Not keeping up with too many characters

Submitted by EdenMaryoles t3_yd62ot in books

Right now I'm reading Harry Potter and Oh my god! The amount of people! I can't recall who's who and what's going on sometimes because I don't remember when they were mentioned before. I feel lost. Is this normal or do I need professional help? lol Also what are your views on books with so many characters? Do you think they pluck you out of your immersion when someone's mentioned and you can't recall? Too exasperating?

Thank you all for the awesome solutions. These will definitely improve my reading time. Not my textbooks reading tho I struggle with these, but never imagined my forgetfulness would transcend them to novels. This is when I draw the line. Lol

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XandyDory t1_itq6yka wrote

If you are having trouble with all the characters, make a cheat sheet and list who's who. There is no shame in that.

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Lae_Zel t1_itq754a wrote

Sometimes I just forget who is who and try to remember from contextual clues. It happens much more when reading novels with exotic names, like high fantasy or chinese xianxia.

Which made me develop the habit of taking notes while reading, which lead to me getting so much more out of books.

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gvarshang t1_itq78y1 wrote

If you have trouble with Harry Potter, don’t read Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky! But, yeah, I did occasionally say to myself “Now who is Sirius Black again?” and “Who’s that teacher that teaches potions?” but it’s really not necessary to be on top of it all. I just kind of go along and let the story wash over me. It’s sort of like the approach I take when watching a show on television with characters with thick accents that I’m not familiar with. Even if I miss half of what they’re saying,I still get a sense of what’s going on in the story or will when the next thing happens and I kind of just go along for the ride. Unless you are going to be tested on what you read, I recommend my approach.

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cocaine_kitteh t1_itq7jzo wrote

I've made a habit of underlining the first mention of a character, so that I can go back and remember who that was.

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Muh2021account t1_itq86fu wrote

Replying to XandyDory (#219,501)

I do this for audiobooks especially - i'll keep one of those tiny little notebooks in my back pocket, pause the book and jot a note, or look a character up. This even becomes fun with a murder mystery because I'll keep track of motivations and clues.

Every character can have a page (or half) with a note or two if you feel like it. Sometimes just writing their name down helps you remember.

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SunnyNitez t1_itqeig4 wrote

Try reading Jonathan Strange & Mr.Norrell by Susanna Clarke, that novel has a crazy amount of characters in it!.

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Radiant_Order_4489 t1_itrk5sr wrote

I didn't have this problem with HP in particular, because it was one of my OBSESSIONS when i was younger, and when i'm really into a piece of media I just know everything and everyone in it. But i tend to have trouble remembering the names of characters or who is who in books that I'm less interested in and have lots of ppl in them. I think it's normal, dw. Like someone already recommended, you could write a cheat sheet to help you remember

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Liezel_Mentis t1_itt815g wrote

JK repeats herself a lot. You'll get the hang of it.

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Jungle_Official t1_itwf6g5 wrote

Harry Potter wasn't too bad for me, but I left Wuthering Heights not sure who was married to whom.

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Jungle_Official t1_itwgcht wrote

Replying to gvarshang (#219,544)

The Russian writers are especially confusing because many of the main characters have more than one name and they're used interchangeably throughout the story. In Crime and Punishment, you have Rodin Romanovich Raskolnikov, also known as Rodya and Rodka and there's his sister Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikov, also known Dunya and Dunechka. You don't need a cheat sheet so much as a flow chart.

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