Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

picked up this book during a layover, started reading, and missed my connecting flight. Foer, a budding journalist at the start of the book, is writing about the Memory Championship. As he gets to know some of the competitors, they convince him that anyone can improve their memory. Foer starts training to participate in the next year's competition. Very little of the book is actually about his own training - mentions are made here and there, but it is mostly about the strange, savant people he encounters during his year of training.

Interesting explanation of memory and how to make yours better. And it works.

Mildly interesting - there was a lot about the memory championships and about the standard memory palace methods, enough to try it if you wanted to. However, I found the methods very inappropriate for me - a) for men (put in sexy women to remember better!) and b) for people who can remember faces (use lots of actors/actresses. I can recognize very few "famous" people...). That's purely personal, but when four or five chapters are discussing these methods in detail, it makes the book rather dull. Then he veered off from the pure memory palaces and started discussing _why_ bother to improve memory, and the book became far more interesting - to improve memory, improve perception, which improves your life - no gliding through without paying attention to things. It did end with competition, but more about the people than the methods there. I'm amused that he got as far as he did (which he explicitly mentions) mostly because of others' errors. I found the philosophy more interesting than the how-to, but overall I'm glad I read the book.

Fascinating.

I like the premise, but the author spends very little of the book on his experience with improving his memory. He gets bogged down in the history; almost like he did way more research than was necessary but still wanted to share what he learned. I would have liked to hear more about his year of training, with the history scattered throughout.

This is not really a book to improve your memory (although there are a few tips sprinkled throughout) this is more of a book about other people's memory abilities or disabilities in some cases. The audio listen didn't fully hold my attention. Not sure if it was the subject matter, the writing or the narrator.

A book seemingly about memory that turns out to be about that nature of expertise and deliberate practice in the hands of a focused individual.

An interesting, fascinating, look at memory, and how we use it, construct it, manipulate it, and how it changes, and becomes altered through time. A journalistic journey through the competition of the memory championship (primarily the US championship, though he does discuss -- briefly -- his loss at the world championship). Much of the novel is in the vein of 'journalist finds weird subgroup and joins and undergoes a journey through their realm for a year and emerges victorious' and part of the novel is 'historic/history overview of memory and its relationship with us'.

The memory palace thing is nothing new to me (and nothing new to anyone whose read Cicero or the Hannibal [Hannibal the Cannibal, not the general] series). It's basically a construct we create in our mind so we can store more information than typically available. You can assign digits (binary codes like they do in the competitions - 10101111010010101, etc.) names/places, faces, decks of cards, etc. -- you just create an image per number/card/face/location/event/etc. and then assign it a place in your memory palace. Ex. King of Clubs could be Einstein, and you place him in the kitchen of the house you grew up in. To further quicken it, you can create combo's. So King of Clubs followed by Queen of Spades, you could create the mental image of Einstein (King of Clubs) dancing with Hillary Clinton (Queen of Spades) in the kitchen of your house, and then the next two cards would be placed in the next spot of your house as if you were walking through it.

An interesting look at memory. The book was a bit dry in places, but overall Joshua Foer is a good writer with a wry and witty side to him, self-deprecating in a few ways, that makes it a fun read, even if dry in spots. Definitely worth checking out.

Mildly interesting.

Fascinating stuff about the history of memory and its relationship to the written word. The case studies alone make it worth reading.

It won't teach you how to remember, but the bibliography has a nice list of books to choose from.

Fascinating, and (I can't resist...) memorable. Begun out of curiosity and engaging enough to make me want to look into some things, I am honest enough with myself to know that I will never choose to commit the time and effort that Foer did. Less a book about remembering and more a narrative of a fringe competitive world and a journalistic look at memory phenomena, it still is an interesting read. I did pause in the reading to teach myself how to calculate days of the week for given dates (I was always fascinated with those who I knew could do it - one is autistic). It only took about an hour and then practice to reinforce the calcs, but now that I know a method, I just have to keep practicing to retain the skill. That will be my commitment. But back to Foer...his achievement, however obscure, is still an achievement and the book invites the interested to read further.

