• Moonwalking with Einstein

  • The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
  • By: Joshua Foer
  • Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
  • Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (5,858 ratings)

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Moonwalking with Einstein

By: Joshua Foer
Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
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Editorial reviews

Your body may be a temple, but your mind, memory experts say, is a palace, or should be, to master remembering. The Memory Palace is one of the notions that Joshua Foer explores in Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, his entertaining and enlightening account of competing in the U.S. Memory Championships.

Narrated by Mike Chamberlain, who genuinely conveys the author’s nerdy and playful persona, Moonwalking began in 2005 when Foer, a 20-something fledging journalist living in his parents’ basement, covered the New York-based championships and met Ed Cooke, a memory Grand Master and delightfully eccentric brainiac. Cooke convinced Foer to become a contender in the contest, becoming his guru and guide over his year of training. In addition, Foer broadened his training by meeting with memory experts and athletes like Cooke’s European colleagues, who, Foer says, make their American counterparts seem like Jamaican bobsledders in the Olympics. While Chamberlain’s curiously random use of accents is a minor distraction, his interpretation of the group’s pub games getting and memorizing women’s phone numbers and stealing kisses against the clock is plenty funny.

Foer focuses first on the construction basics of The Memory Palace, a technique derived from the ancient Greek poet Simonides that takes advantage of the mind’s visual and spatial bent. A physical structure, a childhood home say, is selected from memory and filled, room by room, with the numbers, names, concepts, etc., to be memorized. One has to prepare the items previously, however, by charging them with the most vivid, better yet, erotic and bizarre personal associations possible. Using the PAO (Person Action Object) technique, one can also consolidate and compound the associations, thus producing a moonwalking Einstein, not to mention, Foer writes, the “indecent acts my own grandmother had to commit in the service of my remembering the eight of hearts”. It’s a nutty business inside and out, which Chamberlain as Foer conveys drily, none more so than when, working at his desk in anti-distraction earmuffs and goggles, he looks up to find his father staring at him.

While the narrative follows the calendar leading up to the competition, relevant digressions include looks at the clinical and other literature about mnemonists, plus visits with living examples. Tony Bouzon, a memory entrepreneur; ‘savants’ like 'Rainman' Kim Peek and 'pi' reciter Daniel Tammet; and memory researchers are interviewed, which raises issues and controversies related to autism, intelligence, and photographic memory. We also grasp more of the reality of those who suffer from remembering too much or too little. Foer additionally spends time exploring cultural questions of memory and memorizing; once considered a sign of nobility, what will be its fate in our infinite, digitally preserved age?

The idea of actually “moonwalking with Einstein” encapsulates wonder and delight at the boundaries of knowledge; so does Foer’s memorable book. Elly Schull Meeks

Publisher's summary

The blockbuster phenomenon that charts an amazing journey of the mind while revolutionizing our concept of memory.

An instant best seller 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.

©2011 Joshua Foer (P)2011 Penguin

Critic reviews

“Highly entertaining.” (Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker)

“Funny, curious, erudite, and full of useful details about ancient techniques of training memory.” (The Boston Globe)

"His passionate and deeply engrossing book...is a resounding tribute to the muscularity of the mind.... In the end, Moonwalking with Einstein reminds us that though brain science is a wild frontier and the mechanics of memory little understood, our minds are capable of epic achievements." (The Washington Post)

What listeners say about Moonwalking with Einstein

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Fascinating! A great listen.

I'm one of those people who forgets what he had for breakfast, so I thought this book might shed some light on how people with exceptional memories manage to remember thousands of numbers in sequence.

Joshua Foer had an average memory, just like the rest of us, until he decided to follow the "Memory Sport" circuit for a couple of years. He was just an observer, but soon became the national memory champion, proving that anyone can learn to improve their memory.

This book isn't a self-help book and it doesn't spent too much time on techniques or tricks to improve your memory. It's more about the journey itself and that makes it more... memorable.

