
Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them? - mapleoin
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/books/review/Collins-t.html
======
melvinram
Key phrase: "reading creates pathways in the brain, strengthening different
mental processes."

I've read a boat load of business books and I don't remember a lot of the
specifics in the books but because the books often reenforced a lot of the
same thoughts from different angles, I've got well formed mental pathways in
my head, which help me in all kinds of situations. Same thing happens if
you're a regular consumer of mixergy videos.

When faced with a decision, instead of thinking "Peter Drucker said to do
this", I think "The right approach is probably... " because that is how my
brain is now "wired" to think. It's kind of like self-brain-washing or
creating marcos for your brain. You are what you read.

~~~
katovatzschyn
Could this be why incorrect facts may be recollected as true after proved
false? Pathway for "false" not "rewritten / erased" but "pre-empted" by
possibly "less robust" "true," to say this colloquially?

~~~
jemfinch
Obviously there are at least four people smarter than me here, because I can't
for the life of me figure out what in the world you're trying to say.

~~~
danparsonson
I think what katovatzschyn is saying is that, if you've already decided
something is true, it's encoded as 'true' in your brain and hence more easily
remembered as such, even if you later discover that it's false.

------
Arun2009
My key take-away from the article was this quote:

“There is a difference,” she said, “between immediate recall of facts and an
ability to recall a gestalt of knowledge. We can’t retrieve the specifics, but
to adapt a phrase of William James’s, there is a wraith of memory. The
information you get from a book is stored in networks. We have an
extraordinary capacity for storage, and much more is there than you realize.
It is in some way working on you even though you aren’t thinking about it.”

IMO, this quote demonstrates a phenomenon I've long suspected to hold with the
books that I read. The essence of a book's or an article's content is captured
by a few key ideas and phrases (e.g., 'gestalt of knowledge', 'wraith of
memory' in this case), but merely knowing these phrases is not enough. You
need to read the entire book to have a sensation of the ideas getting fleshed
out. The article on 'metrosexuals', the pamphlet on "the third estate", and
the book on 'positioning' are other examples I can think of where this
phenomenon plays out.

A rich 3-dimensional idea in the author's mind gets transformed into words.
The words themselves are just information. You then fight with the words to
reconstruct the idea with all its original potency in your mind. It is not
necessary for you to recall every little detail of it unless you are an
academic or specialist in the field.

~~~
kiba
I experienced this on my recent college exam on US history. The students have
to write an 2-3 page essay and risk losing 40 points out of 100 points on the
exams.

I had a little outline, not as complete as other students, but when I started
writing, details just flow out of me. By the end of the exam(1 hour and 15
minutes), I written 4 pages.

Then again, I got a 98 on my world history exam weeks earlier and I barely
study. I taken notes over the professor's lecture though. I think I have a
knack for history.

~~~
anigbrowl
_The students have to write an 2-3 page essay and risk losing 40 points out of
100 points on the exams._

Don't you mean they can gain up to 40 of 100 total available points? I do hope
Academia hasn't adapted 'innocent until proven guilty' to mean 'knowledgeable
until proven ignorant.' If that's how your professor presents it, he's doing
the class a disservice.

------
jseliger
A lot of the comments here about memory, recall, and learning are dealt with
in Daniel T. Willingham's _Why Don't Students Like School_
([http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047059196X?ie=UTF8&tag=...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047059196X?ie=UTF8&tag=thstsst-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=047059196X)),
which describes a lot of things, including how we move from a state of no
knowledge to shallow knowledge to deep knowledge in particular problem
domains. People with no knowledge and who have some introduced tend not to
retain that knowledge well; people who have shallow knowledge tend not to
connect that knowledge to other knowledge; and people who have deep knowledge
can fit new information into existing schemas, webs, or ideas much more
effectively than those who can't.

It's not an easy process, moving from one state to another, and it's also not
a binary one. Willingham's focus is on how teachers can do this more
effectively, but he also describes how people in general can or should.

I'm guessing that we can't remember books because many books give us
relatively shallow knowledge and because most books have too many details for
us to remember the finer points of them. But this probably changes over time:
when I used to read fiction as a teenager or just after I started college, I
mostly remember whether I liked the book or not. Now I'm in grad school for
English and tend to remember the plots, how characters express themselves, the
main conflicts in the novel and what those main conflicts signal, etc. So in
reading _Emma_ again this week, I realized that many of Austen's characters
are actually judging themselves when they judge others, because their views of
what is "right" or "proper" is mostly about preferences (and I actually wrote
a post on the subject: [http://jseliger.com/2010/09/29/jane-austen-emma-and-
what-cha...](http://jseliger.com/2010/09/29/jane-austen-emma-and-what-
characters-are-doing)). Now I'm likely to remember when Emma admits she's
wrong and so forth.

Granted, I've read the novel before, but that happens with other novels too.

Finally, I now often write blog posts about books or take notes on them using
Devonthink Pro as described by Steven Berlin Johnson:
[http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/movabletype/archives/0002...](http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/movabletype/archives/000230.html)
. This dramatically increases retention.

