Top Ten Tuesday: Reasons I Forgot Your Book

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is books I read but don’t remember anything about. I’m changing the topic a little. This post is basically my apology letter to authors. Here are nine reasons why I read your beautiful book . . . and then promptly forgot everything about it.

Reasons I Forgot Your Book

1. I was tired, ill, pissed off, nervous, hungry, or otherwise distracted when I read it. I read every day. Every. Single. Day. I don’t remember the last time I skipped a day. As a result, I’m sometimes not in a brilliant mood while I’m reading. I’ll fully admit that my mood sometimes interferes with my ability to absorb information. This is especially a problem in January, when I'm trying to lose my Christmas blubber. Right now, the only thought in my mind is I'm so freakin' hungry!

2. I read the book in public. How do bookworms read with other humans around? I read The Stepford Wives while stuck in an airport. There were announcements about unattended luggage, and kids trying to outsmart a vending machine, and an old rando who thought I needed to hear his vacation plans. When I got home, I had to reread the book because I remembered nothing.

3. I read the book too fast. This doesn’t happen much anymore, but it happened constantly in college. I can’t read with deadlines. I usually don’t remember anything I skim. If I read something for a test, the info stays in my brain long enough to take the test. Then it’s gone forever. My brain basically purges it as soon as I walk out of the classroom.

4. I read too many books. My brain-meat has limited storage capacity. A lot of that storage space is dedicated to remembering all the possible toppings for nachos. The rest of the space is reserved for books. When your brain is full of non-book-stuff, and you read over 100 books a year, something is going to get forgot.

5. I read the book a long time ago. “A long time ago” means about a week ago. That’s why I have to write a review within a few days of finishing a book. Otherwise, it’s gone.

6. I’ve read too many similar books. This is why I don’t read much fantasy. I can’t keep all those Pirate Queen’s Daughter of the Smoky Bone Throne books straight. There are too many of them! The same thing happened with British classics. I read so much Brit Lit in school that it all blurred into one tedious dinner party scene. Characters in British classics sure like dinner parties. That much socialization would have killed me.

7. The characters are bland. I always forget character names. I even forget names while I’m reading the book. I usually don’t forget personalities, though, unless the character has no personality. If a character is boring, they won’t stick in my brain.

8. The book has no atmosphere. I love atmospheric books. Probably because I often remember the feel of a book more than what actually happened in the book. If a book isn’t atmospheric or doesn’t make me feel anything, then I’ll probably forget it. 

9. The book is a textbook. You know all those science, and math, and history textbooks we had to read in school? Yeah . . . I remember nothing. Please don’t make me do math.

Why do you forget books?