Do you often have a little lapse of memory? Maybe some things are harder to remember now than they used to be, you struggle to recall that guy from the coffee shop’s name, or you can’t remember why you walked into that room to begin with (don’t worry – we’ve all been there!).
In fact, these simple lapses in memory are pretty normal even though our brains are pretty wonderful things! Honestly, our brains aren’t meant to remember everything we hear, every date we set or every moment we experience.
In Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting, Lisa Genova helps us to realize that forgetting is part of being human. She combines her expertise as a neuroscience with her gift as a storyteller to explain the nuances of human memory.
This wonderful read will teach you how memories are made and how we retrieve them. You’ll also learn whether forgotten memories are temporarily inaccessible or erased forever and why some memories are built to exist so shortly (like a passcode) while others can last for decades.
Her book will also teach you the normal things we all forget (like why we walked into that room, darn it!) and the type of forgetting that’s due to dementia and Alzheimer’s.
As her publisher says about the book, it’ll help you understand the language of memory and how it functions:
“Once you understand the language of memory and how it functions, its incredible strengths and maddening weaknesses, its natural vulnerabilities and potential superpowers, you can both vastly improve your ability to remember and feel less rattled when you inevitably forget. You can set educated expectations for your memory, and in doing so, create a better relationship with it. You don’t have to fear it anymore. And that can be life-changing.”
We think this is well worth a read, especially if you keep “losing” your glasses on the top of your head. 😉
