This is an excellent example of scientific journalism turned narrative - very easy to read, well-researched, and engaging - the journey of a journalist who ends up becoming engaged in his subject, the arcane world of memory competitions. It debunks myths about memory, showing the amazing things that are possible with diligent effort, and encouraging the reader to follow on the journey of improving our memory as a way of improving ourselves. Along the way, Joshua Foer demonstrates that photographic memory is a myth, but that memory is more powerful than we imagine if used with proper techniques such as the ars memorativa that were once at the center of classical education from Roman times to the Middle Ages. Our internal memory has since been supplanted by a world of external memory aids, but can still be improved through discipline.

There is a historical distinction made in regards to our view of memory. For the ancients, memorization was about strengthening character, judgment, citizenship, and piety. Books were not replacements for memory, but memory aids. Reading was done intensively to retain what had been read, not extensively but shallowly like today. We discover that expertise is a direct factor of memory and experience, as Foer debunks the idea that chess masters (or other experts) are more analytical or intelligent than the average person, instead possessing a vast memorial database of long-term experience to draw from. He shows how our memory is strongest in visual and spatial areas, and how memory athletes achieve prodigious feats of memorization by tying their memories to vivid images and locations using mental structures like memory palaces in a practice called elaborative encoding.

We do not remember isolated facts, but things in context, organized through schema that provide meaning. Our internal memories are associational. Often the reason information doesn't stick is that there is nothing to stick it to. As our existing web of information increases, we in turn become better able to embed new information to it. This has given me a serious desire to increase my capability of remembering meaningful things like Scripture, quotations, and deep reading through images, structures, and associational learning. I've already noticed that though it takes more effort to read and remember in the beginning, the information is much more readily retained and accessible. Really, a powerful book that examines the role that memory plays in our lives.