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    1 out of 5 stars

Remember This: Scattered

This book is huge disappointment. When I read the synopsis I thought, "okay, it's about one thing so it must be coherent." Wrong again. About the time he builds interest and gives enough background to grasp where he's going, he's off in another direction. And I mean a confusing direction. Twists and turns are one thing, going in aimless circles another.

The book has a lot of really interesting material and anecdotes---even some memory tips. But it's scattered. I had a very hard time staying interested because he was all over the board.

Oddly, I feel the same way about Jonathan Foer's writing. (They are brothers) I hated Eating Animals because it was all over the bored [sic].

So, take what I say here with a grain of pepper. It could just be me. Friends of my age group also found "Eating Animals" scattered. But younger readers love it. I suspect this book may get a similar reception from a more mature reader who appreciates a bit more continuity. For me, it's maddening to get interested in the journey only to be dumped off into yet another side street.

Chris Reich
TeachU

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Fascinating, informative...where are my glasses?

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It is not a genre that normally attracts me, but after several recommendations from another book group, I gave it a go. I found it simply fascinating! I found the first part of this book, especially, compelling and informative, filled with information and details about how the brain works, stores and retrieves information. Much of the information I have seen alluded to and referred to in headlines or self-help books, but this went further citing the studies and giving just enough background and detailed information so that a non-techie like me can still follow the information without getting overloaded by geek speak. We then follow the author of the book for a year, from his first observation of the American Memory Championships observing what appears to be absolutely astounding feats of memory to his participation in the same competition a year later.

Throughout this process, we learn that the world memory champions don't tend to have any special IQ gifts but have simply trained themselves and learned various memory tricks that work in different areas of memory. For example, memorizing a poem is an entirely different type of memory skill than memorizing a random set of numbers or a random list of items. I must say that I did one of the exercises along with the book as directed and now, about a month later, I can still recall the randomized list of 15 items without much effort which is simply amazing to me. However, I'm still having trouble remembering where I left my phone and my glasses which is where I REALLY need help!

I found the first half of the book absolutely fascinating because it was all about the way the brain works filled with interesting facts about education over the centuries and how the availability of information has changed our learning/educational process. The second half of the book tended to focus more on the author's training for the memory championships. While I found some of this interesting I did not find that part of the book nearly as compelling as the onslaught that delighted me at the beginning of the book.

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not what I expected

Definitely a good book and interesting story, but I was expecting to learn a bit more about techniques to improve everyday useful memory.

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Fast-paced and interesting non-fiction

This was an interesting, well-written and eclectic book that entertained cover to cover. It has broader interest even though it's about a microsociety that most of us will never come across. It's another one of those books like Malcolm Gladwell's where you feel like you learned things, but you didn't realize it because it was interesting.

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Spellbound

I enjoyed this book through and through. I read this in 2 days, while I was in Paris. There were many things I could have lent my attention to in those 2 days, but I found this book to be so captivating I couldn't put it down. I found myself making excuses to listen to it wherever I was. It combines interesting narrative with scientific information and historical context. One of my best reads this year.

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    5 out of 5 stars

Reflection on an experiment

Not a how to book but a wonderful description of the author’s journey into learning. Foer is an excellent writer reporting on a research study involving a memory experiment on himself.

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    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting but . . .

This was a fun and interesting book to read. The author is a journalist and decided to prepare for and participate in the USA memory competition - and won it. This book walks us through his 1 -year journey of what it took to prepare for the competition, and, in the process, we get to see how one memorizes things. I've tried the "memory palace" a long time ago before reading this book and it really does work. But I would say that this book is more about the journey the author took than about teaching you how to have a great memory - although he does tell you about the "tricks" used for memorizing. Overall, I liked it more as fun read than anything else.

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Interesting facts

The presupposition of memory is challenged in the book and it delivers new philosophical questions as to what humans might be. For myself it's more than memory, I appreciate the practical explanation. The most important thing about memory is sharing experiences with others.

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not what i was expecting

it's basically an entertaining story about the author becoming a World Memory Champion, that's it, very little adivice on how to improve one's memory.

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