~~~
zzzmarcus
Just to emphasize jseliger's last point, taking notes, specifically, writing
reviews on books has helped me retain what I read more than I could have
possibly imagined.

While I'm reading I try to keep myself in a frame of mind of a book reviewer.
What will I want my audience to know about this book? What do I agree with or
disagree with? What are the highlights? I sometimes take notes while I'm
reading, but more often I just try to maintain that mindset.

When I'm done I write a quick 3 to 7 paragraph review and post it on
GoodReads. Knowing that my review will be public forces me to take an
objective look at my thoughts on the book, are they intelligible, consistent,
relevant?

Writing the review also makes my conversation about the book more interesting
and confident. And the more I talk about a book, the better I retain the
information in it, so it's a double benefit. I've also found that reading the
review a couple years later will quickly bring back more of the book than I
get by just flipping through the pages or wracking my brain to remember what I
read.

Writing a review on a book doesn't take long, maybe 20 minutes per book, it
helps my writing skills and helps me read less passively. It's also pretty
fun.

~~~
astrofinch
And you might also be doing a public service: I suspect that reading book
reviews may be a good way to get a solid 20-30% of the benefit from the book's
factual content in less than a hundredth of the time it takes to read.

------
mentat
I'm a little disappointed with the approach this article takes to it's main
thesis, which is that the "majority" don't remember what they read. He writes
"anecdotal evidence suggests" twice in the only part that justifies his own
experience. Is this really the case? (Not that I'm going to get better than
anecdotal evidence here.) There's a false dichotomy there too where either you
retain everything or nothing.

For me I still remember the plot lines of books I read 20 years ago and why
they were formative to my character. Is that really that unusual? Given these
were mostly fiction and science fiction books, but the conceptual spaces they
opened up for me are so key to who I am now it would be bizarre if I just
"forgot" them. Just to cite one instance, the Dune series of books got me
thinking about the intersection of politics, economics, the expansion of
consciousness, ecology, the point of human existence, and other subjects.
Surely other people here have had those same experiences and remember them?

~~~
jordyhoyt
I have definitely had similar experiences and can remember fiction and non-
fiction I read from when I was in jr high school like I'd just read it
yesterday (24 now). I can recall the plots and what I took away from each.

This article and most of this thread is just bizarre to me.

~~~
Terretta
You're not alone. I'm baffled by the premise of a book's memory gone after a
month.

Even junk fiction, like the 30+ mostly generic Alistair MacLean thrillers I
read in high school 25 years ago, are easily recallable.

I'm also skeptical at so many comments here agreeing with the article. Perhaps
it's a selection bias. I talk books with lots of people and no one has
mentioned this phenomenon.

~~~
archangel_one
I agree, I would never forget a book after only a month. I know that I have an
above-average memory but can't imagine that most people would forget them in
such a short time.

