Room 4 · Library
The best books on memory
How we choose: well-known authors, writing under their real names; books that have stood the test of time or come from serious research; for each one, what it is good for and what to take with care. We earn nothing from these books.
The story
Moonwalking with Einstein · Joshua Foer · Penguin Press, 2011
Read it for: how memory sports work, told as a story. A journalist trains for a year with memory champions and wins the US Memory Championship in 2006.
The science
Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting · Lisa Genova · Harmony Books, 2021
Read it for: how memory works and why forgetting is normal, from a neuroscientist with a PhD from Harvard who writes for everyone.
Why We Remember · Charan Ranganath · Doubleday, 2024
Read it for: why memory exists to guide the future rather than record the past, from a professor of psychology who runs a memory lab at UC Davis.
The Seven Sins of Memory · Daniel L. Schacter · Houghton Mifflin, 2001
Read it for: the ways memory fails, from absent-mindedness to false memories, and why they are the price of a system that mostly works.
Learning
Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning · Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel · Harvard University Press, 2014
Read it for: how to study, from two cognitive scientists and a writer: retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving.
The techniques
The Memory Book · Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas · 1974
Read it for: the classic of mnemonic systems: links, pegs, names and faces, numbers.
Unlimited Memory · Kevin Horsley · TCK Publishing, 2014
Read it for: a short, practical training plan from a memory competitor and trainer.
How to Develop a Brilliant Memory Week by Week · Dominic O’Brien · 2005
Read it for: a one-year programme from the man who won the World Memory Championships eight times.
Limitless · Jim Kwik · Hay House, 2020
Read it for: motivation and the basics of memory techniques.
Take with care: the speed-reading chapters. Research finds that reading much faster than normal usually costs comprehension (Speed reading).
The history
The Art of Memory · Frances A. Yates · 1966
Read it for: the history of the memory palace from ancient Greece to the Renaissance. A scholarly classic: rewarding, not light.
The Memory Code · Lynne Kelly · Allen & Unwin, 2016
Read it for: how oral cultures stored huge amounts of knowledge in songs, landscapes and objects.
Take with care: the author’s theory that monuments such as Stonehenge were memory places is her own hypothesis, not a settled view among archaeologists.
Our own series
The Upgrade Your Memory books are on their own page, so this list stays independent. The Upgrade Your Memory series