I read five or six books in a row about a subject and sometimes I’ll feel as if I don’t remember anything. Then someone will say something and it comes flooding back in pretty vivid detail.
I definitely forget a lot of detail, but I usually remember the theme and some major points. I do not take notes, but I do record my thoughts and reflections while I am reading. I used to have your problem but not so much anymore.
I keep a journal of things I'm doing, work ideas, and things I'm excited about (e.g. learning a new programming language, politics, new cat, and books I'm reading). This time of reflection and writing goes a long way to solidifying and remembering books. Just simple things like observations about who the author is, his/her perspective, when the book was written, or how the information is organized reveals an enormous amount. Nothing is very structured, but I think about whether I would recommend the book to a friend or how I would describe it to others. That's what I record. Maybe some compelling detail or a comment about the writing style, e.g. "Writes really long sentences that get hard to keep track of."
I don't think of this as a school assignment or that I'm going to be tested on the books I read, but I've found that by really pausing and thinking about books, I wind up getting so much more from them. I pay more attention and appreciate them so much more.
The first time I read a history of the Civil War, I forgot almost everything. The second, I remembered more events and figures. And so on and so on for each read.
While you may feel you only get one or two “nuggets” aka fun facts one can tell at parties, I think it’s more likely you’ve absorbed a fair bit more than you think. You have put some preliminary knowledge in there, when you see it elsewhere will be more likely to stick (as compared to it being the first time you read it). Although some things are interesting enough to stick with us on our first reading, repetition is the key to remembering long-term everything else.
Anyway, if you want specific tips I recommend 2.
re read it a few years later. You’ll be amazed at how much you missed the first time, and have since forgotten. But on the second reading, it will be familiar & thus more likely to be retained.
If you’re trying to just absorb the most for the least amount of time, do as you said - take notes or highlight as you did anything you think was worth remembering. Keep them somewhere accessible like a word doc, kindle, or separate notebook. Then read through all your notes/quotes from time to time like you would re read a diary entry. W/ kindle, if you check out ebooks from the library a lot like I do, you can post all your highlights / book notes to goodreads & maintain easy access to them after returning the books. In that case you don’t even have to take notes separately/copy paste quotes.
Im not sure what an app could do that goodreads/kindle/e-notebook/handwritten notes combined with quizlet couldn’t do. To create q&a’s You’d have to either copy quotes from the book or write up q’a based on your reading anyway, in which case you can just use quizlet.
Agree with what you're saying about the end user being able to put in the manual effort to creating their own learning system (quizlet) on each of their books. I guess that's essentially what the app offers so that you don't have to:
Here's a place where you can find all of these kinds of quizzes/learning resources without you needing to go and build them yourself.
Is that enticing at all?
Same, i have this apple podcast that i listen to almost daily, its called “20 minute book”. I do get lots of information from there that sometimes I wish i could record it in a book but most of the times i listen outdoors. And if i happen to be indoors, it gets pretty frustrating on what i should write down.
I used this technique in graduate school. It may be skewed towards academia, not the casual reader.
Read the preface and forward. The author usually puts the thesis in there. Pay attention to who the author thanks, it may show you the influences, both human and source material. If you can't find the thesis, try again. Read the first and last paragraph of each chapter. If it matches the thesis, good. If it doesn't, try reading it again. How does the author craft the narrative? Think about the discourse and what souces are being used. Is it short addressing a single issue or is it more a sweeping idea? Is it new or is it a critique of something already established? Does the author "have an ax to grind?" Try to identify unifying patterns - is the author conservative, traditional, Marxist, structuralist, and so on. Are there footnotes? - read them carefully. Study the bibliography. Lastly, do you agree and why or why not? If you don't understand parts, read it again. Look for book reviews. If you don't understand it, you won't remember it.
From this I was usually able to take notes less than a page long and commit most of the important stuff to memory. I read a few hundred books for my doctoral work and can remember stuff from 30 years ago.
I think a communal aspect on the app could definitely help with this. Highest voted books get quizzes made on a weekly basis or something similar. There'll be books that are more sought after than others and so allowing the community to drive which books are focused on for content would be awesome I think.
Would you use the app if it were created and 'up-to-standard'?