I won a copy from @thebookmaven on Twitter (who if you don't follow, you should!) during a Twitter chat with the Mr. Foer. Thanks again Penguin and @thebookmaven.I don't normally read very fast, but I polished this off in a day. Foer has written an easy to read, engaging and fun story.As has been written in other reviews, the book is part investigative journalism, part memoir -- and I would add part memory techniques, part history of memory, part science of memory, part short vignettes on people with extraordinary memories or medical memory problems.If anything negative can be said, it's that the book tries to do too much in too small a package. I would replace "too much" with "a lot." I probably wouldn't have missed any of the subjects had Foer decided to abandon one, but I enjoyed everything included. Even when he was only skimming the surface topic, everything included made the book stronger.I have often claimed to have a horrible horrible memory, especially for someone my (relatively) young age. Although, the kind of memory exercises and techniques introduced in this book have a very limited use, they are exciting and effective for what they purport to do. Five days later, I can still remember the list of random items introduced in one chapter of the book.That said, the title is misleading. This book will not teach you how to "remember everything." It is not a guide. It is first about Foer's transition from covering memory competitions to training and participating in them, and second about his quest and research to better understand memory. If you are interested in the subject of memory, about reading about how Foer -- who claimed he could barely remember his anniversary -- leared to memorize a deck of playing cards in less than 2 minutes; interested in meeting some medical subjects who have baffled scientists; and other topics, then you will enjoy this book.

The book narrates the story of a journalist exploring the various area of memory research and competition, to becoming a competitor, and both parts are really fascinating. The various people that Joshua meets and interviews through the story, including memory champions and competitors, memory self-help gurus, and those who have physical conditions that have drastic effects on the their memories. There are some really interesting perspectives that are drawn out from the different people Joshua speaks with and really question the framework and understanding of the human mind.Equally interesting, is the story of Joshua training for the championships himself. Though not outlined in great detail, being introduced to various memory techniques used by these competitors is very interesting and outlines the power and complexity of the human mind. It is also engaging to be along for the ride as Joshua becomes more of a part of the memory circuit community. A lot of the players are really interesting people and make for a really entertaining story.All in all, this is a great book that introduces the history and ideas behind memory training and the study of memory without reading like a textbook or a self-help book. The narrative is interesting and engaging and really takes the reader on a fun ride.

Fascinating book about the methods used to train for memory championships. The guy covered it for a publication one year and won it the next!

Loved this book. It helped me understand and be kind to my mind, and find ways to really improve my memory in certain areas.

Reminded me a lot of Stephan Fatsis "Word Freaks" as it features a similar group of notable, slightly off-beat characters engaged in the pursuit of mental perfection, even as their interpersonal relationships are often lacking or non-existent.

I especially liked the historical overview of written vs. oral transmission of facts and dates.

The one element of the book that made me a wee bit uncomfortable was his questioning of the legitimacy of Daniel Tammet, author of Born on a Blue Day. I so want to believe he is legitimate.

Pros:
Well written and enjoyable even thought the main character, narrator and author at once kind of bugged me in a way that is hard to express.
I've actually enjoyed the fact that while the book contains many interesting characters with various, often contradictory, views on memory, learning etc. it tries to be objective and there is no subjective opinion of the author to be found. Its simply a collection of many facts, stories and views on a certain matter without providing reader with a opinion that he should accept (as I see often in this kind of literature).
The book mixes well raw information, stories of interesting characters and biographical element and the fact that author underwent a journey into the heart of a matter that he writes about makes it a very compelling read.

Cons:
Quite a lot of material is covered in many other books such, sometimes whole chapters are a condense version of different books, such as Mind of a Mnemonist.
I've personally find it somewhat odd that author focused wholeheartedly on the competitive element and absolutely did not try to apply these methods to his own life, job, learning process etc.
While I liked the objectivity of the book, I also felt like that the author did not delve deep enough to provide some unique insight about the matter, but I guess that it is just not that sort of a book and I respect it.

