I don’t know if it’s a sign of an aging mind, the fact that I’ve read A LOT of books, or because I used to read most books while consuming wine, however, there have been multiple occasions in my life when I will start to read a book, only to realize mid-way through that I’ve read the book before.
I’m terming this phenomenon as “book amnesia.”
There are signs to me at first. The cover looking eerily familiar is usually the first indicator. But that can’t always be a sure-fire way to tell. I’ll then read the synopsis to the book, and it doesn’t jog ANYTHING in my mind. Nothing. Not the character names, the premise, nothing. So, I give it a shot.
And at least 8 times in my life, I’ll be on page 140 when it hits me that I’ve been down this literary path before. What kills me is that, at this point, I still have absolutely no clue how the story ends. Do I keep reading? The experience of uncovering the story would be entirely new to me at this point. I’d be like Lucy from 50 First Dates, happily experiencing a book like it was my first time even though I’ve been down this road before.
This just happened to me recently with The Silent Patient. I had been looking for recommendations on books to read and this book kept popping up as one people really enjoyed. I read the synopsis, and it didn’t trigger anything. I even talked to a couple people about the book, and it still didn’t ring any bells. So, when I was dropping off Goodwill donations the other day and saw the book on top of the pile of discarded things, I grabbed it.
𝑆𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑒: 𝐼𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑛 𝑂𝐾 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑜? 𝐼 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤. 𝐼 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑝𝑖𝑙𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑛𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑛’𝑠 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑. 𝐺𝑜𝑜𝑑𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 ℎ𝑎𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑖𝑡 𝑦𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑙𝑒𝑓𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑑. 𝐼𝑛 𝑚𝑦 𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒 𝐼 𝑠𝑤𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑡 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑠𝑜 𝑙𝑒𝑡’𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑡 𝑎 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔. 👊
Anyways, I started reading the book. It seemed good. I did get the twinge that I’d read this before, but I wasn’t certain and there was no recollection of the ending. I continued to read on. Until a few days later when I was going through my Kindle reader and saw the cover of The Silent Patient there…with a confirmation in the top right-hand corner that I finished it.
WTH……not again. And I still have no idea how it ended. My free time is so limited now that I’m just saying screw it and googling the summary of the story. I’ve heard such good things. But I can’t travel to the place in my mind that knows the ending and it’s annoying the hell out of me.
Maybe I should start keeping a log of all the books I’ve read just to save myself from this in the future? Or limit the wine? Mmmm, book log sounds more appealing 😂