I'm reading Spook Country by William Gibson, and it's feeling so familiar… but it's been 20 years and I'm not sure if I read it back then, or recall a synopsis. I'm enjoying it, and I want to read Zero History, so I'm finishing this, but it's deja vu levels of strange.
This happened to me ages ago with a book by James Lee Burke, which convinced me to stop reading his formulaic sand repetitive stories. Gibson isn't as repetitive or prolific, so this one is on me.
I guess it's a sign of age. I've been reading 50-100 books a year for 40 years, since I was 14 or so. So it was bound to happen. I used to keep a list of books I've read but lost the file in a PC crash. Now I keep one in the cloud.
by misterbadgerexample
11 Comments
Yep. There was at least two occasions when, during my unin days, I had to go into a bookshop and explain that I’d bought it by accident.
Both times if took me until about halfway to realise.
I read The Difference Engine years ago and later looking through Gibson’s bibliography decided to buy a little book called, you guessed it, The Difference Engine. Realised I’d already read it once I started.
I’ve been keeping lists of the books I’ve read on my phone but there’s a list for every year and I can’t be bothered to check them whenever I wanna buy a book.
I thought I’d DNFd Consider Phlebas and when I tried again I realised that I’d read the whole thing already.
Yeah, however it was a self help book. Atomic habits. Probably the only book I’ve read more than once.
Yes. I read a lot and some of the… less memorable books seem to fade into obscurity. There has been a couple books I started reading and wasn’t sure if it was a rip off from another book or if I’d actually read it before when some of the plot would start sounding eerily familiar. Don’t ask me what they were, I don’t remember so I’ll probably accidentally read them the third time.
Yes, I bought a book in the Wheel of Time series after the blurb on the back cover didn’t ring a bell. When I started reading it I got the feeling it all felt a bit familiar after all, and upon checking I found the same book already in my bookcase. That’s when I realized the quality of that story had gone downhill so far it no longer made an impression on my mind and I stopped reading the series from then on.
Maybe the first time you read it you didn’t really absorb it so it almost feels like you didn’t read it consciously.
When I was in school and I was forced to read books, they never really registered for real. I had to re-read some books I was first forced to read to properly enjoy and appreciate those.
For sure. There’s been loads of times where I recognize a title and what I *think* is “oh I meant to read that when it was released”. Then I start reading. A few chapters in I realizing “oh, I already did read this when it was released.”
Sometimes I just keep going and read it a second time.
Yes, I picked up a copy of Ender’s Game and about a quarter of the way through realized I’d read it before when I was a teenager.
I have
1. read a book,
2. traded it back to my favorite used bookstore for credit
3. Completely forgot I read the book
4. Come across the book again at my favorite used bookstore, think how interesting it sounds, and buy it again. Sometimes the same copy I had traded in.
Not that I know of