I was overwhelmed by the length of the book, I thought I'd listen when I got time...until it got unavailable hahahaha

I read this at the same time I was reading "Wolf Hall", the story of Henry VIII's adviser Thomas Cromwell. Relevance: in the novel, Cromwell relied on many of the classical mnemonic systems that Foer describes here. Excellent.

I became interested in reading this book for two reasons. One is that my younger son, a total non-reader, discovered this book and read it cover-to-cover and then recommended it to me. The second reason was that I saw Joshua Foer speak about this book in person at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC. At that time, I was highly amused to learn that the author won the very contest that he was simply researching as a topic of investigative journalism. Foer was also very engaging and entertaining speaker.I liked that Foer explored all the nooks and crannies of the topic of memory...from the history of memory, to the current practice of memory, to teaching memory techniques, to his personal involvement in a prestigious memory contest. What I've learned mostly from this book is that we've only begun to explore the topic of memory and how it works.One aspect of this book that I found especially interesting was Foer's questioning of the innate abilities of savant Daniel Tammet, whose memoir Born on a Blue Day described his synesthesia, a condition in which numbers take on a distinctive shape, color, texture, and emotional "tone". I would never have thought to disbelieve in any way Daniel's abilities, but Foer approached this issue from the perspective of a trained mental athlete plus he discovered a part of Daniel in which that savant needed money so was kind of forced to market himself. For those who enjoy reading nonfiction, this is quite an interesting book with a practical value as well. I've started using some of the memory techniques described in this book, and they really work!

An interesting look at memory in the United States and abroad. Full of useful information, memory tricks and explanations that can help all of us find ways to use our memory more effectively. Quite entertaining!

In a single year, author Joshua Foer went from being an average American with a typical memory recall, to becoming the US Memory Champion, breaking the American record of memorizing a random deck of cards in 1:40. Note that's one MINUTE and 40 seconds. Moonwalking with Einstein recounts his year of memory training interspersed with fascinating tidbits about the science of how the human brain works as well as stories of savants and people with unusual mental skills (the man who never forgot). This audiobook was entertaining from start to end and the finale - the US Memory Championships - was as tense and exciting as any major sports event. Surprisingly entertaining and fun. I even selected this for the Goodreads non-fiction award!

Who knew? Isn't brain science interesting? Foer was so funny when he started really worrying about how geeky the pursuit of hyper-memory was (while he was living in his parent's basement). Now why in the world don't they teach this in school? It would make the whole educational experience much, much less dreary.

Not a book I'd normally read but I found it interesting. The author chronicles his year or so first reporting on the US Memory championship, then preparing and participating in the event. Easy-to-read style but a little heavy on details.

Some portions were a little bit on the boring side, but overall an interesting read that gets you thinking on what you can improve on yourself with lots of practice.

Some portions were a little bit on the boring side, but overall an interesting read that gets you thinking on what you can improve on yourself with lots of practice.

I really liked this book. I read about half, then had a break for a couple of months before finishing it in about 3 days. Very interesting reading!

The most interesting thing about the memory feats the author describes with an insider's view is that not too long ago, these kinds of memory feats were much less unusual among the educated classes. It is nice to think that with a bit of self-application anyone could train themselves to learn the trick of memorizing long digit strings and poetry. I think this story might make an entertaining film, given the characters described.

Foer decided to write about the US Memory Championships. Who would have thought that those memory whizzes really aren't any smarter than the rest of us. They just have a lot of tricks to help them memorize. I'll never need to memorize the order of cards in a deck, but I will always remember the "to do" list he put in his memory house, and if nothing else, I'll have a vivid memory of that swimming pool filled with cottage cheese. Yes, at times the techniques were far beyond me, but I think I can remember what I need to get at the store now.

I wanted to like this more than I did.
I was hoping for more of a how-to and less of an invitation into the exceedingly weird world of memory champions. More organic and useful, less of freakish stunt-memory feats.

This book was very interesting and filled with many facts about the human brain and memory. I personally found it to be a really slow read, but I'm glad I finished it. It was just alright.