I'm older than you, so I don't think age has any particular effect. It may be that some of us just have more retentive memories.

Well I'm 48 and I don't remember titles, authors etc like some others do either. I don't think it is age or anything, some people are just better at it. I have never been good at remembering things even when when I was a teenager. I do admire other peoples ability to have instant recall though. I wish I could.

wig, I have to write down the titles/authors of just read books and, even then cannot always recall the content.
I am at the age when I have to keep a running shopping list and add to it as the thought comes into my tiny mind.
And I wonder how many of us here, of whatever age, find themselves at the top of the stairs and wondering "What am I doing here" . . . or even more stupid, as I once did, trying to put a bottle of milk into the microwave?
The number of near-divorce situations that have arisen between my husband and me caused by him asking "Have you seen the car keys/bill that just came in the post/extra-sharp gardening knife" etc to be answered by me "Where do you last remember seeing it?"
I hope by the time I get back into the kitchen I'll remember why all the chairs are up on the kitchen table and what I am expected to do next.

I keep lists-since I have a weakness for reading series or the whole list of an author's work, I print out the list of the series and cross off as I read them-take the whole folder with me to used book sales and the library. I also keep a list at goodreads.com...I'm up to over 500! My daughter and I brainstormed books that we had read together when she was a child-many of which had been my childhood favorites...then I added in the list from bookclub, all the series, books from my RP list, then I just surfed around other lists and when I saw a title I thought I might have read, looked it up on amazon and read the blurb-it was a wonderful, productive way to avoid cleaning!

I also keep lists, both in a notebook and on Bibliophil. I have a pretty good memory for titles OR authors (rarely both at the same time unless they are particular favorites) but I have a very sketchy memory for story lines. I read a lot of non-fiction, too, and while it's fascinating while I'm reading, it tends to fly out of my head shortly thereafter leaving me mumbling, "I just read something about that, hmmmm, let me see, I know I thought it was brilliant ..."

Vee, I have often found myself purposefully heading into the kitchen/bedroom/dining room/garage only to get there and wonder why I was going there in the first place. Since I've been doing this since I was in my early 30s, I blame it all on Mommy Brain. I firmly believe that the toddler years damage key areas of concentration that just never recover no matter how old the children get *vbg*.

Sheri, we call 'Mommy Brain' Maternal Amnesia just to add a touch of gravitas! I'm sure it is a real condition because these days I have great difficult recalling large chunks of the '80's when my now so-called 'young adult' children were growing up. Perhaps it is a defence mechanism to protect us from the sheer boredom of feeding, mopping-up, wiping, washing, changing that make up such a large part of child rearing.
As you can tell I was never one of nature's Earth Mothers.:-)
Today my symptoms are know as Senior Moments. Tomorrow it will probably be Alzheimer's, but I'll put that out of my mind for now.

The only way I can recall titles and/or authors is to use 3x5 notecards. I just stack them up, affix a rubber band, and when they get outdated, file in an appropriate box of that size.

Trust me, these "Senior Moments" have nothing whatsoever to do with motherhood! I've been doing what Vee is describing since at least my 40's and have had only the honor of being a distant stepmother.

I post on a lot of different threads at various forums here and often cannot recall which thread I last posted on, etc.

I keep a list in Excel.

I've noticed my ability to recall details has steadily declined in the last 10 years or so. I'm terrible with remembering names, and sometimes characters or events from similar books blur together in my mind. I wish I could blame it on the mommy fog, but I've been using that excuse for too long. I do find myself wondering if my reliance on technology has made my brain grow sluggish and lazy. I don't have to remember things, because, well, I can often look them up (but even that isn't a reliable safeguard).

I can't blame anything on mommy fog since I've not had the pleasure, but my memory is very selective. I can remember passages from books I read 40 years ago almost verbatim, but walk into the grocery store and forget that I came for milk.

For some reason I retain things I read very, very well. When I've needed a memory jog, my friends here at RP have served me very well! When I've posed a question, someone has always promptly provided the title, author, and usually a useful bit of extra information. I do love this place!

What a relief to find out I'm not alone. It doesn't take away the frustration of not remembering, but there's always comfort in shared experience. I have also kept a log of books/authors/date, as well as a rating to help me remember. I guess the upside is that I might be able to reread a well liked book as though for the first time....but typically I have the 'oh yeah now I remember' moment pretty quickly. wig

I started keeping a book journal about five years ago, when I challenged my granddaughter to keep a list of the books she was reading, and said I would as well.

I also use Amazon as a memory trigger...I can usually remember enough to find the book.

Oh, no, you are not alone. I've read a zillion books in my lifetime (long), and I only remember one after I've read several pages and then probably can't remember how it ended. It does make for more reading, though. I've been keeping a log, too, for the past several years with name, author, and a brief summary.

I recently went to a used-book store to buy some paperbacks to take on vacation so as not to lose any library books (guess who left one on an airplane once), only to find that I had already read two out of five of them.

I love the comfort of this thread. I used to remember everything, but now, if I don't write it down, forget it! Toddler damage to be sure, and a nutritionist friend of mine blames changing estrogen levels (and you can add fat around the midsection to the ills of estrogen) but I can't remember if it is an excess or too little of the hormone. I started a new job and notice it takes a bit longer for new material to sink in.

Take heart. A recent article in the B-more Sun dealt with this issue. A JHU doc/professor, older than me, was interviewed on the effects of aging on the mind and said when he was young, he could read a technical article once and commit it to memory. Now, he has to read it 5 times or so to make sense of it. Entirely normal, claims he.

Not having instant recall also makes it impossible for me to play the book title/author game, I keep trying but I can never come up with anything, boo hoo.

I work in a book shop and am lucky to have a great memory for titles and authors, but unfortunately, usually can't remember what is in the books!
I am the same with films. I have often sat with my husband watching a film with him saying 'but you remember how this bloke goes back to the boss..........' or something similar, and although the general idea of the film seems familiar, I can't remember any of the details.

Deborah - we don't have hard and fast rules for the game - you may use reference materials to play. Give it a try!

I have a book journal I started 3-4 years ago. I write down the title, author, short summary of the book, and then my rating. I got the idea from another on-line book group I belong to; many of the members keep a book journal, and then we all compare books at the end of the month. My memory is so bad that I don't think I could list all the books I read last month (let alone last year) without my journal right in front of me.

Kelly

Yes to all of the above. Lists, notebooks, goodreads. I used to use bibliofil but no longer do. I have a big notebook of books that I've read started in 1990. 1990 now sounds like ancient history, but at the time I remember thinking how I wished I had started writing these titles down years earlier - like when I was 8, which would have been 1975.

I have two notebooks of books I want to read "someday" and a 5 x 7 index file full of cards filed by author with all of their titles listed in order. In my little list-loving brain, crossing things off of lists is so very satisfying.

Maternal amnesia??? You are too kind... I call those kind of days "Ebay days" as in: buy one kid, get one free. And the kids say, "No problem. Just let us call Nana first so she knows we are up for sale." We all get a chuckle and we all calm down.

The short answer is: I do have a very good memory, lots of lists, lots of lists and then finally, lots of lists.
PAM