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Do you memorize author names on all your textbooks?

dullard

dullard

Elite Member
I seem to be in the minority. I can't remember the name of a person I met 5 minutes ago. Thus, I definately can't remember the name of an author of a textbook that I had 7 years ago and barely touched. But for some reason, everyone else around me seems to have all of the authors of every textbook they ever used memorized. It drives me nuts at times.

For example, just today a professor came to me and asked if I had Blanchard Preliminary Edition. How the heck am I to know that? What is the name of the book? What is the subject in the book? Ask me those and I could tell you right off the top of my head if I have it. But no, I have to spend 10 minutes looking at shelves of books, reading every author's name, just to see if I might have a copy. Turns out, yes I did have it (Differential Equations is the name of the book). Since I have only one Differential Equations book in the office at the time, I could have answered his question in 5 seconds instead.

It isn't just one incident though. Everytime I meet someone and discuss our backgrounds I'm asked similar questions. "Who was the author of your book in Psychology 101?" "Who wrote your organic chemistry textbook?" Etc.

So who else out there takes the time to memorize every author of every textbook?
 
Well, for me the textbooks I use are pretty much the bibles of particular areas, so for me the author name is practically synonymous with the subject.
 
only book i know is my thermo book (smith and vanness) and my transport book (geankoplis) Only because my professors constantly refer to the books by their author's name.
 
No... but I usually recall the author's names just out of conditioning. If you had a textbook for a semester or two, I would think the author's name would come naturally.
 
Originally posted by: daniel1113
No... but I usually recall the author's names just out of conditioning. If you had a textbook for a semester or two, I would think the author's name would come naturally.
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😱
 
I think it's because a lot of books on the same subject have similar names. For example, my DiffEq book was titled "Differential Equations" but it was by a different author than the one you mentioned. My profs always refered to books by their authors for the most part.

The only real exception was the Reactor Design book we had. You ask any ChemE student to see their Reactor book, and chances are it'll be Fogler's.
 
the only time i remember teh name is when we use the book written by the prof teaching the class

other then that no
 
I only one I know was the book for my Java programming class, but the professor wrote the book. Other than that, I don't pay attention to the author's name.
 
I was trying to help my brother in law sell his college textbooks... and everytime I put in the details, I had to repeatedly ask who the authors were. He had just told me 5 minutes prior. Why anyone would purposely remember that is beyond me, unless they're just showing off. I have a feeling, since you're a PHD, Dullard... that some people you associate with may be doing it for that reason. 😉
 
Originally posted by: MrBond
I think it's because a lot of books on the same subject have similar names.
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Yes, but you need to at least know the name of the book. For the more obscure books, the author alone won't do it. Sure I recognize Smith and Van Ness and Fogler from my ChemE classes. However, for the classes where there isn't a difinitive ONE author, and where none of the authors are particularly famous, then having just the author's name is useless. For the classes where there is a definitive ONE author, then again you don't need to know the author's name since there really is just one that is used.

 
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