Moonwalking with Einstein (Joshua Foer)

Foer, a journalist, while covering the 2005 US Memory Championship, asked many of the contestants how they managed their amazing feats of memory, and they all said the same thing: Anybody can learn to do this, if they practice hard enough. So he decided to find out for himself. During the next year he studied all the mnemonic techniques the memory champions use, coached by Ed Cooke, English memory grandmaster, to prepare to enter the 2006 US Memory Championships. Along the way he researched many different aspects of memory, including the history of memorization techniques (starting from Simonides in his collapsed banquet hall), memory theories and education, savant syndrome, traumatic amnesia, training and expertise, and creativity. He blends all this information into a compelling (and scientifically accurate) view of the mind and how to use it. I was completely caught up in his drive toward the competition, and riveted by the action, cerebral though it might be, of the championship itself. The epilogue is the clearest explanation I have ever seen of the usefulness of mnemonics in the real world. Highly recommended.