Great books you've read so long ago that you can barely remember them.

[Cainkane1]

I'm 62 and when I was a child I avidly read "David Copperfield, Silas marner, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, several books by Isaak Asimov and many many others. It has been so many years that if I read these works again it would probably be almost like the first time. Anyone else in here have the same experience?

[Pantaz]

Yeah, there was that one... with the guy... in Russia, or Germany... maybe it was England?

But seriously... I have purchased books that I forgot I already own.

[Piscivore]

Yeah, all the time.

[alfaniner]

You read those on purpose? I think most people were probably assigned those and just skimmed and read the Cliff's Notes.

[fuelair]

You read those on purpose? I think most people were probably assigned those and just skimmed and read the Cliff's Notes.I rarely used CN, but I read fast - and unless a book is pointless, I rarely forget it. I still remember reading David and the Phoenix in 4th grade 9ca.'56) (5 or 6 seats back in my row, back to windows). But then, I learned about convection currents in 5th grade (seat by windows, windows to right six back. Also the year I visited the State Museum (with a Mummy +) on field trip, learned what you can do interesting with a D-cell and a stretched out spring from a ball point pen (Branded!!) and clay pigeons (great grenades for playing War!). That year I went heavy on SF reading. Non-Dellian robots.
(Do you know what it's from and how one occurs?)

[RobRoy]

That year I went heavy on SF reading. Non-Dellian robots.
(Do you know what it's from and how one occurs?)

1 - Van Vogt's Mixed Men.
2 - Alter a human with a matter transmitter.

What do I win?

[I Ratant]

You read those on purpose? I think most people were probably assigned those and just skimmed and read the Cliff's Notes.
.
Young whippersnapper!
Why, in my day, Cliff Notes wasn't around, nor even Classic Comics!
We had to... after licking the road in front of house clean so we could walk 5 miles to school in deep snow, uphill BOTH ways.. actually get the books and read them ourselves!

[Monketey Ghost]

I must reread many things. Faulkner's "Old Man" for instance, which is a flood of words very like the raging Mississippi it describes. Reading it is exhaustive and rewarding.

[Soapy Sam]

These days I forget pretty well everything inside three days anyway.
I was actually reading a book this week, got 2/3 through, left it by my bed and completely forgot it till I stubbed my toe on it. I'm ashamed to admit it was "The Last Theorem" by Clarke & Pohl.

[wolfgirl]

The Day of the Triffids. It was the first "adult" book I read when I was a kid, and it's always stayed with me. Now that you've reminded me, I'm going to get it from the library and read it again!

Thanks!

[fuelair]

I'm 62 and when I was a child I avidly read "David Copperfield, Silas marner, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, several books by Isaak Asimov and many many others. It has been so many years that if I read these works again it would probably be almost like the first time. Anyone else in here have the same experience?
Same age - but for me, most books do not change on re-reading though I may get more from them. I have reread and enjoyed books I read when under ten and still could find pleasure in them. Adult level books the same.

[fuelair]

1 - Van Vogt's Mixed Men.
2 - Alter a human with a matter transmitter.

What do I win?
Nothing but a hearty well done!!! Well Done!!!!!:)

[RobRoy]

Nothing but a hearty well done!!! Well Done!!!!!:)

Aww, shucks, twern't nuthin! :D

[Holler Hoojer]

I read Huck Finn 58 years ago this Spring and remember almost all of it. I read some book about a cemetery in the South a couple years back and I can't even remember the title though I think it was a best seller. Quality keeps.

[tyr_13]

I'm 25 and I haven't read Poe or most of my classic Greek since I was eight or ten. I used to be able to tell you all the major gods and their relations, and recite Poe. Can't anymore. Now I have to go find my old Poe books.

[Blackadder]

Yeah, there was that one... with the guy... in Russia, or Germany... maybe it was England?

But seriously... I have purchased books that I forgot I already own.

LOL I know how you feel. I usually give them away as extra christmas gifts on top of the real gift.

[RobRoy]

I'm 25 and I haven't read Poe or most of my classic Greek since I was eight or ten. I used to be able to tell you all the major gods and their relations, and recite Poe. Can't anymore. Now I have to go find my old Poe books.

Take thy beak from out my heart, and take they stoop from off my door!

The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed . . . not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in heaven, and all things in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How then am I mad? Hearken, and observe how how calmly, how healthily, I can tell you the whole story.

I went through a Poe phase in high school. :blush:

[fuelair]

Take thy beak from out my heart, and take they stoop from off my door!

The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed . . . not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in heaven, and all things in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How then am I mad? Hearken, and observe how how calmly, how healthily, I can tell you the whole story.

I went through a Poe phase in high school. :blush:
The best Poe has the Harry Clarke illustrations. He has it cold!! and Dead!!

