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The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play
Unleash the hidden power of your mind through Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas's simple, fail-safe memory system, and you can become more effective, more imaginative, and more powerful, at work, at school, in sports and play. Discover how easy it is to: file phone numbers, data, figures, and appointments right in your head; learn foreign words and phrases with ease; read with speed--and greater understanding; shine in the classroom--and shorten study hours; dominate social situations, and more.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
About the author
Harry Lorayne
166 books119 followersHarry Lorayne was an American mnemonist, magician, and author. He was well known for his incredible memory demonstrations and appeared on numerous television shows. His card magic, especially his innovations in card sleights, is widely emulated by amateur and professional magicians.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 164 reviews
September 1, 2009
I am giving this book a very high rating because I think I read it but I can't remember but I'm guessing that it was very, very good. Books like this tend to be good (or at least good for you). I do not remember where I put it but it is here somewhere. I could not recall the name of the book but remembered the ISBN so it was easy to search on that.
I do recall that my children and husband gave it to me for some special event (birthday, Christmas, Saturday, or something.) I also know that co-author Jerry Lucas was a very famous NBA player and he had an incredible memory. He memorized great portions of the bible and also the New York City telephone directory.
All I know is "In the beginning there was 911".
I do recall that my children and husband gave it to me for some special event (birthday, Christmas, Saturday, or something.) I also know that co-author Jerry Lucas was a very famous NBA player and he had an incredible memory. He memorized great portions of the bible and also the New York City telephone directory.
All I know is "In the beginning there was 911".
August 19, 2008
This book will teach you how to memorize and retain just about anything quickly and easily. The techniques take work to learn and practice, but once you have them down it is amazing the things you can do.
I used the methods in this book to memorize thousands of Chinese vocabulary words. I have also begun using the numbers techniques, and can remember any number that I decide to memorize. Right now I am working on the methods for retaining what I read. I'm not great at it yet, but my retention is definitely higher than it was before.
This book is not for those looking to simply improve their memory effortlessly. But if you want to understand how to memorize deliberately and effectively, this book will show you how.
I used the methods in this book to memorize thousands of Chinese vocabulary words. I have also begun using the numbers techniques, and can remember any number that I decide to memorize. Right now I am working on the methods for retaining what I read. I'm not great at it yet, but my retention is definitely higher than it was before.
This book is not for those looking to simply improve their memory effortlessly. But if you want to understand how to memorize deliberately and effectively, this book will show you how.
January 24, 2019
Anyone looking to improve their memory will be astounded by this book. You don't have to take drugs! Changed my perspective and incorporated its teachings into my everyday life. A must read!
My Rating: 5+ stars
Reviewed by: Mrs. N
My Rating: 5+ stars
Reviewed by: Mrs. N
March 22, 2017
It almost feels unfair to give this book 4 stars instead of 5, since it's probably one of the most useful books I've ever read and easily the book I've most often gifted to others. But I hope the reason will become clear in this review.
This is a basic primer to the easier techniques in mnemonics, and will allow you to learn a great deal about how to memorize large quantities of information, pretty much about any topic, with a little bit of creativity. The techniques they cover are the Link, Substitute Word, Major, and Peg systems, as well as some other useful applications like names/faces, playing cards, locations, etc.
My main gripe with this book is that there's a breathtaking lack of information in it, and instead mostly focuses on several (i.e. 10+) ways to apply the same tools to different topics. It's pretty strange and makes me question exactly what kind of audience the authors were writing for. The book is written at around a third grade level, but includes stuff like chapters titled "Teaching your children", and the book has an extreme amount of hand-holding that made me end up flipping past several pages saying "yeah I get it, yeah I get it, yeah I get it". There's also a surprising amount in here that just seems really dumb and impractical, clearly shoved in here to brag about how flexible these systems are (e.g. you can "cure absentmindedness" by "linking every action you ever do to the next action you do", separate chapters for appointments/dates/birthdays/sports stats etc which all should have just been in the number-memorization section but inexplicably got their own chapters)
That said, this can be a pretty good thing as well, in some ways. I genuinely believe, after reading this twice, that if you are an average person and spend more than 2 hours practicing the things in this book and end up unable to memorize a deck of cards in order, then you are either lying about how hard you tried, or you have aphantasia. I was originally going to add "or you're a dimwit" but upon reading it I'm entirely confident that I could teach these techniques to most average seven year olds - that's literally how easy they are.
That said, mostly for my own usage, I'm going to summarize most of the content in this book below, along with some misc. notes of my own. It turned out to be a little over a page and a half in a medium-size moleskine notebook, just for perspective on my gripes with the filler content.
Notes:
You can memorize any information, so long as that information is associated with other information that you already know.