If people did, the literature section of the average pub quiz would be a heck
of a lot harder than they are now :)

------
grammaton
Okay, I'm just going to go ahead and say it then...

“Perjury” , “Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay”, “Taste for Freedom: The
Life of Astolphe de Custine”. Anyone else notice how ponderously "literary"
these books are? Is that how the author's choices run?

Because frankly, they all sound really, really boring. Perhaps it's a case of
the author picking things to read because they think they "should" be reading
them, instead of reading what they actually _want_ or would _enjoy_ reading. I
know, I know, YMMV, but it seems to me like a lot of this is rationalizing the
author's choice of "weighty" material.

I notice all the comments on here by people who are baffled by the idea of
forgetting what one reads cite books that are more mainstream, less
"important" and "literary", and more accessible - and probably enjoyable.

tl;dr the author may be forgetting what he reads because he picks boring
reading material

------
Tangurena
I liken learning to throwing cooked spaghetti against the wall: some sticks,
some slides off. The key to being smarter is to make more stuff stick to the
walls, whether you can do that by making the knowledge more "sticky" or like
what I do, which is to throw even more against the wall.

To twist a phrase from Glengarry Glen Ross: _"ABL - Always Be Learnin'."_

~~~
absconditus
"For the more one reads the fewer are the traces left of what one has read;
the mind is like a tablet that has been written over and over. Hence it is
impossible to reflect; and it is only by reflection that one can assimilate
what one has read if one reads straight ahead without pondering over it later,
what has been read does not take root, but is for the most part lost."

[http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer/arthur/essays/c...](http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer/arthur/essays/chapter3.html)

~~~
csallen
I'm not sure about the tablet analogy, but regardless this is great advice.
It's not enough to just read something. It helps tremendously to be engaged
while reading -- to take notes, and discuss ideas with your friends. Then,
after you've finished, come back in a few days, and again in a few weeks to
reflect on things. The amount of text and information contained in books (and
on blogs, on HN, in emails, etc) is overwhelming, and it's asking too much to
try and remember it without reflection or repetition.

This reminds me of something my Latin teacher, who was an ancient history
buff, used to always claim -- that many Roman citizens could go listen to a
speech for an hour, then recite almost the whole thing from memory. Enviable
to be sure, but remember that the vast majority was illiterate, and even for
those who weren't, chiseling letters into stone tablets was no easy task.

~~~
joshuacc
I could be mistaken, but didn't they use scrolls and wax tablets for most
things?

------
T_S_
Two reasons:

Reading is (or can be) a form of entertainment, so it doesn't matter.

Recall and recognition are two different things. For example, you can learn to
recognize a face and still be terrible at describing it. The same applies to
other forms of learning I'm sure. I guess that is what the fuzzy remarks about
"reading changes you" and "recalling the gestalt" refer to.

------
mattlanger
Memory and recall are not matters of direct lookup; our brains are not key-
value stores. We usually don't request a memory by timestamp, but rather,
memories more often than not make themselves known to us--absent any request
or intervention on our part--after being triggered by other associated sense
perceptions (consider the memories invoked by the smell of leaves on an early
fall day, the sound of a song you haven't heard in a decade).

Anecdotally, at least, I very rarely (if ever) recall the details of a text by
attempting to actively recall some specific fact, date, historical accident,
or the like, but this by no means suggests that I have no memory of something
I've read because it is so often the case that details I'd completely
forgotten about return at the most unexpected times, triggered by the most
unexpected stimuli.

~~~
jimbokun
"Anecdotally, at least, I very rarely (if ever) recall the details of a text
by attempting to actively recall some specific fact, date, historical
accident, or the like, but this by no means suggests that I have no memory of
something I've read because it is so often the case that details I'd
completely forgotten about return at the most unexpected times, triggered by
the most unexpected stimuli."

Ideas from books I've read often jump into my head when it is relevant to the
conversation at hand.

------
carlos
I had the same problem, and sometimes it's embarrassing to say you read a book
but don't remember anything about it. I'm happy I'm not the only one.

