How To Better Remember What You Read
An in-depth guide to better reading habits
Reading is a magical thing. It connects us with people of the past, the current times of today, and the beautiful potentials of the future.
It is an ancient practice just as much as it is a contemporary pasttime. However, there’s a concern I’ve developed recently that is certainly shared amongst the readers of the world.
How do we remember what we read? How do we keep things in mind that we come across in our books in a way that we can act on and recollect when we need?
“I can feel infinitely alive curled up on the sofa reading a book.” ― Benedict Cumberbatch
Whether reading fiction or non-fiction, no one wants to read an entire book and not be able to remember the crucial parts from it. We want our reading to be meaningful time that will impact our life for at least days, if not weeks and years to come.
1 – Use pictures and visuals
Whether this be in your notes, or on the walls of your home, pictures and visuals can be infinitely helpful in remembering what you read.
“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” ― Mortimer J. Adler
When I’m at school, there’s a wall above my desk that is colorfully adorned with quotes, sayings, and lessons learned from some of my favorite books. Sticky notes litter my wall, just as colorful drawings and notes litter my book notes and journals.
However you can get visuals and demonstrations of lessons learned in front of your eyes, often, the more you’ll remember what you read.
Do drawings, make pictures, or doodle about what you’re learning. There’s a reason so many YouTube channels have had considerable success visualizing things described in popular books.
2 – Link ideas from different books together
One of the best suggestions I ever heard for reading non-fiction was in a Tai Lopez video when I was in high school. He talked about how reading books at the same time, (his recommendations is 5) can have an amazing influence on your ability to gain wisdom from books.
“What I love most about reading: It gives you the ability to reach higher ground. And keep climbing.” ― Oprah
If you’re reading similar things, you’ll be able to pull knowledge and link ideas from those different books. I’ve found this happening quite a bit with reading for school.
This semester I was reviewing curriculum for high school relationship education, while also reading John Gottman’s The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work.
Both documents were discussing the idea of harsh starts in conflict conversations, and I was able to develop a more robust concept of conflict and harsh starts because I was getting insight from two different sources.
I can see how similar imaginative couplings of ideas can happen when reading two works of fiction. Your idea of what’s possible, of what your mind can come up with, is greatly expanded when you’re consuming more than one kind of story either together or in rapid succession.
By taking notes from your books in the same notebook or online document, you can better trace these lessons and similarities between what you’re reading.
Or, you can just make an effort to think about how your books are similar and crossing paths in your brain in a beneficial way.
3 – Set up a review timetable
The best way to remember what you read is to read it at multiple points during different time periods of your life. There are many books I’ve read that mean infinitely more to me now that I’ve read certain sections during certain times in my life.
It just hits different in different contexts.
“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald
This doesn’t have to be the most organized calendar of when to review certain books, but that couldn’t hurt if you could keep it up.
For me, I keep a list of non-fiction books I want to read every year on repeat, as well as fiction books that I want to return to again and again. Just having an idea of the ones I enjoyed so much I want to come back to them can be helpful.
I keep a gallery of notes from books in a section of my Notion. Going forward I’m planning on reviewing them much more often, both when I need answers to questions, am in a funk, or want to remember a pleasant story I read.
Reading is a magical and powerful thing.
If you’re are reader, why not aim to make the most of that time?
I hope that these suggestions have been helpful to you, and that you’re able to move forward with a little more recollection of what you read throughout your days. Happy reading!
