I was looking for a paragraph in Mike Tyson’s autobiography and something come to my mind about reading and memory, I was going to put it in my 30 Quotes blog post but I didn’t. With all the relationship talk on Twitter and in blogs that I read, this quote was still playing on my mind because I fee like people do this without maybe even realising with the opposite sex, even though what people really want is a genuine fulfilling relationship, what do you think?

When I read I have an ‘ability’ to commit what I’m reading to memory, automatically if you will, books, articles etc… I’ve not looked into this to find out what it’s all about or how common this is but it’s something I’ve been able to do for a while. I remember when I was at university and I was revising for my exams, when I was in the exam hall I would sit and think I could visualise what I had read, the paper, the page numbers, I could see it in my ‘minds eye’ or whatever it is called and that is how I would recall information. I don’t know whether it’s a photographic memory because at the same time I cannot recall people’s faces for the life of me, If I had to pick out a person in a line up I think I wouldn’t even be able to.

Don’t get me wrong this doesn’t make me a genius in any sense of the word nor did it get me a first in university and a lot of the time I don’t remember stuff especially when I’m not that interested in a text. Also I think I do it more so with books and papers then on the computer. I read Mike’s book twice recently in a short space of time and I really enjoyed it, I was looking for the paragraph, I knew it was near the back because it’s about him working on himself and having realisations about his actions, there was a photo in the book near the back and I used that as a point of reference and boom under 30 seconds I found the paragraph, I knew I would find it quickly.

I read Malcolm x’s autobiography over 10 years ago, twice and I still can recall the book. It’s my favourite book and changed my life. I can still recall where I was reading it, how I wanted to get it, how I went about it and I can still visualise the text and pages and quote parts of it.

I also recall when I was talking to one of my barristers at court about some papers, I quickly glanced and read it, somehow it stuck in my mind. A little later my barrister started telling me what’s on the paper and I said no you’re wrong read it again on that page this is what it says, I was correct. But for the life of me I cannot recall the trial, court case and a lot of the conversations I had with my lawyers and that whole ordeal went on for 14 months. I think it’s because I was so traumatized by it my mind blocked it out. My husband will talk about it to this day and say this happened, remember when so and so said/did that, I can’t remember any of it.

I love reading and this certainly is useful and always found it cool, hopefully I can use it further to benefit me especially with Islamic Studies. It’s a blessing what we can do with our mind and brain power and we should utilise sources such as reading to increase us in knowledge because knowledge is power and having a good memory is certainly a great blessing from the almighty in this fast paced life we live today.

Does anyone else have this type of trait when reading? Or to do with memory? Leave a comment in the comments sections.