Title: Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Author: Joshua Foer
Genre: Journalism
Trigger Warnings: Alcohol, getting drunk, transphobic phrases
Back Cover:
The blockbuster phenomenon that charts an amazing journey of the mind while revolutionizing our concept of memory.
An instant bestseller that is poised to 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.
Review:
Let’s start off with a clarification: This book is not at all what it’s advertised as. This is not a handbook on how to remember. This is really just a journalistic article about memory competitions that happens to be long enough to be its own book.
Does the book talk about memorization techniques? Yes. But it also devotes equal amount of page time to how memory works, the history of memorization, and Joshua’s friendship with the competitor on the “memory championship circuit” who encouraged him to compete in the United States Memory Championship, as well as some tangents about an inner-city teacher who teaches his high school class to memorize, a prodigy who Joshua doesn’t think is an actual prodigy, and more.
In a sentence, this book is basically the story of Joshua’s journey from knowing nothing about memory to competing in the United States Memory Championship, with a lot of detours in between – so much so that I almost categorized this book as a memoir.
Is it bad? No, not at all. It’s actually pretty interesting as a journalistic work. It has an overarching story (Joshua’s quest to improve his memory and memorize competitively) and a lot of really interesting information about how memory works, how people use memory techinques, and other memory-related topics.
Highlight to read mild spoilers: The funny thing is that all this memory practice Joshua did didn’t really affect his actual working memory for things like where he left his car keys. At the end of the book, he talks about how his working memory hadn’t improved much at all after a year of intense memory training. Sure, he can memorize 52 cards in less than two minutes, but how practical of a skill is that, really?
If you like longform journalistic articles (I do) and go in expecting that out of this book, you’ll probably enjoy it (like I did). The reason this review has such a negative tone is because this book is GROSSLY misadvertised. If you want to actually learn memory techniques like the mind palace, you’ll be disappointed – Moonwalking with Einstein only offers an overview of the techniques. It’s more a story about application than a learning resource. An enjoyable story with interesting tangential information, sure, but still not at all what it’s sold as.
Bluejay Reads 