C.J. Mahaney, on forgetting what we read
Read, but not to remember everything. Read because that 1% that you remember has to potential to change your life.
HT: Tim Challies
Some people, like my father, are capable of remembering the details of everything they’ve ever learned (although my dad is more an auditory than a written-word sort of learner). I am not one of those people. I am modestly well-read–but you wouldn’t necessarily know it to talk to me. I have a tendency to forget the gross majority of what I’ve read, leaving me with an actual knowledge base that sometimes feels only slightly higher than that of a elementary student.
This article gave me some hope that maybe I don’t HAVE to remember everything I read, that the thousands of books I’ve read and forgotten still aren’t wasted.
Doug Wilson, on how reading shapes us
Go for total tonnage, and read like someone who will forget most of it. You have my permission to forget most of it, which may or may not be reassuring, but you will forget most of it in either case. Most of what is shaping you in the course of your reading, you will not be able to remember…At the same time, mark everything striking that you read — you won’t remember everything you read, and you won’t even remember everything you mark. Nevertheless, it is not a sin to remember some things, or to mark them in a way to be able to find them again.
Another hope-inspiring message along the same lines as the first. It’s okay to forget. What I’ve read will mark my life, even if it does not enter my consciousness. On the other hand, it is worthwhile to keep a record–to make it easy to find what you’ve read.
Enter my book reviews and notes. A little secret about me. I don’t write book reviews and book notes for your benefit–I write them for mine. I find that I better remember what I’ve read if I write about it–if I engage with the material on paper. So that’s what I do. I share some of those notes with you via bekahcubed–and others I “blog” about but never post publicly. For instance, I’m currently reading Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?: Four Views. I got the book on Interlibrary Loan, so I can’t write in the book, but I want to interact with it as much as possible. At the same time, I don’t feel that the internet is the best forum for discussing those theological issues that have a tendency to cause breaks in fellowship. So I’m writing my notes as normal–I’m just not posting them.
Read some quotes other bloggers have collected with Barbara H’s meme “The Week in Words”.
Those quotes are encouraging, because though I read a great deal, I do forget much of it (same with what I hear as well). I don’t think my brain could hold it all if I remembered everything. But I have been discouraged by just how much I forget. “The Week In Words” has helped me to remember some of them — somehow what we share with others tends to stay with us as well. And writing things out is a good way for me to think through things too.
AWESOME post and quotes and thoughts…
This was encouraging to me, also, because I’ve read a lot over the years. Sometimes it bothers me that I know I’ve read a certain book but can’t remember much about what it said.