I loved the one of the sentences in post "You are all what you read". I would
also add "We read what we want to be".

(now starting to forget the post)

~~~
ascuttlefish
I am the same way. I read to further my knowledge... sometimes. Other (read:
most) times, I read because I enjoy the immersive experience. Taking things
from that and putting them in long-term memory isn't really part of the
agenda. If it is, I take notes. That helps!

------
dean
"I totally believe that you are a different person for having read that book,"
Wolf replied.

"It is in some way working on you even though you aren’t thinking about it."

"It’s there," Wolf said. "You are the sum of it all."

Although I intuitively believe these statements are true, they seem vague and
unconvincing as an explanation for the phenomenon. Wolf is essentially saying:
"It's all in there, trust me." It may not have been the intent of the article
writer to get into the specifics of the neuroscience involved, but I was
hoping for a little more of an explanation than this.

------
richieb
Silly.... If you can't remember what you had for lunch last Monday, why eat?

~~~
araneae
Funnily enough, I feel more this way about food than books. I absolutely
despise spending money on food because you eat it, and then it's gone! At
least books are free via library and I enjoy them more.

------
Maro
Same is true for movies. I don't remember most movies I watch. Eg. there was
this one movie with Morgan Freeman, he worked at a car shop, smoked
cigarettes, and he was diagnosed with cancer, and there was another big name
in the movie, and I don't remember much after that. [After looking it up, it
was Jack Nicholson and the title is 'Bucket List']. There's probably thousands
of movies like this floating around in my head.

~~~
grandalf
Oddly, I don't remember movies if asked to recount the exact plot/scenes, but
I seem to have an uncanny ability to remember that stuff when watching it for
the second time, to the point where I don't enjoy watching movies more than
once.

Some people love watching movies multiple times... I wonder if this has
anything to do with memory.

~~~
icegreentea
It's the difference between recall and recognition. In general, everyone is
better at recognition than recall. The joy in watching movies over and over
again, could be:

There is something in the specifics (fine details that typically splits
through the gaps of someones recall/recognition) that brings great joy. Others
enjoy looking for things they may have missed. Others wait long enough for the
recognition to fade enough in between viewings.

------
confusedcitizen
Why must everything end up being a utilitarian pursuit? I don't think it is
surprising to many that the brain is plastic enough to absorb certain details
subconsciously, but isn't it enough that the book engages us during the time
we read it. Ideally, we would like all books to have a long lasting impression
on us, but that question is on a slightly different note than the question
being posed in the article.

------
ludwigvan
For the brave enough who wants to get better at reading, I can recommend (see
Disclaimer below) Mortimer Adlers' "How to Read a Book" (
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book> ). In the book, he talks
about how to read a book properly (in summary, as suggested in the article,
read TOC first, take notes, become active etc.) and the books one should read
from the Western culture. Britannica sells the compilation with the title
"Great Books of the Western World". (I am not in US, so excuse me if this is
just common knowledge there, and many houses in US are filled with this
collection.)

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, although I liked the book, I have been unable to
apply the methods he suggested, due basically to "leaning".

------
mixonic
Google link to bypass paywall:

[http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&pz=1&cf=all&...](http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=reading+creates+pathways+in+the+brain,+strengthening+different+mental+processes).

------
sp332
I've posted this quote before, but it seems especially relevant:

"Education is what is left after all that has been learnt is forgotten." --
James Bryant Conant

------
midnightmonster
I do remember much of what I read. I also have (what I take to be) an unusual
quirk in that I'm very risk averse in reading--often I would rather reread a
book I know I enjoy (and have gotten insight from) than risk an unknown. At
first I thought that my retention might come from the rereading, but I'm not
sure that's the case, since I have plenty of examples of remembering things
after reading them once. In fact I think the rereading is caused by the
retention: if what you read sticks in your head, a negative experience or a
waste of time is that much more costly.

------
dbrannan
My oldest boy (he is ten) just finished reading his first novel, which for him
was quite an accomplishment. What my wife and I noticed after he finished the
book was his writing skills improved significantly.