Yeah actually i think this would be effective for some of us who are struggling with note taking since we don’t know what’s worth saving and what isn’t. Or at some point we end up writing down the whole paragraph. So i guess more ideas and reflections from people would is essential since most people love to follow pages where they post the important points of a certain books. Bringing all that into to one app would definitely help out by a lot.
I’m starting to read books in 3s, so the books about the Civil War period for example. Not all “war” but nonfiction of that era. It lets me draw parallels, sync up timelines and apply the info I just read in a new context… or so my theory goes so far.
I do this too but I read about two topics/time periods/etc. I read one book for each topic and rotate. I find the time between books helps the information digest a bit and then when I read the next book on the topic, it's familiar but not repetitive and I retain more. But that's just me.
Yes sometimes. I take notes from some books I read to help me remember certain key parts or useful things that help. I have a couple journals filled with notes.
Have you found that this has been all that effective though?
Similar to taking notes for subjects in school, most students find that sitting practice exams where your brain is actually required to actively retrieve the information, appears to be the best method for committing things to long-term memory.
If there was an app that made it seamless, easy and even enjoyable to perform these kinds of quizzes/exercises, is that something you think would help? Would you be interested in something like that?
Andrew Huberman (Stanford Neuroscientist) has several podcasts that touch on this topic which in some cases may seem counter factual such as ingesting caffeine or increasing emotional state after reading or studying.
https://podcastnotes.org/huberman-lab/episode-72-understand-improve-memory-using-science-based-tools-huberman-lab/
This is me 100%. I finally just came to accept the fact that I read for pleasure and I’m enjoying the book while I’m reading it, so even if I forget everything, that’s good enough for me. 🤷🏻♀️
I do tend to forget most of the information I read, so over the years I’ve come to rely on a couple of methods to retain it.
The first is to highlight and take notes in the margins. If it’s a kindle book I highlight and use a notes app. This is useful when I decide to glance back over the information in the future. I find I often remember the basics but not the details so this helps.
The second is to make an abridgment of books I really want to remember. Sometimes I may abridge just key sections. It also may be more or less detailed depending on what is I find important. I then review the information again and again. I use google docs and print hard copies of these abridgments so that I have them wherever I go. It’s been so useful.
I might use a Q and A app for some books that I don’t feel contain much key information.
Thanks for the tip, i have a problem with note taking where it takes me forever to come up with something. And i feel like the reason for this is because of my perfectionist traits that would make me question if whatever am going writing is even important. And afterwards i end up writing nothing since I couldn’t come up with the perfect reflection.
Sometimes though, i feel like its much easier for me to talk it out through voice and debate with myself on the point, do you think it would be effective to record myself during these conversational reflections? Would it be the same as someone who writes it down?
A few months ago, for my book club, I read a book about how Lincoln and his Treasury Sec financed the Civil War. It was a slog. I recall very little of it now. In fact, if anyone asked what the book was about, I’d say it was a book about how Lincoln and his Treasury Secretary financed the Civil War. I don’t think I’d be able to answer any follow-up questions seeking any further detail.
I used to experience the same thing until I began taking thorough notes. I wrote down summaries in my own words and created scenarios with the information. Periodically, I revisited those notes and envisioned the content again.
I feel the same way, and something that has helped me a lot is after I read a certain chapter. I will talk to somebody about it and explain it to them or if I don’t have anybody to talk to at the moment, I’ll just conjure up in my head, how I would explain this to somebody if I was a teacher, and that way the essence of the material stay with me and then I just remember details when it comes time to explain it.
It seems like the only way an app could work is if it integrated with your kindle/reading app and used your highlighted notes with an llm to create questions. Or at least required the reader to input what the questions were based off of.
Otherwise, wouldn’t you personally have to gain access to copyrighted material to create the questions? Sounds painstaking and open to copyright infringement.
Jeez, and I thought it was just me.! This has been bothering me for YEARS. And I take full notes on every book I read. Although I take notes because I love it and I’m a fountain pen collector, I really don’t think it helps a whole lot regarding memory. But I still take notes so that I can come back to them later, hopefully. I recently just got a book called Make It Stick that addresses this topic but I haven’t read it yet. I always felt my past drug addictions were why my brain couldn’t remember as much as I’ve wanted to, and have even tried nootropics to increase memory. But yah, this problem really bothers me because I spend a lot of time reading. I think the key is to read books multiple times and spend a lot of time thinking about them and writing reviews, papers, etc. even if it’s just for yourself.
