The persistence of memory…
No, I’m not channeling Salvador Dali. I’m referring to what I remember about a book I’ve read. I’m familiar with my own, of course, but it’s interesting how I remember others. Or don’t.
Have you ever started reading a book only to remember you’ve already read it? Sometimes I get fifty pages or more into a book when some part of it stimulates that realization. Other times it hits me in just a few pages. When that book is a used one I just happened to buy off a bargain cart, I don’t feel so bad compared to a hardbound someone paid good money for (not me these days—I’m way past $100 textbooks and even ebooks more than $5).
This persistence of memory is tricky. I remember books I disliked as well as ones I liked, maybe even more so. I remember negatives just as well as positives (Harry Potter was entertaining but Rowling is verbose; The Martian was clever but the details about potato farming dull and boring; and so forth). I remember antagonists as well as protagonists (Voldemort in Harry Potter; the mission manager in The Martian). I remember venues and situations (Harry Potter underwater; an impossible windstorm on Mars). And, of course, I remember clever plots and terrible ones.
There are as many tastes in reading as there are readers. Besides giving me hope for my own books (someone out there might like them!), these varied tastes probably mean what you remember about a book is varied too. And the smallest thing can spark your memory when you’re rereading a book.
I’m assuming we get past the title. So many titles are similar that I often do. What about you? (Maybe that’s why I spend a lot of time worrying about a title for one of my books.) But beyond the title, many different things can jog our memories.
Why things aren’t clearer can be traced to the number of books I read. That even explains why I might also ask, “Did that happen in X by Baldacci or Y by Child?” I don’t read them anymore (they’re not so good that I’m willing to pay more than $5 for their ebooks), but you get my point: similar plots and characters can confuse our memories. (John Puller is just another Jack Reacher, after all.) That doesn’t mean the books aren’t any good. It just means I can’t associate specific ones with specific authors. But I will eventually know if I’ve read it before!
I don’t know what your ratio is, but I’m lucky if I find one book in one hundred that’s truly memorable. The other ninety-nine might be good or just average, and all enjoyable at some level (I chose to read them, after all), but they’re not memorable. Funny thing is, being memorable doesn’t seem to correlate well with when I recognize I’ve read them after I start reading them.
There are so many good books by so many good authors, I would rather not reread any of them. I prefer to read something fresh and new because I only have so much time for reading.
And so I arrive at one advantage for purchasing on Amazon over purchasing at a bookstore. If I take a book off the shelf in a bookstore and saunter over to the counter with credit card in hand, Ms. or Mr. So-and-So behind the counter isn’t going to tell me I already purchased that book, especially if s/he’s a pimply college student who doesn’t care what I buy, if anything (that’s more a B&N book barn trait than a mom&pop one, of course). Amazon will tell me, and has done so on numerous occasions, bless their black little commercial souls. Still, Amazon can’t tell I’ve already read the book if I bought it elsewhere. They, other online retailers, Facebook, Goodreads, and Google don’t know everything about us…yet.
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Rogue Planet. Hidden away from near-Earth planets in remote spiral arms of the Galaxy are Human worlds that have lost contact with more progressive worlds and reverted to strange and primitive customs and traditions, their leaders using religion, superstition, and imported technologies to rule in tyranny. Survey ships explored and catalogued these planets as suitable for future colonization centuries earlier, but groups with a special interest in ensuring a homogeneous and often despotic society didn’t bother applying for permission to colonize.
Following the ITUIP (Interstellar Trade Union of Independent Planets) Protocol, ships are restricted to observe and maintain a hands-off policy for these rogue planets, even when there is great temptation to intervene. Eden, where a theocracy rules with an iron fist, is such a planet. A group of rebels struggles to end the oppressive regime to forge a new future.
Available in all ebook formats and print. Read for free by writing an honest review (query through my contact page).
