Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything is a nonfiction book by Joshua Foer

Joshua Foer

Joshua Foer is a freelance journalist living in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, with a primary focus on science. He was the 2006 U.S.A...

, first published in 2011. Moonwalking with Einstein debuted at no. 3 on The New York Times bestseller list and stayed on the list for 8 weeks.

Contents

• The smartest man is hard to find
• The man who remembered too much
• The expert expert
• The most forgetful man in the world
• The memory palace
• How to memorize a poem
• The end of remembering
• The ok plateau
• The talented tenth
• The little rain man in all of us
• The US memory championships

Synopsis

Foer describes his book as participatory journalism. He sets out to investigate the underpinnings behind people with enhanced memory and ends up at the 2005 U.S. Memory Championship to find out people who may pocess extraordinary abilities. He returns the following year as a real contender for the grand title, after immersing himself in the techniques of mnemonics developed by the ancient world that he discovered on his first visit.

Reception

Peter Conrad in The Observer

The Observer

The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

view Foer's account as reality TV in book form, stating: "After performing the tricks required of him, he is ushered off into oblivion; by telling the story all over again five years later, he is hoping to prolong his meagre allocation of fame and persuade the world to remember his name. But I have too much on my mind, and now intend to exercise my prerogative as a thinker by forgetting him." Claire Lambrecht for Salon

Salon.com

Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...

 found the book interesting, she writes: "Foer talks with people from both spectrums of the memory divide -- from Kim Peek, the inspiration for the 1988 movie "Rain Man," to the guy dubbed "The Most Forgetful Man in the World" -- and their conversations offer insight into the relevance of memory in a society increasingly dominated by smart phones, Google and Wikipedia." Alexandra Horowitz for The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

felt initially uncomfortable with Foer's lewd mnemonics, however she goes on to say: "Irregular images aside, Foer’s missteps are few... But Foer is too engaging to put us off. His assemblage of personal mnemonic images is riotous. He makes suspenseful an event animated mostly by the participants’ “dramatic temple massaging.” "