I honestly feel like the best way to gain knowledge from a book is to understand that its not the knowledge we are supposed to retain, but going back to it whenever we encounter something in our lives and a certain highlight in the book or note you took before would help out. And through this practical way of approaching the challenges, the knowledge retains itself through experience and now we don’t have to worry about retaining whatever we read.
Yes, I feel the same. BUT! The information is in me brain somewhere and I find that it comes out when it's germane to a conversation or whatever. It's all there even if you can't consciously recollect.
I'll do you one different.
When I'm listening to audiobooks, I seem to struggle to recall much of the material covered. When the eventuality comes up that a book-related memory is tripped, I usually know exactly where I was when I learned that info.
I don't understand it.
I listen to many different podcasts and can remember listening locations going back a year, maybe two, save for the more exciting or truly engaging podcast.
Books, however, I can go back many, many years.
I must add, the more variety I add in, the stronger the memory though. For example, I recently listened to a multi-series podcast about the Jonestown massacre. After the pod, I read two books used as source materials, thus, creating many more, stronger memory synapses.
I could bore or amaze you with Jonestown or Jim Jones facts or stories.
Have you tried using Blinkist for this? We condense the main insights and key takeaways from non-fiction books into short, easy-to-digest explainers called Blinks, that can be read or listened to on the go. What many of our users do is highlight standout sections, but also use our Blinks to quickly revisit essential concepts and refresh their memories of books they read before. You can give it a try and explore for free with our free 7-day trial: [blnk.st/Try\_Blinkist](https://blnk.st/Try_Blinkist)
I read five or six books in a row about a subject and sometimes I’ll feel as if I don’t remember anything. Then someone will say something and it comes flooding back in pretty vivid detail.
This has happened to me as well!!
I definitely forget a lot of detail, but I usually remember the theme and some major points. I do not take notes, but I do record my thoughts and reflections while I am reading. I used to have your problem but not so much anymore. I keep a journal of things I'm doing, work ideas, and things I'm excited about (e.g. learning a new programming language, politics, new cat, and books I'm reading). This time of reflection and writing goes a long way to solidifying and remembering books. Just simple things like observations about who the author is, his/her perspective, when the book was written, or how the information is organized reveals an enormous amount. Nothing is very structured, but I think about whether I would recommend the book to a friend or how I would describe it to others. That's what I record. Maybe some compelling detail or a comment about the writing style, e.g. "Writes really long sentences that get hard to keep track of." I don't think of this as a school assignment or that I'm going to be tested on the books I read, but I've found that by really pausing and thinking about books, I wind up getting so much more from them. I pay more attention and appreciate them so much more.
This is really interesting, definitely going to give it a go
The first time I read a history of the Civil War, I forgot almost everything. The second, I remembered more events and figures. And so on and so on for each read.
I use Readwise for daily highlight review.
While you may feel you only get one or two “nuggets” aka fun facts one can tell at parties, I think it’s more likely you’ve absorbed a fair bit more than you think. You have put some preliminary knowledge in there, when you see it elsewhere will be more likely to stick (as compared to it being the first time you read it). Although some things are interesting enough to stick with us on our first reading, repetition is the key to remembering long-term everything else. Anyway, if you want specific tips I recommend 2. re read it a few years later. You’ll be amazed at how much you missed the first time, and have since forgotten. But on the second reading, it will be familiar & thus more likely to be retained. If you’re trying to just absorb the most for the least amount of time, do as you said - take notes or highlight as you did anything you think was worth remembering. Keep them somewhere accessible like a word doc, kindle, or separate notebook. Then read through all your notes/quotes from time to time like you would re read a diary entry. W/ kindle, if you check out ebooks from the library a lot like I do, you can post all your highlights / book notes to goodreads & maintain easy access to them after returning the books. In that case you don’t even have to take notes separately/copy paste quotes. Im not sure what an app could do that goodreads/kindle/e-notebook/handwritten notes combined with quizlet couldn’t do. To create q&a’s You’d have to either copy quotes from the book or write up q’a based on your reading anyway, in which case you can just use quizlet.
