Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dedication ONE - THE SMARTEST MAN IS HARD TO FIND TWO - THE MAN WHO REMEMBERED TOO MUCH THREE - THE EXPERT EXPERT FOUR - THE MOST FORGETFUL MAN IN THE WORLD FIVE - THE MEMORY PALACE SIX - HOW TO MEMORIZE A POEM SEVEN - THE END OF REMEMBERING EIGHT - THE OK PLATEAU NINE - THE TALENTED TENTH TEN - THE LITTLE RAIN MAN IN ALL OF US ELEVEN - THE U.S. MEMORY CHAMPIONSHIP EPILOGUE Acknowledgements NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX THE PENGUIN PRESS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. ● Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) ● Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England ● Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) ● Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) ● Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India ● Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) ● Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England First published in 2011 by The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright © Joshua Foer, 2011 All rights reserved LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Foer, Joshua. Moonwalking with Einstein : the art and science of remembering everything / Joshua Foer. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. eISBN : 978-1-101-47597-3 1. Mnemonics. 2. Memory. I. Title. BF385.F64 2011 153.1’4—dc22 2010030265 Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. http://us.penguingroup.com