- Go to your Goodreads ‘read’ shelf
- Sort by random
- Test your memory on the top five books
Do you ever go through you ‘read’ shelf on GR and think “when did I read this? I don’t remember this one at all“? No? Well, maybe it’s just me. My memory isn’t exactly the best and most of the time I only remember the way I felt while reading a certain book, but not the details of the plot – and definitely not the character names. Of course, there are plenty of books that I adore and I can tell you exactly what happens in them, but that’s the exception and not the rule.
So I decided to test myself. As of this writing, I have 1508 books on my ‘read’ shelf on Goodreads. I’m going to sort the shelf by ‘random’ and check how much I remember of the first 5 books in the list. Then I’ll check the blurb to see if I got anything right. Let’s go 😀
Shopaholic takes Manhattan (Shopaholic #2) by Sophie Kinsella
My rating: 4/5
When did I read it? GR says 2010, but I definitely read it again after that.
Hey, this one is easy, I’ve read it a bunch of times. Becky (I even know her name :D) moves to New York with her boyfriend whose name I can’t remember right now, but I’m sure it will come to me as soon as I click ‘Publish’. One of my favorite things about those books are the letters Becky gets from the bank and various other people, those are always hilarious.
At the end of the first book, she became a financial adviser on TV. I may be confusing this with one of the other books in the series, but I think she stops working in finance and starts working as a shop assistant or something like that. Hmm, this one actually isn’t easy because I’m not sure at all right now about what happens in this one and what happens in the other parts of the series – there’s the one with the wedding (num 5 maybe), the one with the lost sister (I know that’s the fourth one for sure), no clue what exactly happens in the third or the second one. I give up, let me check the blurb.
After the blurb: right, she goes to NY and her career falls apart. And the guy’s name is Luke (how did I forget him, he was awesome). Anyways, those are ripe for a reread.
The Secret Bedroom (Fear Street #13) by R.L. Stine
My rating: 4/5
When? In 2011.
I have zero clue as to what happens in this book. I used to read a lot of Fear Street when I was younger and most of them wren’t very memorable. There are a few that know and love – the rest are all the same. I can’t even guess what happens here except some has a secret bedroom? Maybe they kill people in it? I don’t know what else it could be, but it’s not ringing any bells at all.
After the blurb: So a girl and her family move to a house on Fear Street, there’s a creepy room where someone was murdered and the girl sometime hears voices and steps inside the room – none of this is familiar to me at all. i can’t believe I rated this 4 stars.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories by Ernest Hemingway
My rating: 3/5
When? In 2015.
It’s a book of short stories. I cannot, for the life of me, tell you a single thing from a single story in this book. But I remember that some stories bored me to death, but others were better, so I guess that’s where 3 stars come from.
After the blurb: Yeah, that didn’t help at all. I’m not a fan of Hemingway, so this isn’t surprising – he has never made an impact on me. I don’t care enough to remember this.
Nevermore (Supernatural, #1) by Keith R.A. DeCandido
My rating: 2/5
When? 2013
Ohhh, this takes me back. I used to be obsessed with Supernatural. I made it all the way to season 10 and then I gave up. But I kinda wanna watch the rest before the show ends.
But this is about the book, and not the show. And the only thing I remember about the book is that I wasn’t impressed. It was like a boring episode of the show. No clue what the plot was, but probably ‘Sam and Dean get a call that there are monsters in a random small town, they go there and save the day’.
After the blurb: It’s not a random small town, it’s New York City. And apparently I wrote a review for this book. Let’s see some excerpts:
“I started watching Supernatural about 2 weeks ago. I haven’t finished it yet, but so far I LOVE it. I was happy when I found out that there’s a series of books based on the show, but after reading ‘Nevermore’, the happiness is gone.“
“There was way too much information on Dean’s music taste. Listing every song he loves is completely useless. And there’s a cop who keeps calling Dean ‘brushy top’. What does that even mean?”
Lmao. I guess this one isn’t worth remembering.
Dear John by Nicholas Sparks
My rating: 2/5
When? 2015
I remember that I watched the movie first, didn’t like it, but still decided to read the book. It was boring (I’m very generous with my ratings, the way I remember this book, it should have been one star). The characters were boring, I thought the girl was too perfect, and I didn’t care at all about the romance. Or anything else, really. I don’t want to remember this book.
I’m not even gonna check the blurb for this one because I don’t care.
(I do wanna reread A Walk to Remember, though. That was my first Nicholas Sparks book and movie and I loved both.)
Well that was fun. And also embarrassing because my memory is even worse than expected. But I’ll do this again 😀
Where Stories Lie 
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