Moonwalking with Einstein – Joshua Foer (2011)

With this volume receiving glowing reviews from all across the interwebs, I’m surprised that it took me so darned long to read it (months instead of days).  

A fairly typical stunt journo-type of book (“I tried doing this for a year and look what happened” theme), this was well written and interesting in places. Focused on learning how to remember better, Foer decides to train for the American Memory Championships using a former winner as his coach. In doing so, he covers large swathes of the memory-related topics with a heavy emphasis on the ancient writers such as Cicero and others who wrote treatises on the art of memory and rhetoric. Pretty interesting in parts, but all seemed so complicated to remember simple things. (Perhaps that’s just me. I’m more of  a Written List Person though.)

I finally finished this almost never-ending book. I don’t know why I had such a hard time finishing this one. The topic was interesting, the writing was fine, there were some interesting snippets in there… However, for some reason, it didn’t grab me and I really only finished it because I made myself do that.

Honestly, it’s a good book, but I found it extremely easy to put down and not pick up again.