The Link: if you think of an object, and you think of another object, and then make a really absurd picture in your head that connects the two together, you can memorize lists of pretty much arbitrary length. (Example: if you have the list of n objects [fish, basketball, tree, king...] you can imagine a fish playing basketball, then a basketball with giant trees growing out of it, then of a fat king swinging from a tree like a chimp, then a king...) After creating a link, it's easy to just travel through the images until the end, and it's also easy to travel the images backwards, so you pretty much have the whole list memorized quite well.
The link systems best uses are for lists of things, as well as things in order. Some good tricks for creating good images are substitution (imagine one thing replacing another), proportion (imagine one thing the size of the other, generally not the same size, thing), exaggeration (cartoonishly crazy images of the things you're imagining), and action (thing doing a thing). Not listed, and particularly useful as well, is disgust (create some horrible, mangled, offensive image in your head) which is understandable to leave out given the tone of the book but deserves mention due to being, probably, the easiest way to create images that stick (source: Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein).
Substitute Word: A complement to the link. For more abstract thoughts that are hard to literally imagine, come up with something silly that reminds you of that thought (e.g. Minnesota -> mini soda). This is pretty straightforward and done by almost every student in the United States, but it takes some practice to come up with really good ones that stick (you'll frequently run into "what the heck does mini soda stand for??" errors if your substitutes aren't good).
Some Applications:
Memorizing speeches - don't memorize word for word, memorize the focal idea of each sentence and then just talk in the correct order.
Foreign Language Vocabulary - come up with crazy phrases that remind you of the word
Names and Faces - use sub. word for their names and link that to some outstanding feature on their face. If you can't think of something outstanding (very rare) then just pick some arbitrary feature (e.g. nose) and if the next time you see them nothing stands out then you can just remember that. (there's a list of hundreds of substitute words for common names in here which points towards my filler gripe...)
Reminders - Put something extremely out of place and link that thing to what you want to remember, and when you see that again and think "why is this so out of place" you'll remember what you are trying to remember.
The Major System: Memorizing numbers seems really hard, but if you memorize a short list of phonetic associations you'll be able to convert numbers to words that can link easily. Good for telephone numbers or digits of pi, I suppose.
1 - t/d (t has one down stroke)
2 - n (n has two down strokes)
3 - m (m has three down strokes)
4 - r ("four" ends in r)
5 - L (if you hold out your left hand you'll make an L, your hand has 5 fingers)
6 - J/sh/ch/soft g (J and 6 begin with a similar stroke if you mirror one of them)
7 - k/hard c and g (K can kind of be drawn with two 7s if you have a weird tail with the k)
8 - f/v/ph (cursive f looks like an 8)
9 - p/b (p and 9 are mirrorish images)
0 - z/s/soft c ("Zero" starts with Z)
you can break down pretty much any word to it's phonetic components (i.e. silent letters aren't used, etc), and with this system you can convert pretty much any word into a number quite easily (components -> 7392210). Converting a number into a word is a little bit harder and it's a bit like playing a word game ("hmm, what's a word that I can turn 33 into with two m's and no other consonants... oh, how about 'Mom'"). I don't think the mnemonics for these are particularly good but there's only ten of them so memorizing them isn't that hard with some practice. Being good at memorizing numbers ends up just being an exercise in finding cute words from the consonants and then linking them together.
People use a similar system when blindsolving Rubik's Cubes, which turns the cube into a sequence of numbers and then applies algorithms to delete certain numbers, with the endpoint being there being no more numbers left. It's surprisingly straightforward and not-crazy!
The Peg System: These ideas are all and good for memorizing stuff in order, but if you need to quickly grab things by their location (e.g. "who was the 26th president of the United States") then you can just have words associated with those positions. The ones in the book are done via major system but there's a bunch of these out here with rhymes or just brute force.
1 - tie
2 - Noah
3 - Ms
4 - Rye
5 - Law
6 - shoe
7 - cow
8 - ivy
9 - bee
10/0 - toes
There's a whole list from 11-99 in here iirc but it strikes me as a bit more practical (albeit a bit slower) to just have 10 words for each digit (e.g. a set of 1s words, a set of 10s words, a set of 100s words) and to just link those things together (the nice thing about this is that you can literally do it from left to right and stop yourself if you only need a vaguely correct answer really quickly).
That said there's some very serious memory people out there that have enormously long peg words lists memorized so perhaps this might be less practical than I thought.
