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The Book of Memory: How We Become Who We Are
A brilliant journey through the nature of memory, helping us understand how what is lost—and what is remembered—shapes who we are.
In this revelatory and intimate exploration of the way memory works, Mark Rowalds, author of The Philosopher and the Wolf, reveals how memories aren’t fixed. They soften and consolidate—and are distorted—each time we revisit them, even those memories most deeply engrained. The way we call on memory is closer to a "negotiation with the past."
From episodic memories like "shining islands in dark waters" and forgotten "Rilkean" memories that underpin our personalities and essential style to the memories we might hold that have been authored by others close to us, The Book of Memory draws on philosophical argument, a range of writers and thinkers, the latest neurological research, and psychology experiments to chart how memories are made, lost and remembered, with important consequences for how we understand ourselves.
In this revelatory and intimate exploration of the way memory works, Mark Rowalds, author of The Philosopher and the Wolf, reveals how memories aren’t fixed. They soften and consolidate—and are distorted—each time we revisit them, even those memories most deeply engrained. The way we call on memory is closer to a "negotiation with the past."
From episodic memories like "shining islands in dark waters" and forgotten "Rilkean" memories that underpin our personalities and essential style to the memories we might hold that have been authored by others close to us, The Book of Memory draws on philosophical argument, a range of writers and thinkers, the latest neurological research, and psychology experiments to chart how memories are made, lost and remembered, with important consequences for how we understand ourselves.
- GenresNonfictionPsychology
160 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 7, 2025
54 people want to read
About the author
Mark Rowlands
36 books149 followersMark Rowlands was born in Newport, Wales and began his undergraduate degree at Manchester University in engineering before changing to philosophy. He took his doctorate in philosophy from Oxford University and has held various academic positions in philosophy in universities in Britain, Ireland and the US.
His best known work is the book The Philosopher and the Wolf about a decade of his life he spent living and travelling with a wolf. As The Guardian described it in its review, "it is perhaps best described as the autobiography of an idea, or rather a set of related ideas, about the relationship between human and non-human animals." Reviews were very positive, the Financial Times said it was "a remarkable portrait of the bond that can exist between a human being and a beast,". Mark Vernon writing in The Times Literary Supplement "found the lessons on consciousness, animals and knowledge as engaging as the main current of the memoir," and added that it "could become a philosophical cult classic", while John Gray in the Literary Review thought it "a powerfully subversive critique of the unexamined assumptions that shape the way most philosophers - along with most people - think about animals and themselves." However, Alexander Fiske-Harrison for Prospect warned that "if you combine misanthropy and lycophilia, the resulting hybrid, lycanthropy, is indeed interesting, but philosophically quite sterile" and that, although Rowlands "acknowledges at the beginning of the book that he cannot think like a wolf... for such a capable philosopher and readable author not to have made the attempt is indeed an opportunity missed."
As a professional philosopher, Rowlands is known as one of the principal architects of the view known as vehicle externalism or the extended mind, and also for his work on the moral status of animals.
His best known work is the book The Philosopher and the Wolf about a decade of his life he spent living and travelling with a wolf. As The Guardian described it in its review, "it is perhaps best described as the autobiography of an idea, or rather a set of related ideas, about the relationship between human and non-human animals." Reviews were very positive, the Financial Times said it was "a remarkable portrait of the bond that can exist between a human being and a beast,". Mark Vernon writing in The Times Literary Supplement "found the lessons on consciousness, animals and knowledge as engaging as the main current of the memoir," and added that it "could become a philosophical cult classic", while John Gray in the Literary Review thought it "a powerfully subversive critique of the unexamined assumptions that shape the way most philosophers - along with most people - think about animals and themselves." However, Alexander Fiske-Harrison for Prospect warned that "if you combine misanthropy and lycophilia, the resulting hybrid, lycanthropy, is indeed interesting, but philosophically quite sterile" and that, although Rowlands "acknowledges at the beginning of the book that he cannot think like a wolf... for such a capable philosopher and readable author not to have made the attempt is indeed an opportunity missed."
As a professional philosopher, Rowlands is known as one of the principal architects of the view known as vehicle externalism or the extended mind, and also for his work on the moral status of animals.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 9, 2025
A memorable book!
It is great when a book is enlightening and thought-provoking. It is unusual for such a book to be entertaining as well, but The Book of Memory fits all three of those categories.
Memory is a topic explored seriously in a number of fields, including psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy. The research the author has done is impressive. Many scientists and philosophers are cited, and I learned a lot of new concepts and interesting information from all those fields, like “ontically fat” or the concept of Rilkean memory. The citations in the book are not confined to the fields I mentioned, though. There are pertinent references to many other sources the reader might not have expected that I have to believe came from the author’s own memory, like Arthur Conan Doyle and the poet Arthur Rimbaud.
The topics are explored seriously, but the method of presentation is enjoyable, and there are even some “ha ha” comments in the margin of my book at passages like “Plato had his wax, and Augustine had his storehouse. I, on the other hand---informed by a knowledge of reconsolidation that Plato and Augustus could not have had---have my shining islands in the Ocean of Lethe”, Lethe being the river of forgetfulness, in case you have forgotten that!
This is a short book, but it took me a while to read it, because I had to keep stopping to mull over what the author was saying. Occasionally I found myself somewhat disagreeing with the author, but even when that happened, I liked that it made me think! Try it, I think it will do the same to you!
I received an advance review copy of The Book of Memory from Edelweiss and Pegasus Books.
It is great when a book is enlightening and thought-provoking. It is unusual for such a book to be entertaining as well, but The Book of Memory fits all three of those categories.
Memory is a topic explored seriously in a number of fields, including psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy. The research the author has done is impressive. Many scientists and philosophers are cited, and I learned a lot of new concepts and interesting information from all those fields, like “ontically fat” or the concept of Rilkean memory. The citations in the book are not confined to the fields I mentioned, though. There are pertinent references to many other sources the reader might not have expected that I have to believe came from the author’s own memory, like Arthur Conan Doyle and the poet Arthur Rimbaud.
The topics are explored seriously, but the method of presentation is enjoyable, and there are even some “ha ha” comments in the margin of my book at passages like “Plato had his wax, and Augustine had his storehouse. I, on the other hand---informed by a knowledge of reconsolidation that Plato and Augustus could not have had---have my shining islands in the Ocean of Lethe”, Lethe being the river of forgetfulness, in case you have forgotten that!
This is a short book, but it took me a while to read it, because I had to keep stopping to mull over what the author was saying. Occasionally I found myself somewhat disagreeing with the author, but even when that happened, I liked that it made me think! Try it, I think it will do the same to you!
I received an advance review copy of The Book of Memory from Edelweiss and Pegasus Books.
Displaying 1 of 1 review