Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

Joshua Foer's Moonwalking with Einstein is an entertaining review of the workings and limits of human memory, combined with Foer's own participatory account of his successful competition at the U.S. Memory Championship (where he made the finals). The book is great fun but it is also informative, as Foer explores the nature of intelligence, our transition long ago from oral tradition to the written word (which at the time was met with predictable laments from philosophers and others), the unique subculture of "mental athletes" who compete in memory tournaments, and the Freudian mental tricks used to remember large numbers of items (the more vulgar and obscene the activities in the "memory palace," the easier to remember). Recommended.