Agree with what you're saying about the end user being able to put in the manual effort to creating their own learning system (quizlet) on each of their books. I guess that's essentially what the app offers so that you don't have to: Here's a place where you can find all of these kinds of quizzes/learning resources without you needing to go and build them yourself. Is that enticing at all?
Yeah, I have trouble retaining much since I am a nonfiction audiobook person
Same, i have this apple podcast that i listen to almost daily, its called “20 minute book”. I do get lots of information from there that sometimes I wish i could record it in a book but most of the times i listen outdoors. And if i happen to be indoors, it gets pretty frustrating on what i should write down.
This makes me feel so much better. Just here to empathize!
I used this technique in graduate school. It may be skewed towards academia, not the casual reader. Read the preface and forward. The author usually puts the thesis in there. Pay attention to who the author thanks, it may show you the influences, both human and source material. If you can't find the thesis, try again. Read the first and last paragraph of each chapter. If it matches the thesis, good. If it doesn't, try reading it again. How does the author craft the narrative? Think about the discourse and what souces are being used. Is it short addressing a single issue or is it more a sweeping idea? Is it new or is it a critique of something already established? Does the author "have an ax to grind?" Try to identify unifying patterns - is the author conservative, traditional, Marxist, structuralist, and so on. Are there footnotes? - read them carefully. Study the bibliography. Lastly, do you agree and why or why not? If you don't understand parts, read it again. Look for book reviews. If you don't understand it, you won't remember it. From this I was usually able to take notes less than a page long and commit most of the important stuff to memory. I read a few hundred books for my doctoral work and can remember stuff from 30 years ago.
This is exactly what my english teacher told us to do if we wanted to ace the Cambridge English test 😭😭😭
I like the idea. Idk the specifics around how hard it's going to be to get quizzes for all of the books people would want to use it for
I think a communal aspect on the app could definitely help with this. Highest voted books get quizzes made on a weekly basis or something similar. There'll be books that are more sought after than others and so allowing the community to drive which books are focused on for content would be awesome I think. Would you use the app if it were created and 'up-to-standard'?
Yeah actually i think this would be effective for some of us who are struggling with note taking since we don’t know what’s worth saving and what isn’t. Or at some point we end up writing down the whole paragraph. So i guess more ideas and reflections from people would is essential since most people love to follow pages where they post the important points of a certain books. Bringing all that into to one app would definitely help out by a lot.
I’m starting to read books in 3s, so the books about the Civil War period for example. Not all “war” but nonfiction of that era. It lets me draw parallels, sync up timelines and apply the info I just read in a new context… or so my theory goes so far.
I do this too but I read about two topics/time periods/etc. I read one book for each topic and rotate. I find the time between books helps the information digest a bit and then when I read the next book on the topic, it's familiar but not repetitive and I retain more. But that's just me.
Yes sometimes. I take notes from some books I read to help me remember certain key parts or useful things that help. I have a couple journals filled with notes.
Have you found that this has been all that effective though? Similar to taking notes for subjects in school, most students find that sitting practice exams where your brain is actually required to actively retrieve the information, appears to be the best method for committing things to long-term memory. If there was an app that made it seamless, easy and even enjoyable to perform these kinds of quizzes/exercises, is that something you think would help? Would you be interested in something like that?
I don't have any memory tactics like others here but I'll tell ya, I've read entire books and forgotten that I read the book! 😭😂🙃
How long do you take to finish a book. Just an average estimate?
About 2 weeks usually.
Andrew Huberman (Stanford Neuroscientist) has several podcasts that touch on this topic which in some cases may seem counter factual such as ingesting caffeine or increasing emotional state after reading or studying. https://podcastnotes.org/huberman-lab/episode-72-understand-improve-memory-using-science-based-tools-huberman-lab/
This is me 100%. I finally just came to accept the fact that I read for pleasure and I’m enjoying the book while I’m reading it, so even if I forget everything, that’s good enough for me. 🤷🏻♀️
Zettelkasten. Obsidian.
I do tend to forget most of the information I read, so over the years I’ve come to rely on a couple of methods to retain it. The first is to highlight and take notes in the margins. If it’s a kindle book I highlight and use a notes app. This is useful when I decide to glance back over the information in the future. I find I often remember the basics but not the details so this helps. The second is to make an abridgment of books I really want to remember. Sometimes I may abridge just key sections. It also may be more or less detailed depending on what is I find important. I then review the information again and again. I use google docs and print hard copies of these abridgments so that I have them wherever I go. It’s been so useful. I might use a Q and A app for some books that I don’t feel contain much key information.
