When I pick up a book I've been reading, I open it to approximately where I'd left off and look quickly at the two pages. If I've read them before, I move a little to the right. If I haven't, I move to the left. Within 2 to 4 moves I'm at the place where I've read part of the text, but haven't read the remainder.
Just recently it became clear to me that not all people are able to know whether or not they've read a sentence in a book. I started to wonder if this is a profound difference in the way people's brains work, similar to (a)phantasia.
Can you tell immediately whether or not you've read a page in your current book?
How do you mark your place in a book?
by ShouresSoote
29 Comments
I can usually tell pretty quickly if I’ve read a page before – something about the way the text is laid out just looks familiar even before I read the actual words
For bookmarks I’m team dog-ear all the way, sorry to all the book purists out there lol
…with a bookmark…
>How do you mark your place in a book?
Ebook on big blind ass bitch font, baby 🎀
I’ve accidentally gone back a chapter before multiple times and it usually takes me several pages to realize that it’s something I’ve already read. For me it’s the exact opposite of aphantasia, I think I’ve got hyperphantasia based on all the descriptions of it I’ve read. The problem is I can easily “remember” reading and doing things I’ve never done before because I visualize so easily and fully, it can be a challenge sometimes to place things in reality.
I am aphantastic. I open the book and find my place pretty easily just like you. I don’t know why you think this skill might be related to visualizing
Can I? Yeah sure. Do I choose to? Absolutely not. This is what bookmarks are for.
I also have a habit of only stopping at chapter breaks or pages that are multiples of 5, so quirkiness of that silly habit aside, it kind of acts as an easier to remember mental bookmark than stopping on page 73 or 229.
I mean I usually just use a bookmark or dogear the page. But if I didn’t for whatever reason, I can do what you described. I wasn’t aware this wasn’t something any reader could do.
Sometimes I cant remember depending on when I read last.
respectfully this is an insane question
I use something called a bookmark.
Yes, I assume most readers can. I just use bookmark though
Unless I’ve been away from the book for weeks, I’m fairly sure I could find my place again that way. I use bookmarks, but when one occasionally loses its place, it’s not a big issue.
I use a bookmark, my friend. Zero page hopping required to find where I left off.
Dog ear.
Yes, I don’t have much need for a bookmark. But my wife does. People are different.
Use a bookmark and stop making things more complicated
What a weird question…
Like… I’m pretty sure most people will remember “I’m roughly 1/4th of the way into this book” and be able to estimate where they left off from there. Most people are also able to know whether or not they’ve read something because – believe it or not – people retain information when they read instead of just letting the words wash over them.
Even more wild, even more people, when they read, use a bookmark or a slip of paper or even the receipt from their lunch to mark their place.
I swear nothing drives me more crazy than people who like to read thinking they’re special.
I do exactly what you described. I’m not a big bookmark person because I don’t usually decide to stop reading, it just happens. I’ve also gotten good at skimming without processing the words so I don’t read spoilers
How many ways do people need to feel special doing something as mundane as reading? Lol
Yes, and in audiobooks, too. It usually only takes a couple guesses to hone in on where I last read.
This is only in desperation if somehow my spot was lost though. I don’t have any interest in doing it deliberately.
I’d love to know why you never thought to use a bookmark lol
Anything can be a bookmark too. I just use the receipt I got from the bookstore
My guy, I bought a copy of Dune from the 80’s that still has a bank slip and baseball ticket stuck inside as bookmarks, it is not that hard.
I just use a bookmark. This is a solved problem.
Apparently not.Â
What on earth…??
I used to do that.
And then I started to memorize the page number to improve the initial search.
And then I started to use another book to mark my place.
And then it was a sheet of paper.
And then it was a folded sheet of paper.
And then it was a bookmark.
Now it’s back to using another book.
yes i can and sometimes ill not use a bookmark if im feeling too lazy to grab one lmao
If I don’t have a bookmark I will just remember the page number, remembering one number isn’t that hard.
But, I usually have kruse bookmarks
I use a bookmark or my ereader does it automatically for me
“I can recognise events in a story I’ve very recently read” is not the intellectual flex you seem to think it is.