I know what you may be thinking… how can there be any pros to having a bad bookish memory?! Well, for me, there are surprisingly quite a few. It’s definitely annoying to forget details about your favorite books, especially when you’re trying to be a Harry Potter showoff to your friends (been there ??) It’s not a fun situation most of the time, but I’m going to try to be a little positive here.
Because I know my memory is terrible,
I have to write my reviews right away.
This may sound like a con because I have to force myself to write reviews when I may not be in the mood, but it actually has way more benefits than drawbacks! I know that if I don’t write a review within the first 12 hours of finishing a book, so many of the details will shoot right out of my head. I always sit down to review the book soonafter finishing to I can ensure that my thoughts make it on paper pixels? Many of my blogger friends talk about hating reviews, not writing them early enough, and developing a backlog of read-not-reviewed books. This is just absolutely never an issue for me and I love it.
Rereads are WAY better.
I used to not bother rereading books because I figured I didn’t have time to read something that I already read. What’s the point when there are new books out there I can read instead?! Well, I definitely realized the error of my ways. I don’t reread all the time like some people can, but I definitely appreciate rereads now more than ever. I’ve reread a few favorite series (Harry Potter, The A-List, Secrets of my Hollywood Life, etc.) and it was pretty awesome. The best thing for me is that the FEELINGS of a reread are there (the nostalgia and slight remembrance of details/feels) but I don’t remember the vast majority of the details or plot. It feels almost like I’m reading the book for the first time… but BETTER. Because nostalgia.
To state the obvious: I’d rather have a great bookish memory.
I can sit here all day and wax poetic about how wonderful it is to have a bad memory (sometimes), but let’s be real for a second – I would obviously prefer to have a good memory. I’d love to be able to rehash character names and plot points and book endings like nobody’s business. It’s a lot harder to have someone ask you “was there a love triangle in this?” and not even remember this fairly crucial / memorable part of a story. It’s seriously happened to me so many times. People discuss crazy endings or twists and I’m like uhhhhh I remember what the book was about(??) and that’s it. It kind of sucks most of the time.
I feel like I don’t KNOW my favorite books
because I can’t remember so many aspects of them.
Going off of the first point here… I hate that I don’t remember everything about ALL the books I read, but it’s especially terrible when I can’t remember pieces of my FAVORITE books. We’re talking all-time favorites here. Like Harry Potter. I’m a huge fan. I read fanfiction. I’ve reread the series and read them all for the first time as they were released. I own merchandise. I just have the WORST memory when it comes to everything bookish. People always want to ask specific questions about HP and I’m like pls don’t ask me. I hate feeling like a “fraud” for not remembering things like that.
I have the worst memory. Sometimes I even start writing my reviews as I’m still reading the book, making notes about things I want to remember to talk about. I flag important things, too. And I love to reread, for basically the same reason as you – I’m always finding new little things I either missed or didn’t remember from a previous read.
I do that too! It’s the best way to make sure you don’t forget haha.
I love this post!! I am totally feeling your pros and cons because YES it is kinda nice to do a reread and it feels like the first time through bc you can’t remember stuff!! But it does stink when you don’t want to do a reread and you can’t remember some awesome twist that you knew you loved but now can’t even remember. I used to keep a plot journal, but I am SO lazy and blogging takes up so much time, that I rarely ever do it anymore. At least there’s Recaptains for series!!
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THIS POST IS ME. I have such a bad bookish memory!!! And what’s worse is that I don’t write my reviews right after I read ? Lesson not learned … although I am writing more reviews this past month, so hopefully it sticks. And when people ask me about my favorite books … oooooh man. ESPECIALLY when they ask for a synopsis. Yikes …
[…] who read/watch them. I don’t remember anyyyything about these books or movies because my memory is terrible. But, everyone also does a lot of rereading or rewatching and I am just so bad at it. As I […]