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As I am undergoing the painfully slow process of unpacking my books, its fun to go pick up each one and remember a little bit about it or at least remember whether I enjoyed reading it or not.  Except, there are some books I have no memory of.  I know I read them — because they are in my “I read these books” boxes with other books I remember reading.  But these?  It’s totally blank.  I can’t remember picking them up, I can’t remember a single plot or character even when I glance through the thing, and I can’t remember any emotion I had while reading them.

This makes me feel a little guilty … because some of them are really good.  I think.

• The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills.  He won the Booker Prize for this.  But I’ve got nothing.  Is it bad of me to not remember or is it bad of the book to not be memorable despite its award.
• The Shape of Things to Come by Maud Causey.  I had this confused with another book that I did like about a monk living in someone’s basement. I unpacked this one, glanced through it and realized that, nope, this was not the one I was thinking of.
• The Bird Artist by Howard Norman.  I remember lots of critical praise for this book and I read it soon after it was published. At least I think so.
• The Name of the World by Denis Johnson.  It’s really short.  Is that why I can’t recall anything about it? Is it about drugs or am I thinking of the other Denis Johnson I may or may not have read?
• The Gardens of Kyoto by Kate Walbert.  It has a pretty cover.  Clearly, covers aren’t everything.

So the question is do I put them back into my “unread” pile?  If I can’t remember them, have I really read them?

Related posts:

1. What’cha reading?
2. 5 books people were reading on the Metro yesterday afternoon
3. So many books, so few places to put them