reads a lot, then you are bound to forget the details of a book that was just "so-so". Sometimes I think certain books make big impressions on us when we are young and they just stick with us. I especially remember Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes and Farenheight 451 from when I read them as a younger person. I think they just had more of an impact on me as a growing adult than some cheap paperback fiction might have.

I've said before that reading books for me is like eating popcorn--fast and furious and never feeling full--and my favorite genre is mysteries. Now, I'm about to make a terrible confession to you all and trust that you will not turn me in. When I finish a library book, I put a small dot with a blue pencil on the inside front page so I can tell at a glance if I've read it. Of course, since most of the books are in multiple copies, I quite often get home with one I've already read. If it hasn't been too long, I put it aside; but I've been known to read quite a lot of it before realizing it is a repeat.

The books I remember best are those I read when I was young, but we didn't have lots of books or a library available, so I reread them a lot which helped fix them in my memory.

Several times I have reread favorite authors in order of publication (e.g., Helen MacInnes, Dick Francis, Anne Perry, Mary Stewart) and found that while the stories might be vaguely familiar, I thoroughly enjoyed them again and sometimes didn't remember them at all.

I agree that it isn't poor memory but an embarrassment of riches.

I think it comes down to years and the sheer quantity of books read. I can still quote passages from Little Women and Lord of the Rings (read around ages 9 and 13 respectively, come to think of it!), but a great deal of what I've read as an adult has faded with time.

I recently picked up Katharine Neville's The Eight, a book I loved, to re-read. It had been at least ten years since I'd last read it, but other than a faint recollection that chess was involved, it was like reading a brand-new book. I had no idea how it ended or what the twist at the end would be. Perhaps this bodes well for my retirement reading ... I won't have to buy any more books, LOL.

Some books do stick, particularly ones that we've discussed here, or that I've shared and discussed with friends IRL. I was looking at my book list earlier tonight, and there were a couple of titles from four or five years back that I could tell you nothing about today. I've decided not to worry about it *vbg* and I'm delighted to find I'm not the only one with this problem.

I think often it can be the setting, either geographically, or emotionally, that makes us fixate upon a book forever. My late first husband comes to mind, in that he was going through a difficult time as a young man, when S. Maughn's "Of Human Bondage" was assigned reading at University. He could not stop talking about that book and I felt the story must have truly spoken to where he was in his life at the time.

My own example would be "1984" by Orwell. I was living in Europe for a year and had just visited the former Soviet Union. Just after, I recall reading this novel on a bus behind the Iron Curtain and it really came to life for me. I will never forget its impact on my thinking, about my cross cultural experiences.

I don't think its an age thing..I'm only 26 and I read 2-4 books a week depending on the length. I sometimes pick up books that I claim are my favorites just b/c I cant remember why they are my fav.
But I make it a practice to re-read the Harry Potter's once a year and even then I find something new each time that I've forgotten. The Thorn Birds is the only book I can think of that I remember the majority of but I re-read it a good bit too.
But I seem to devour books then move so quickly to the next I can't quite hold to the memory?

Thank you for posting this - I thought it was just me! During the summer I live more than 20 miles from the library. It would really upset me to pick out my 4 or 5 books for the week only to get home and find I had already read 2 of them. To combat this I started at the back of the alphabet and read one book by each author, if I like it I read the rest on the shelf by that author, if not I move to the next one. this has really helped that with that "have I read this?" problem. Maybe one day soon that library will have an inter-library loan system so I have more choices when I find a really good author. Until then, I'll continue on in the M's.

I think it has a lot to do with how a book made me feel at the time I read it. There are several books I know almost by heart but will re-read them over and over again (with a decent time in between so they are fresh again). There are a few books that I read that had such an effect on me that even years later, and I mean years later, I can still remember them clearly. One such book is Green Mansions by W.H. Hudson. I was enchanted by the first part of the book and horrified by the ending; it didn't end at all the way I wanted it to and I've never forgotten it. Another one is Lord of the Flies. That story absolutely horrified me. I read it as a teenager (it may have been for an English class, I don't remember now) and to this day, I remember how I felt when I read it.

I agree with Rouan. How I felt when reading a book (and also how old I was when I read it) makes a difference in how I recall it. I remember the long summer holidays growing up in England when my sis and I would sprawl on deck chairs in the garden with a cup of tea and piles of Gerald Durrell books by our sides, just waiting for us to jump in and explore his latest journey to collect some strange animal.

Or even further back, the Mallory Towers series by Enid Blyton (waving hi to Dynomutt) or any books about pet shops or guinea pigs. There was one survival book I read which detailed how to build a survival kit in a match box. I did this and carried it around with me for years, although I didn't stray very far from the town centre of Bedford. I was ready just in case though.

Later years, I have a hard time remembering which books are which unless I made a concerted effort to remember them (as with the discussion on Angle of Repose etc). Generally though the books just fly through my head like ethereal fairies.

That is exactly what I meant to say in my post re the "emotional setting" of a particular book at a particular time. I agree, it is about our feelings. Rouan and lemonhead, you both expressed what I wanted to get across.