------
hanibash
I have a poor memory, and it's difficult for me to describe books to friends
after having read them. But I know for a fact that they shape me. It comes out
in the way I behave and the opinions I hold.

------
scotty79
If the book contains no ideas next month I hardly can remember about what it
was.

If author of the book actually bothered to put some ideas in then I remember
those ideas and usually the book in which I encountered them for many years.
vide Iain M. Banks "Use of weapons", Orson Scott Cars "Ender's Game", Vernor
Vinge "Fire upon the deep" or Henry Kuttner novels, Terry Pratchett "Nation"

If you don't remember the books you've read then change the books you are
reading to some that have actual content not just crafty words.

------
jollojou
This phenomenon of not remembering what I just read is familiar to me from the
moments where I'm about to take an exam after a course. I usually go through
the course material two or three times before taking the exam. Just before
taking my place in the exam room, I test my self: "what were the five key
points in chapter 3". Oh I can't recall them, I'm in trouble!

Fortunately the exams (at least in my university) did not focus on the
student's ability to remember exact sentences or enumerate the "five bullets
on chapter X". Like in real life, most of the exams required me to remember
ideas and their implications, not exact phrases.

To sum, its not essential to be able to recall and speak out some random facts
from a book. Its more important to comprehend what ideas were present in the
book and what consequences those ideas might have on X or Y. Us humans are not
computers but beings capable of creative thought.

------
gwern
> "A certain amount of knowledge you can indeed with average faculties acquire
> so as to retain; nor need you regret the hours you spend on much that is
> forgotten, for the shadow of lost knowledge at least protects you from many
> illusions."

\--William Johnson Cory

------
dinkumthinkum
hm ... I don't have trouble remembering things in books I've read ... but that
reminds me, why do we read the New York Times if it's filled with forgettable,
inane rubbish? :) Seriously though, I rarely remember the jibber jabber I've
read in rags.

~~~
TGJ
I think for most people, reading newspapers and articles in general falls into
the glancing/skimming type of reading. It's not surprising to not remember
something in that case.

------
csomar
Reading is good, but you shouldn't read a lot. You need to control yourself.
Reading is addictive, but not-Reading is addictive too. I have been working
with JavaScript lately and I found that as my code grows in size, I needed
better patterns and methods. I read a book (OOP JavaScript). It was amazing. I
liked it, read it again. I found out two other books and carried on reading.

After a while, I found myself addicted to reading. I always find myself
telling "There should be a better approach, let's sharpen more our skills".
But sharpening doesn't seem to have an end, actually it doesn't.

Bottom of the line, balance between reading and work. But never stop learning.

------
robryan
Another point to add to this, I read many articles online every day and given
the vague task of recalling these articles and what I took away from them I
couldn't. But if I'm discussing a topic or listening to a talk on something
everything relevant I've read feels front of mind again and allows me to draw
new conclusions from what I've read that I wasn't really able to earlier
without them all front on mind.

Really handy when, In a lot of topics relating to the kind of topics
frequently on hacker news I can have long and insightful conversations with
people where I have plenty to contribute myself.

------
dsplittgerber
For non-fiction: Remembering key concepts is a lot easier if you try to apply
what you've learned to other articles, books or even the news you read.

Try to actively remember what you recently read and how it fits with what
you're reading now. Which point does the author make? Does it concur with what
you've read before?

Active recall and the application of recently acquired knowledge to novel
ideas garantuees remembering key concepts for far longer than otherwise. Also,
thinking about key concepts in connection with various topics makes your brain
rewire the information and you'll remember it more easily ever after.

------
8ren
_My reading has achieved unprecedented levels of unverifiable productivity_

I have a terrible memory for arbitrary facts, but great for things I
understand (thus, I seek the reasons behind the facts.)

Then I could then work it out from first principles, so I didn't need to
remember it - a kind of data compression. But it's also true that
understanding things is exciting and engaging for me, and therefore memorable.
And in practice, I don't consciously work things out from first principles
anyway; I just know them. They have become part of me, not as facts, but as
part of the way I think.

------
crystalis
[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/books/review/McInerney-t.h...](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/books/review/McInerney-t.html)
could make an interesting companion.

------
jimbokun
I can't relate. Snippets of books I read years ago often pop into my head at
various times. On the other hand, I'm often stumped to remember where I put
down my notebook five minutes ago.

------
jodrellblank
I asked a similar question on HN, and got some interesting replies, here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=664383>

------
pbw
There is an easy analogy with food or exercise. The experience of eating a
single meal or exercising a single day is forgotten, even while permanent
changes to the body slowly accumulate.

Some people in this thread cite books they vividly remember from childhood. I
suspect this is a result of the huge impact on a younger brain. In contrast a
mature avid reader might have read 1000 books and an additional one is just
not going to re-wire things as much even if the experience of reading it is
richly rewarding.

------
SanjayUttam
As long as you can vaguely remember where you read X thing, you can always go
pull the info back up. That's part of the reason I aggressively use social
bookmarking services (namely, Diigo).

I also find it's helpful to have a high-level understanding of many things,
especially when it relates to technical "stuff". If you have some
understanding on how/when to apply an approach or technology, you can always
dig up the details when it is pertinent.

------
JoeAltmaier
This guy has some defect of memory. I remember plot, character, lines, ideas
from books. Not all of it, but all the good bits.

