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Moonwalking With Einstein

[the Art and Science of Remembering Everything]
Mar 16, 2012danielestes rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
Who knew that a book on memory would be the most visual experience of my year? Of course any memory expert will tell you that the easiest memories to recall are ones that stand out from the rest. Moonwalking with Einstein is a history of memory and of trying to remember. It's also a partial how-to guide on memorizing unusually long lists of trivial data. One of the most interesting tidbits from the book is how we consider the ability to recall nearly perfectly a good thing and yet those rare individuals whose minds approach a true photographic status are seen as handicapped due to their lessened ability to distinguish the quality of a memory. There's a scene near the end of the book, during the Speed Cards round at the U.S. Memory Championships, where the title of the book comes from. The excitement of this moment is a perfect climax for both the reader and the author's efforts. Given the recent success of a movie like Moneyball (about baseball statistics) I think it's possible that a movie about memory could be a hit as well.