Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Release date: 2011 / 271 pages
Synopsis (from the back cover): On average, people squander forty days annually compensating for things they’ve forgotten. Joshua Foer used to be one of those people. But after a year of memory training, he found himself in the finals of the U.S. Memory Championship. Even more important, Foer found a vital truth we too often forget: In every way that matters, we are the sum of our memories…
First Sentence: There were no other survivors.
Review: I received this work less than a week before my review was due, hours before I was leaving for a weekend out-of-town, and therefore desperately hoped it was an engaging, quick read. It was!! Foer has an engaging voice that encompasses that crucial journalistic quality of making any subject, even those that might initially seem only semi-interesting, fascinating.
However, the subject of memory would indeed interest most people. I would rate my memory as a bit below average and assumed it was a fairly static element of my brain. While I do not lose my keys (thanks to a key ring by the back door) or forget important dates, I quickly forget people’s names after meeting them and wish I had better recall of past memories.
Foer, too, describes his memory as a bit sub-par, but after covering the U.S. Memory Championships as a journalist becomes fascinated and eventually immersed in the world of “mental athletes” — quirky, amusing characters who guide Foer in various ways to his eventual success in the Championship. Beyond the practical aspects of improved memory, Foer realizes, ”To the extent that experience is the sum of our memories and wisdom the sum of experience, having a better memory would mean knowing not only more about the world, but also more about myself” (7).
After reading Moonwalking, I was happy to learn that memory is more of a skill than a finite entity. By using certain techniques — first discovered by the Greeks and not improved upon much since — I, too, can remember anything I deem important or of interest with a bit more attention and a few “tricks.” Our brains retain images so well that creating a “memory palace” can help even the most forgetful. The key is to think of a very familiar setting, then associate an image with each item (name, number, date) and place that image in the setting:
“Attention, of course, is a prerequisite to remembering. Generally when we forget the name of a new acquaintance, it’s becuase we’re too busy thinking of what we’re going to say next, instead of paying attention. Part of the reason techniques like visual imagery and the memory palace work so well is that they enforce a degree of attention and mindfulness that is normally lacking.” (176-7)
The first task Foer is asked to memorize is a grocery list of 15 unrelated items (which included pickled garlic, a dry ice machine, and a skin-toned cat suit). By creating mental images of each (the more outlandish, the better — hence the title of his book) and then placing each item in a room as he mentally walked through his childhood home, Foer is able to recall each item quickly and accurately and is, in a sense, hooked. We then join him on his journey to the U.S Memory Championships as a competitor, which is strange and circuitous and always entertaining.
Throughout his year of preparation, the following insights inform his journey:
“Buzan believes schools go about teaching all wrong. They pour vast amounts of information into students’ heads, but don’t teach them how to retain it. Memorizing has gotten a bad rap as a mindless way of holding onto facts just long enough to pass the next exam. But it’s not memorization that’s evil, he says; it’s the tradition of boring rote learning that he believes has corrupted Western education…’The brain is like a muscle,’ he said, and memorty training is a form of mental workout. Over time, like any form of exercise, it’ll make the brain fitter, quicker, and more nimble….” (11-2)
“I thought of my own self fifteen years ago, and how much I’ve changed in the same period. The me who exists today and the me who existed then, if put side by side, would look more than vaguely similar. But we are a completely different collection of molecules, with different hairlines and waistlines, and, it sometimes seems, little in common besides our names. What binds that me to this me, and allows me to maintain the illusion that there is continuity from moment to moment and year to year, is some relatively stable but gradually evolving thing at the nucleus of my being. Call it a soul, or a self, or an emergent by-product of a neural network, but whatever you want to call it, that element of continuity is entirely dependent on memory.” (86)
“So why bother investing in one’s memory in an age of externalize memories? The best answer I can give is the one that I received unwittingly from EP, whose memory had been so completely lost that he could not place himself in time or space, or relative to other people. That is: How we perceive the world and how we act in it are products of how and what we remember. We’re all just a bundle of habits shaped by our memories.” (269)
I do think this would be a good fit for book clubs since it could spark much discussion about a topic we have all considered at one time or another… Interested in winning a free copy? Drop me a comment below and I will choose a lucky winner by the weekend!
Interested in another point of view? Check out the other reviews on this tour:
Wednesday, February 23rd: Nonsuch Book
Thursday, February 24th: Debbie’s World of Books
Friday, February 25th: Book Club Classics!
Wednesday, March 2nd: Ken Jennings
Thursday, March 3rd: Amy Reads
Friday, March 4th: Eclectic/Eccentric
Monday, March 7th: Man of La Book
Wednesday, March 9th: Sophisticated Dorkiness
Thursday, March 10th: In the Next Room
Tuesday, March 15th: Mnemotechnics.org
Thursday, March 17th: Mind Your Decisions
Thursday, March 31st: Luxury Reading
I’ve never commented here before but I appreciate your blog. It’s one of the few I read on a regular basis and I have found some of my favorite books here. Moonwalking with Einstein looks very interesting. Definite possibility for my book group. Thanks! Kim D in SC
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I do tend to forget things. I thought it was because I was getting older. I’d love to read this book!
Looks like an interesting possibility for my book club, all of whom are on the south side of 50. I think I can guarantee this is one book we’ll all want to read!
I would like to be considered for your free copy of Moonwalking with Einstein, but can’t remember if I have already submitted my name for this book or not. Sounds like something I could use and would share with my friends.
If a book club chose to read this one I think a great way to start the meeting would be to ask everyone to make a list of all the books the club has read together. THAT would certainly test some memories and get the conversation started! LOL
I’m glad you enjoyed this one. Thanks for being a part of the tour.
I thought this book sounded intriguing when I first heard about it, but didn’t want to pick it up. After reading your review, I do!
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