The Reading Corner

Welcome to the Universe Of Memory Reading Corner. a curated list of the best books on memory and learning. These are essential books I would recommend to anyone who is interested in improving their learning skills.

These are not just some random books slapped into a crappy list, so I can earn a few bucks. They are essential resources that will be of immense help to anyone who wants to improve the quality of their life thanks to learning. In other words - all killers, no fillers.

 One more thing - most of the links below are (Amazon) affiliate links. If you decide to purchase any of them, I will earn a small commission, which helps me run this website and fuel my obsessions. You should know that I recommend them because I find all these books extremely useful and potentially life-changing.

Learning and memory improvement


One of my all-time favorites. This is an essential guide on how to improve your learning skills. Each chapter is short and sweet which makes it a great book for any beginners and intermediate learners.


The book includes recent research in all areas of everyday memory. Reading it might take you a long time since it's very information-dense. However, if you manage to master its content, you will gain a profound understanding of how memory works.


A must-read for anyone who is convinced that they are not talented enough to learn certain things. The books debunks lots of common misconceptions about geniuses and how they became great. 


The textbook beautifully connects learning, memory, and neuroscience in a very interesting way. The only disadvantage I could point out is that's very information-dense, and needs quite a bit of patience to get through. Regardless, reading Memory In The Real World and this book is a must if you want to master your own memory. 


This is a pretty easy-reading book which is packed with lots of great, but basic ideas about what makes learning effective. Make It Stick is perfect for beginners, but you might want to skip it if you already have some knowledge in this area as it's not very information-dense.


Productivity


"The universe is not indifferent. It is actively hostile."

Probably the shortest book I have ever read about productivity (~ 70 pages). It's also, hands down, the most powerful one. It lays out unambiguously how our internal resistance forces us to give up on our dreams and projects, and how to deal with it.

Biographies


One of my all-time heroes. A man so brilliant that it's hard to believe that he ever existed. He entered Harvard at age 11 and, as an adult, was claimed to have an extremely high IQ and to be conversant in about 25 languages and dialects. Many of his contemporaries, including Norbert Wiener, Daniel Frost Comstock, and William James, supported the assertion that his intelligence was very high. He also postulated the existence of dark matter years before Einstein.


Probably my greatest role model. His skills and intellect seem almost unreal and unachievable.

"Enrico Fermi told physicist Herbert L. Anderson: "You know, Herb, Johnny can do calculations in his head ten times as fast as I can! And I can do them ten times as fast as you can, Herb, so you can see how impressive Johnny is!"


He was generally regarded as the foremost mathematician of his time and said to be "the last representative of the great mathematicians." He was a pioneer of the application of operator theory to quantum mechanics in the development of functional analysis, and a key figure in the development of game theory and the concepts of cellular automata, the universal constructor and the digital computer.


Creativity


A book every creative should read. We all like to glamorize and perpetuate the idea of artistic geniuses who turn anything they touch to gold. I know I do. The problem is that this way of thinking is very detrimental to anything you might want to create. Suddenly, you start thinking that nothing is good or original enough. Austin delivers a perfect cure and a set of strategies for that ailment. Copy one person and you're a thief. Copy hundreds of them and you become original.