BOOK REVIEW: Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

Pages: 320, Kindle Edition

Published: 2011

Cover Rating: 2/5

Do you often wonder about how you can improve your memory even after staging and settling into the adulthood? When was the last time you tried to memorise a phone number? Do you still remember it? If not, Johsua Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein can be a great start to explore a real life experience of someone working on and improving his own memory to become a “mental athlete” and describing baby steps to build what is commonly known as a “memory palace”.

Joshua Foer was a normal journalist before he became obsessed with memory techniques and went into a year-long sabbatical to win United States Memory Championship. During this period of time, he had a lot to learn about how to learn from memory experts such as Ed Cooke and face to face with Tony Buzan and recorded everything (as I believe) in this book.

When I first came across this book I wondered how all this can be practical? On reading Foer’s own experiences as he tries to decipher the culture and history of remembering for a better understanding of “us”, humans. He talks about the genesis of memorizing as it goes back to ancient Greeks during the time of Socrates.

When I asked earlier about memorizing a phone number, I think many of are dependent on electronic gadgets to memorize them for us, thus serving as our “external memory”. Other details regarding the memory competitions are given in-depth.

The writing style is written in first person that covers some interesting topics. I would recommend this book as only to understand the concept and getting started with your obsession but not as a complete practical solution that covers mentalist’s tricks and techniques. It serves the purpose of an introduction.

4 out of 5!

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