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How do you remember what you read?

post #1 of 8
6/2/10 at 12:22am
Thread Starter 
I recently picked up reading "Against the God's: The Remarkable Story of Risk", by Peter Bernstein, after having put it down about halfway through just a month ago. In that short time, I've found I can't recall hardly anything from the beginning of the book. Any tips on remembering more from reading without actually studying it? Do you keep notes while reading? This is, of course, for leisure.
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post #2 of 8
6/2/10 at 12:23am
what you describing doesn't sound very leisurly
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post #3 of 8
6/2/10 at 12:25am
I only remember shit if it's really interesting. I forget most of what I read. Then again I probably have the worst episodic memory of anyone I know.
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post #4 of 8
6/2/10 at 12:30am
i recall very little but will make connections with similar scenes or topics in subsequent reading. don't have a memory that can quote things occasionally take notes on on a line or two; reviewing those is pleasant, but i don't review them often
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post #5 of 8
6/2/10 at 12:45am
I have a shit memory. I just read as much as possible and hope some of it sticks. I can't even quote movies unless I've seen them like ten times.
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post #6 of 8
6/2/10 at 12:59am
Hasn't this thread come up before? Just kidding. As I read I'm constantly summarizing in my head large sections of text into single bullets. I then repeat back to myself a summary of the main points and flow to myself up to that point. That way by the end I've essentially summarized the whole book into about 5-10 clear points the author made and have gone over each one a few times. So in short, I paraphrase the main point in my own words and repeat it back to myself. (See how that works?)
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post #7 of 8
6/2/10 at 4:36pm
Thread Starter 
Interesting... I may try that. I'm surprised to hear nobody jots notes in a moleskine or anything. I thought that was pretty common.

As it is, reading books seems kind of a waste if I can't recall any of the material.
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post #8 of 8
6/2/10 at 4:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunror View Post
i recall very little but will make connections with similar scenes or topics in subsequent reading. don't have a memory that can quote things

Same here. I find this is also true with TV. Occasionally I'll watch NatGeo, Discovery, or The Food Network and completely forget everything. When I watch the same channel, but a different show, some of the information will seem familiar.


I used to have a grad school professor who would make us read a book and then summarize the main argument or hypothesis in one sentence. It sounds easy, but was really difficult to boil everything down to one statement. If you could do this for each chapter of a book, it would probably help you get the main points. Also, it doesn't hurt to go back and read the first and last paragraph of each chapter.
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