Rupp, Rebecca: Committed to memory: How we remember and why we forget. London: Aurum Press, 1998.
Content: a broad-brush account.
Author’s qualifications: PhD in cell biology. Science writer.
Readability: A chatty sort of book. Easy to read. Very short chapters; reads more like a collection of columns/essays. A good book for the bedside table perhaps.
Accuracy: Soundly researched, although many references aren’t listed in the bibliography. The research quoted is well-known stuff, solid.
Currency: The book is recent (1998). The research quoted isn’t particularly cutting-edge.
Comprehensiveness: The book attempts to cover a lot of ground. There’s no attempt to give an integrated account that would help you build a framework for understanding; sort of a, 'now this is interesting', and 'this is interesting', and 'this is …', rather than a 'this is how it all fits together'. Gives you a feel rather than an integrated account. There is reasonable coverage of the different aspects of memory.
Amount of background knowledge assumed: A reasonable degree of education and literacy is required. A knowledge of psychology in general or memory in particular is not needed.
Usefulness: Very little directly applicable to the goal of improving your memory, but not bad for adding to your general understanding of memory and developing an interest. Good for picking up interesting extraneous detail to augment a previously established framework. Not good for establishing an integrated understanding of memory. Possibly too much detail for some people.
Memorability: The lack of connection detracts from its memorability — there is no attempt to make the information memorable by organizing it suitably, making connections, etc. However, the interesting details help memorability. If the reader had a framework for understanding how memory works, and made the effort to draw connections between their existing knowledge and these interesting details, their understanding of memory would be richer and more accessible.
Interest: Reasonably interesting.
Balance: Reasonably fair, balanced account – i.e., an accurate rendering of scientific thought, not biased toward a particular viewpoint.
Availability: Amazon records it as available "within 4-6 weeks", at a cost of US$23. Many libraries will have it.
Length: around 330 pages
Includes an index and bibliography.
Overall rating (reflects my own opinion of the book’s worth, not its usefulness to you): ***
Now available as a downloadable ebook!
