Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-297) and index.

Ch. 1 The Smartest Man is Hard to Find -- Ch. 2 The Man Who Remembered Too Much -- Ch. 3 The Expert Expert -- Ch. 4 The Most Forgetful Man in the World -- Ch. 5 The Memory Palace -- Ch. 6 How to Memorize a Poem -- Ch. 7 The End of Remembering -- Ch. 8 The OK Plateau -- Ch. 9 The Talented Tenth -- Ch. 10 The Little Rain Man in All of Us -- Ch. 11 The US Memory Championships

''On average, people squander forty days annually compensating for things they've forgotten. Joshua Foer used to be one of those people. But after a year of memory training, he found himself in the finals of the U.S. Memory Championship. Even more important, Foer found a vital truth we too often forget: In every way that matters, we are the sum of our memories. Moonwalking with Einstein draws on cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of memory and venerable tricks of the mentalist's trade to transform our understanding of human remembering. Under the tutelage of top ''mental athletes'', Foer learns ancient techniques once employed by Cicero to memorize his speeches and by medieval scholars to memorize entire books. Using methods that have been largely forgotten, he discovers that we can all dramatically improve our memories. Immersing himself obsessively in a quirky subculture of competitive memorizers, Foer learns to apply techniques that call on imagination as much as determination -- showing that memorization can be anything but rote. From the PAO system, which converts numbers into lurid images, to the memory palace, in which memories are stored in the rooms of the imaginary structures, Foer's experience shows that the memory championships are less a test of memory than of perseverance and creativity.'' (Book Sleeve)