Moonwalking with Einstein
2000
- memory
- memory improvement
- mnemonics
- brain training
- neuroscience
- psychology
- self-improvement
- nonfiction
- memoir
- personal development
The story
The blockbuster phenomenon that charts an amazing journey of the mind while revolutionizing our concept of memory “Highly entertaining.” —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker “Funny, curious, erudite, and full of useful details about ancient techniques of training memory.” —The Boston Globe An instant bestseller that has now become a classic, Moonwalking with Einstein recounts Joshua Foer's yearlong quest to improve his memory under the tutelage of top "mental athletes." He draws on cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of remembering, and venerable tricks of the mentalist's trade to transform our understanding of human memory. From the United States Memory Championship to deep within the author's own mind, this is an electrifying work of journalism that reminds us that, in every way that matters, we are the sum of our memories.
What it’s like
Brisk, curious, and conversational, with the voice of a sharp-eyed journalist who keeps stepping outside himself to laugh at his own struggles. The prose moves like a good magazine feature: short scenes in cramped hotel ballrooms and borrowed apartments, card decks flipping, the clack of a memory competition, and then long, unhurried detours into ancient Greek orators, Renaissance memory palaces, and a sunlit walk through a familiar neighborhood imagined as a route of images. Sensory detail is light but precise, the kind that makes a dim lecture hall or a Manhattan street feel tangible without overdressing it. Its emotional register is warm and wry, with an underlying wonder at what the mind can do and an honest, gently self-deprecating arc as a self-conscious beginner slowly gets better. Pacing is steady and chatty, easy to dip into for a chapter at a time. Nothing in it is violent, frightening, or sexual; the tension is mostly the comic anxiety of public competition and the pleasure of learning. It suits a slow weekend morning, a long train ride, or a curious reader who wants ideas that feel like company. Good for readers who enjoy science made personal, quirky history, and the satisfaction of watching someone work hard at something odd.
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