Way back in March and April of this year, I was in San Antonio for six or seven weeks working on a project.  I did not have a computer to work with in the evening and spent a small fortune at Half Price books, getting hooked on Bernard Cornwell, Simon Scarrow and Steven Pressfield.  I've kept up this little diversion, emptying my local library at the rate of one book per week.

However, something odd is happening to my short term memory.  My boss gave me a password on a Post-It note for one of our server accounts several days ago.  It was eight rather random letters, numbers and symbols.  He meant for me to take the note with me, but I told him I didn't need it.  I simply remembered the password.  (I still remember it quite clearly.)  This is somewhat unusual for me, as my short term memory is "soft".  The last two people I have met, I clearly remembered their names, business phone numbers and email addresses without any assistance from their business cards.  Last night, I had to order a part for my Bar B Que grill.  I walked outside, read a 13 digit model number once, walked back inside and entered the model number correctly on the web page.

This isn't bragging.  It's just wierd (at least for me).  Could all of my reading have some effect on awakening my short term memory?  I have no idea.  Anyone else have similar experiences?  Why would reading a book be any different than working on source code and reading MSDN articles?