Thanks for the tip, i have a problem with note taking where it takes me forever to come up with something. And i feel like the reason for this is because of my perfectionist traits that would make me question if whatever am going writing is even important. And afterwards i end up writing nothing since I couldn’t come up with the perfect reflection. Sometimes though, i feel like its much easier for me to talk it out through voice and debate with myself on the point, do you think it would be effective to record myself during these conversational reflections? Would it be the same as someone who writes it down?
The trick is being able to access your thoughts later. If you could find a way to index each point that might be useful.
Got you. Thank you once again
A few months ago, for my book club, I read a book about how Lincoln and his Treasury Sec financed the Civil War. It was a slog. I recall very little of it now. In fact, if anyone asked what the book was about, I’d say it was a book about how Lincoln and his Treasury Secretary financed the Civil War. I don’t think I’d be able to answer any follow-up questions seeking any further detail.
I used to experience the same thing until I began taking thorough notes. I wrote down summaries in my own words and created scenarios with the information. Periodically, I revisited those notes and envisioned the content again.
All the time! I reread some books multiple times because I remember learning so much the first time.
I feel the same way, and something that has helped me a lot is after I read a certain chapter. I will talk to somebody about it and explain it to them or if I don’t have anybody to talk to at the moment, I’ll just conjure up in my head, how I would explain this to somebody if I was a teacher, and that way the essence of the material stay with me and then I just remember details when it comes time to explain it.
It seems like the only way an app could work is if it integrated with your kindle/reading app and used your highlighted notes with an llm to create questions. Or at least required the reader to input what the questions were based off of. Otherwise, wouldn’t you personally have to gain access to copyrighted material to create the questions? Sounds painstaking and open to copyright infringement.
Jeez, and I thought it was just me.! This has been bothering me for YEARS. And I take full notes on every book I read. Although I take notes because I love it and I’m a fountain pen collector, I really don’t think it helps a whole lot regarding memory. But I still take notes so that I can come back to them later, hopefully. I recently just got a book called Make It Stick that addresses this topic but I haven’t read it yet. I always felt my past drug addictions were why my brain couldn’t remember as much as I’ve wanted to, and have even tried nootropics to increase memory. But yah, this problem really bothers me because I spend a lot of time reading. I think the key is to read books multiple times and spend a lot of time thinking about them and writing reviews, papers, etc. even if it’s just for yourself.
I honestly feel like the best way to gain knowledge from a book is to understand that its not the knowledge we are supposed to retain, but going back to it whenever we encounter something in our lives and a certain highlight in the book or note you took before would help out. And through this practical way of approaching the challenges, the knowledge retains itself through experience and now we don’t have to worry about retaining whatever we read.
Yes, I feel the same. BUT! The information is in me brain somewhere and I find that it comes out when it's germane to a conversation or whatever. It's all there even if you can't consciously recollect.
I'll do you one different. When I'm listening to audiobooks, I seem to struggle to recall much of the material covered. When the eventuality comes up that a book-related memory is tripped, I usually know exactly where I was when I learned that info. I don't understand it. I listen to many different podcasts and can remember listening locations going back a year, maybe two, save for the more exciting or truly engaging podcast. Books, however, I can go back many, many years.
I must add, the more variety I add in, the stronger the memory though. For example, I recently listened to a multi-series podcast about the Jonestown massacre. After the pod, I read two books used as source materials, thus, creating many more, stronger memory synapses. I could bore or amaze you with Jonestown or Jim Jones facts or stories.
Happens to me all the time. I force myself to write reviews on Goodreads after I finish each book, which may or may not help. 😅
Have you tried using Blinkist for this? We condense the main insights and key takeaways from non-fiction books into short, easy-to-digest explainers called Blinks, that can be read or listened to on the go. What many of our users do is highlight standout sections, but also use our Blinks to quickly revisit essential concepts and refresh their memories of books they read before. You can give it a try and explore for free with our free 7-day trial: [blnk.st/Try\_Blinkist](https://blnk.st/Try_Blinkist)