~~~
kiba
It is probably not a defect of memory but a difference in the way minds work.
What you have done is committed the _typical mind fallacy_.

One example is imagination. Some people can have really vivid imagination,
being able to count the strides on a tiger. Others have no ability to do
imagery at all. Most are probably in-between.

In my case, I can't really impose my imagination over reality as if I am
viewing a movie. Let just say they like viewing at reality and imagination
every other frame.

------
doffm
I was happier when reading books. I understand that there might not be a
causal effect here, but I believe that having something extended to occupy the
mind is beneficial. Blogs, Twitter and online articles don't seem to have the
same effect. Time to start reading again, even if I don't remember any of it.

------
ivanzhao
An analogy would be traveling in the brain jungle, where your conscious mind
might not be able to recall the specific routes, your foot nevertheless leave
marks in the jungle that make later traveling on the same paths easier or
possible.

~~~
ivanzhao
All in all, answers to problems like this become very obvious once we separate
our so-called conscious mind and the inner subconscious zombie that in fact
does most of the mentally/bodily processing.

For example:

1\. Do you know all your vision can "physically" see at any moment is only
about a thumbnail's size at an arm's reach, yet your inner zombie construct a
vivid 3D environment.

2\. What if I lower your house's keyhole by 2"? You would still reach for the
old spot then realize something is wrong. But who's remembering the old
location? Not your conscious self (otherwise every moment you type a key you
have consciously validate). The memory keeper is your inner zombie.

------
Slashed
I'd say it depends on what and how one is reading.

It's not the same case when I read a programming book with examples, in
contrast to novels. I tend to remember the former better because I'll usually
try out most examples from the book.

------
robg
How much effort do you put in to reading Hacker News? If it feels easy, then
you likely aren't doing much to change your brain.

Unless maybe you put in a bit of effort for years on end...there may be hope
for some of us.

------
weel
When I saw the title I thought it was about Bayard's "How to Talk About Books
You Haven't Read." (<http://www.amazon.com/dp/1596914696>)

------
lowdown
the book "How to Read a Book" describes the technique in his conclusion in
excellent detail. It is essentially about _owning_ the information you are
consuming.

Personally I think this applies to non-fiction works only. At least in my
personal reading. My brain doesn't need to store the details of fictional
works. It seems like it actively discards "entertainment" items in favor of
knowledge I need to pay the mortgage and feed the kids. I am much more
deliberate with that information.

------
albertzeyer
I only get this on the link: "For free access to this article and more, you
must be a registered member of NYTimes.com."

------
levesque
Why bother reading this article :)

~~~
Tichy
What article?

