Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older: How Memory Shapes our Past,

Why Life Speeds Up As You Get OlderHow Memory Shapes our Past\nAuthor(s): Douwe Draaisma, Arnold Pomerans, Erica Pomerans\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9780521834247, 978-0521834247\nSynopsis\nIs it true, as the novelist Cees Nooteboom once wrote, that 'Memory is like a dog that lies down where it pleases'? Where do the long, lazy summers of our childhood go? Why is it that as we grow older time seems to condense, speed up, elude us, while in old age significant events from our distant past can seem as vivid and real as what happened yesterday? In this enchanting and thoughtful book, Douwe Draaisma, author of the internationally acclaimed Metaphors of Memory, explores the nature of autobiographical memory. Applying a unique blend of scholarship, poetic sensibility and keen observation he tackles such extraordinary phenomena as dj-vu, near-death experiences, the memory feats of idiot-savants and .