[hgc]

My Father's Dragon - I read it a gazillion times, but all I can remember is a cool map of an island.

The Brothers Karimazov - I remember Ivan's story about Jesus and the Grand Inquisiter, and also the rotting holy monk, but not much else.

[Ove]

Fanny Hill

Lady Chatterleys lover


Mmmmm must re-read some of the old favourites soon. ;)

[RobRoy]

The best Poe has the Harry Clarke illustrations. He has it cold!! and Dead!!

I'm not familiar with Clarke or his illustrations. My Poe came from a leather-bound copy that my grandmother gave to me . . . I believe she found it in a dollar bin, as grandma was not generally very generous. Still, it paid off in that I found Poe to be enjoyable, enough that I read, and recommend, The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard.

[JohnG]

I often forget the details of the plot pretty quickly, but what stays with me are the feelings I felt while reading the book.

For example, all I remember about Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? are odd bits like the Wilbur Mercer stuff or the fact that Deckard had a wife named Iran. My main memory of the book however was the feeling that I had never read anything quite like it and the fact that I enjoyed the book as much as I did despite the fact that it was so different from Blade Runner (I saw the film before reading the book).

[Miss_Kitt]

Great books I read long ago (and haven't reread since):
Mark Twain "The Prince and the Pauper";
Nathaneal West "The Day of the Locust" -- great book, despite being an AP English assignment;
"Johnny Tremaine" -- I have no recollection of the author's name.
Richard Adams, "Watership Down" -- "The roof is made of bones!"
Jack London, "The Call of the Wild" -- also a collection of London short stories, including the one about the match, which still haunts me

Most books I loved, I remember in detail; and also, if they're good, I tend to reread them every decade or so. I only included books I haven't reread in the list above. So things like my Kipling (now being shared with my daughter), Narnia books, the Crawford of Lymond series, etc. are not included.

I recently rediscovered a beloved book from my preteen years that I had remembered vividly, except for the author's name, and the title--so was unable to find and re-read it!! (A Spell Is Cast, by Eleanor Cameron) We bought it online, I'm about to dive back in. Some of you will know Ms. Cameron from her "Mushroom Planet" kids sci-fi books.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane! -- Miss Kitt

[Elizabeth I]

Fahrenheit 451 - read it in school and haven't touched it since.

Weird, since I fell in love with a few books from school, like Huckleberry Finn and reread them almost annually.

[EvilBiker]

A Tale Of Two Cities - read it as proscribed reading back in the 70's, and have always wanted to read it without being under duress.

It appealed to me then, from both a literal and historical viewpoint, but due to the extreme amount of in-depth analysis we had to place on the narrative, I sort of lost the "feeling" of the book.

I've been avoiding it because I think that I'll be disappointed, knowing a lot more from the era that I do know. What the hell, I'm inspired, I'll go get it tomorrow and REALLY read it.

Funny, that. I've found that schooling really diminished the effect of Shakespeare for me, for the same reasons. It's only been relatively recently (~ 10 years), after seeing all his plays live, that I've begun to see the timeless beauty of the language.

[Roma]

"Blue Willow".
I read it when I was about 10, it was such a sad and lovely story about a Blue Willow plate.

[quarky]

Tom Paine's "The age of reason" made a big impression on me as a kid, as did "Walden", "Letters From Earth"; "Animal Farm" and all the other hippy stuff we were allowed to read, and still get credit.

I should read them again, but I'd rather have the "Classics Illustrated" version, if they exist, because of the cool pictures.

[Verde]

In my early teens I was enthralled by Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. For several decades I was convinced that it was the best Sci-Fi I had ever encountered.

A couple of years ago I bought an Asimov collection, and re-read the series. I was disappointed, it really did not live up to my self-hyped memory.

It certainly is a great piece of writing, but not up on the pedestal I had placed it. I was quite surprised to find that what I thought were cast iron memories of the stories turned out to be inaccurate in many cases.

V.

[TexasJack]

I'm 62 and when I was a child I avidly read "David Copperfield, Silas marner, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, several books by Isaak Asimov and many many others. It has been so many years that if I read these works again it would probably be almost like the first time. Anyone else in here have the same experience?

I have read all those books as well, but I still remember them to a fair degree. The book I would like to read again, one that I haven't read since high school, would be "War and Peace".

[Doug Higley]

'Earth Abides'. I do remember the iconic hammer though. I'll bet it held up pretty well.

[bonavada]

"Empire of the Sun" Impressed me a lot way back when. I remember most of that but it's a shorter story by Ballard that foxes me. It was about a dying, dried up Earth being abandoned by humans. The narrator of the story finds the last fish alive in a dwindling pool of water surrounded by salt flats.

BV