------
known
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." --Mark Twain

------
aheilbut
If you read a book a couple more times, you'll remember a lot more.

~~~
robryan
I know someone who does that, reads it so fast the first time that I don't
think they fully take it in then will go back and reread if it's worth it.

Personally I like to go at a pace where I can make all the connections and
take what I want from it the first time, then move onto something else.

~~~
starpilot
This is essentially the approach of "How to Read a Book," recommended above.
Successive re-readings with increasing focus and slower pace build a deeper
impression of the books in mind.

------
rubashov
"Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative
pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls
into lazy habits of thinking." \-- Albert Einstein

~~~
tokenadult
What is the source of that Einstein quotation? (I have already done the
obvious Google search, and I see a lot of claimed Einstein quotations in those
words, but none with citations.) I ask, because although there is a whole book
of Einstein quotations that has gone through several editions,

<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691120749/>

there are many Einstein quotations floating around the Internet that Einstein
never said.

Einstein is on record as describing himself as an avid reader when he was a
teen studying physics:

. . . I worked most of the time in the physical laboratory [at the Polytechnic
Institute of Zürich], fascinated by the direct contact with experience. The
balance of the time I used in the main in order to study at home the works of
Kirchoff, Helmholtz, Hertz, etc. . . . In [physics], however, I soon learned
to scent out that which was able to lead to fundamentals and to turn aside
from everything else, from the multitude of things which clutter up the mind
and divert it from the essential. The hitch in this was, of course, the fact
that one had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations,
whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect [upon
me] that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration
of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year. In justice I
must add, moreover, that in Switzerland we had to suffer far less under such
coercion, which smothers every truly scientific impulse, than is the case in
many another locality. There were altogether only two examinations; aside from
these, one could just about do as one pleased. This was especially the case if
one had a friend, as did I, who attended the lectures regularly and who worked
over their content conscientiously. This gave one freedom in the choice of
pursuits until a few months before the examination, a freedom which I enjoyed
to a great extent and have gladly taken into the bargain the bad conscience
connected with it as by far the lesser evil. It is, in fact, nothing short of
a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely
strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside
from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to
wreck and ruin without fail. It is a very grave mistake to think that the
enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a
sense of duty. To the contrary, I believe it would be possible to rob even a
healthy beast of prey of its voraciousness, if it were possible, with the aid
of a whip, to force the beast to devour continuously, even when not hungry,
especially if the food, handed out under such coercion, were to be selected
accordingly.

"Autobiographical Notes," in Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist, Paul
Schilpp, ed. (1951), pp. 17-19 © 1951 by the Library of Living Philosophers,
Inc.

I know that citation is correct because I grew up with that book on the family
bookshelf (as my late father studied the philosophy of science during his
undergraduate education, just when the book was published). Reading can be
good, Einstein thought, and maybe we should check the source of the quotation
attributed to Einstein that discourages reading, to see exactly in what
context it was said by Einstein, if it was said by him at all.

~~~
hugh3
Well he does say "past a certain age".

On the other hand, Einstein did most of his greatest work by the age of 25,
and all of his great work by the age of 35, so perhaps we should be following
the example of the younger Einstein rather than the advice of the older
Einstein.

------
sabat
Because we get the gist of them; we experience books the way we experience
life. We learn from both, regardless of whether we memorize specifics and
details.

------
klbarry
I don't relate at all - I believe I remember the content of every book I've
ever read, and the main takeaways of it.

~~~
adambyrtek
What about names? I cannot remember the names of main characters from a book I
read last week.

~~~
Tichy
I often can't even remember the names from the previous chapter.

------
c00p3r
Why do exercises if we can't stay in shape?

------
Tichy
Maybe try reading more memorable books? I remember "Lord Of The Rings" :-)

Don't know the books he mentions, but the titles alone sound a bit like "I
really should read this to prove that I am an intellectual".

~~~
klbarry
I did get a bit of that vibe

