Hello everyone, happy Wednesday! As I was browsing blogs yesterday I found a post by Tanja of Where Stories Lie where she did a Bookish Memory Check. It looked like fun so I thought I’d try it. It works as follows:
- Go to your Goodreads ‘read’ shelf
- Sort by random
- Test your memory on the top five books
Tanja says:
Do you ever go through you ‘read’ shelf on GR and think “when did I read this? I don’t remember this one at all“? No? Well, maybe it’s just me. My memory isn’t exactly the best and most of the time I only remember the way I felt while reading a certain book, but not the details of the plot – and definitely not the character names. Of course, there are plenty of books that I adore and I can tell you exactly what happens in them, but that’s the exception and not the rule.
Tanja of Where Stories Lie
My memory is also not the best sometimes and I do wonder how this will translate to books I read a long time ago. I currently have 459 books in my Read shelf on Goodreads so let’s see how it goes!
After reading blurb/my own review: Okay so the irony is that this book is about how memories from childhood are fuzzy and sometimes gone altogether! I didn’t mention the clown, Pennywise up top because it is kind of a given and even in my review I don’t mention it. Pennywise came in many forms in the book while in the movies it was the main form of It so I can see why I didn’t think of the clown first. I even have an It poster in my office! This is not a book that I’d read again just because of how long it took to read. Also, having experienced the story in three different ways I feel like I’m okay.
Second Book Memories: My friend Cass recommended Emma by Francisco Hinojosa to me! She described it as Harry Potter but with a female protagonist and also by a Mexican author, I think? I do remember it was something like a satire where it did mirror a lot of the wizarding world but also made fun of it. I remember I didn’t like it as much as I wanted to like it. But that was 2014! I wonder what I would think now… I don’t actually have that book with me, it is probably in Mexico somewhere? Or did I just borrow it? XD No idea! I also don’t have any photos of it to show…
After reading blurb/my own review: ::dies laughing:: !!!!! Well I did NOT remember that at all! Apparently this book IS set at a magical school but they teach the main character Emma, who is a virgin (of course!) about sexual education, masturbation, pornography, aphrodisiac foods, and such. In my review I say that it has nothing to do with Harry Potter apart from the setting and a couple “interesting” references. My issue was that it wasn’t well written and that the book could have been written without trying to be a parody of Harry Potter. I’m still laughing because how could I NOT remember that?! Well, it has been 7 years wow. XD
Third Book Memories: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt….I did NOT like this book, I remember that much. I think I read it with a book club? Can’t remember which one…. I remember that the first few chapters of the book where really impactful, a lot of interesting things happened there but after that the book just went super slow and had so many unnecessary deviations to the plot. I think I just don’t like that trope of “oh, we miscommunicated that’s why this whole mess happened” when it would have been super easy and obvious to communicate properly…. Granted, some are more successful at using that trope than others.
After reading blurb/my own review: Right! This book won the Pulitzer in 2014…. why? Yes, I remember now that it was unnecessarily long… 774 pages! The book is about Theo and his journey after surviving a very traumatic event that involves a painting of a goldfinch. Throughout the book Theo just makes a lot of bad decisions and the really interesting stories are sort of in the background. Overall, this book was triggering for my anxiety and overall mental health so I can see why I did not enjoy it much.
Fourth Book Memories: The Spark by David Drake. Okay, I got this book in an Owlcrate box! I remember it had all the annotations from the author as well. It was a cool world where traveling from town to town you had to go through these areas of mist or fog and so usually one would do the journey with someone. The plot was…. a young man had to travel to the see the king for…. something… ha! I think I enjoyed the book but it wasn’t that memorable, clearly.
After reading blurb/my own review: Ooookay not an Owlcrate box, a Page Habit box! XD Oooops. And apparently I enjoyed it a lot more than I remembered. Some of it is coming back though! Pal is a farmer who basically wants to become a Champion of the King. So he travels to the castle in order to go through the trials to become one. It’s a very rich and well-built world that didn’t just involve a normal guy becoming a knight magically, he has to actually grow and learn in order to become a Champion. It really was a well written book and an author that I wanted to read more, especially since it’s the type of science fiction I don’t normally read.
Fifth Book Memories: !!!!!! Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton!!! I love this book so much. So I saw the movie when I was very young and I loved it. I remember my grandma telling me to not watch it because I’d get nightmares but I didn’t get nightmares hahaha I became obsessed with dinosaurs because of this book and also my uncle who also loved dinosaurs. Anyways, this book is NOT like the movie, it’s much more cruel and realistic in quite a few ways. I remember that a lot more people die in the book and the characters are a bit different than the movie. Ian Malcolm is one of the best characters ever, both in the book and in the movie(s). (Note to self: This might be a good blog post, re-read the Jurassic Park books, watch the movies, and compare!)
After reading blurb/my own review: So first of all…. I read it in Spanish! Of course, they were my uncle’s copies, that’s why. I definitely need to get my hands on copies for myself now. And I didn’t write a review for this book on Goodreads because I read it a very long time ago! I remember this one pretty well!
So, out of these 5 books that took me down memory lane, I really want to re-read Jurassic Park! I will never re-read It, it was just too long XD Instead I do feel like reading another Stephen King book. The Goldfinch is one I also don’t need to read again, didn’t like it, no need to go there again. The Spark does have some potential and I saw that there is a sequel so I could check that out if I want to read something else by the same author. Emma is one that is more interesting than I remembered but I don’t have any strong feelings about it either way.
What a great exercise! I might do one of these a couple times a year or so since I did have so much fun with this one. Thank you to Tanja for creating this and sharing her experience!
Bites of Books 
I’m glad you had fun with this! I’ve read It and The Goldfinch and It is lot clearer in my memory as well 😀
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Yes! Thanks again for the idea, I was surprised with how fun the process was and how memories can be brought back like that!
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This seems like such a fun prompt! There are so many books that I’ve completely forgotten I read, this would be a fun test!
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It was fun! If you do it I’d love to see!
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