Title: Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Author: Joshua Foer
Genre: Popular Science
Pages (words): 320 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: On assignment, the journalist Foer is sent to the U.S. National Memory Championships, and is so intrigued by the competition that he spends a full year preparing to compete in the event the following year. This book chronicles all that he learned about memory and memorizing along the way.
Thoughts: This was a thoroughly enjoyable book. I've always been fascinated by memory and learning, so this book was right up my alley in that regard. There were several things that I learned about the mind that were completely new to me, and I really liked the section about how in many ways our memory is what our conscious selves are. I only have two complaints with the book. First, I was hoping to come away with more practical advice about how to naturally remember stuff, but unfortunately something like that doesn't exist. That's not really a fault of the book, it's just the way things are. Still it served a great reminder of the memory tricks I've learned in the past that I don't use anymore. My second complaint is that Foer tends to ramble quite a bit. That's good because the book covers a lot of ground, but it wasn't always in the most coherent way, I felt. Overall, I'm really glad that I read it, but it wasn't the best book of the year.
Disclaimer: There are a few swear words, but that's it.
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