skizziks

so i'm reading the book Moonwalking with Einstein about a journalist who gets involved with the World Championship Memory Olympics thingy. the book is about memory, how to improve it, what it means, etc.

fascinating stuff. it describes how we remember, why we can remember some things and not others, and how to improve your memory. it turns out those people who can remember huge poems word for word and lists of random words and numbers aren't savants but regular schmoes who trained and learned how to do it. apparently it takes about a year to learn how, and age has nothing to do with it.

it has a philosophy bent, in that we are our memories, they are what help to define and shape us. it also talks about how modernity and advancements have helped us ruin our memory (i don't need to remember anything, i have a blackberry, google, etc). it talks about how actually easy it is (sort of) to remember things, using "the memory palace," which first came about in ancient greece. seriously amazingly interesting stuff. it mentions how americans are crappy at memory because we tend to think in the future, while europeans are really good because they tend to think in the past. (not that this is a rule, it is just an opinion of a guy, but it makes some sense).

so anyway....

does anyone else think that memory is important, and not just because it helps with shopping or to do lists, but that it plays a significant part in our makeup, in determining who we are? when you memorize a book, you *know* it, you internalize it, it becomes part of you, and it shapes you and affects how you are and act and think.

i never really thought too much about it. now i'm really conscious of it.

anyone else read this book? thoughts or opinions about the book or the importance of memory?