Playing Cards: Aw man this is one of my favorites
You can do this pretty easily by generating a word for each card by starting it with a C/H/S/D sound (club, heart, spade, diamond) and then putting the remaining words in by major system (Ace = 1, numbers = numbers, 10 = 0, JQK = 11,12,13). You'll get a list of 52 unique words, and you just have to link them together towards a shuffled deck.
imo you should create your own list of words for these instead of relying on the books', and if you want to break from the major system pattern that's perfectly fine so long as you end up being able to remember it easily.
Not mentioned, but worth noting for speed is PAO (person, action, object) where you create three lists of 52 words each, and then use them to flip over three cards at a time and memorize the cards in 3-card chunks. This is much faster and easier to remember (reduces image count from 52 to 18) but obviously requires a bit more up-front memorization (156 links).
You can use this to also remember which cards have been removed by "mutilating" the image associated with the card when it gets drawn. This way, to check which cards are remaining, you can just run through your cards list and pick out which ones aren't mangled in some way. If you need to do this a different way each time, then use a consistent mangling method for each hand/round (e.g. this hand everything removed gets burned, this hand everything removed gets crushed, this one ripped apart, etc etc).
The rest of the book: In general you can probably notice a pattern that you can pretty much apply these ideas to anything that you find a consistent and creative way to convert into numbers. You can memorize locations, for example, by creating a simple 2D grid and memorize the location on this grid (good for something like the periodic table, or locations of towns, or something). Anything you can encode into numbers you can easily memorize (end of world war II was 09/02/1945 which just becomes 09021945 which you know how to memorize already).
Being good at memorization really just means being practiced and being able to quickly come up with good images - the people fastest at memory competitions are really just able to create absurd images and quickly find ways to link them together, which is the hard part about this that quite literally just comes with practice. Memorizing something quickly is quite a task that takes a good amount of practice, but memorizing something slowly, i.e. a deck of cards in ~30 minutes, is something so easy that it's almost laughably trivial (it's quite like solving a rubik's cube, which to many is the impressive part, vs. solving a rubik's cube in 7 seconds, which impresses everyone, including people that can solve rubik's cubes).
Overall I'd personally recommend that you should not only read this book, but actually own it and regularly practice the things in it. Being able to memorize effectively is too useful to not do, and this book will show just how easy it really is.
This is a basic primer to the easier techniques in mnemonics, and will allow you to learn a great deal about how to memorize large quantities of information, pretty much about any topic, with a little bit of creativity. The techniques they cover are the Link, Substitute Word, Major, and Peg systems, as well as some other useful applications like names/faces, playing cards, locations, etc.
My main gripe with this book is that there's a breathtaking lack of information in it, and instead mostly focuses on several (i.e. 10+) ways to apply the same tools to different topics. It's pretty strange and makes me question exactly what kind of audience the authors were writing for. The book is written at around a third grade level, but includes stuff like chapters titled "Teaching your children", and the book has an extreme amount of hand-holding that made me end up flipping past several pages saying "yeah I get it, yeah I get it, yeah I get it". There's also a surprising amount in here that just seems really dumb and impractical, clearly shoved in here to brag about how flexible these systems are (e.g. you can "cure absentmindedness" by "linking every action you ever do to the next action you do", separate chapters for appointments/dates/birthdays/sports stats etc which all should have just been in the number-memorization section but inexplicably got their own chapters)
That said, this can be a pretty good thing as well, in some ways. I genuinely believe, after reading this twice, that if you are an average person and spend more than 2 hours practicing the things in this book and end up unable to memorize a deck of cards in order, then you are either lying about how hard you tried, or you have aphantasia. I was originally going to add "or you're a dimwit" but upon reading it I'm entirely confident that I could teach these techniques to most average seven year olds - that's literally how easy they are.
That said, mostly for my own usage, I'm going to summarize most of the content in this book below, along with some misc. notes of my own. It turned out to be a little over a page and a half in a medium-size moleskine notebook, just for perspective on my gripes with the filler content.
Notes:
You can memorize any information, so long as that information is associated with other information that you already know.
The Link: if you think of an object, and you think of another object, and then make a really absurd picture in your head that connects the two together, you can memorize lists of pretty much arbitrary length. (Example: if you have the list of n objects [fish, basketball, tree, king...] you can imagine a fish playing basketball, then a basketball with giant trees growing out of it, then of a fat king swinging from a tree like a chimp, then a king...) After creating a link, it's easy to just travel through the images until the end, and it's also easy to travel the images backwards, so you pretty much have the whole list memorized quite well.
The link systems best uses are for lists of things, as well as things in order. Some good tricks for creating good images are substitution (imagine one thing replacing another), proportion (imagine one thing the size of the other, generally not the same size, thing), exaggeration (cartoonishly crazy images of the things you're imagining), and action (thing doing a thing). Not listed, and particularly useful as well, is disgust (create some horrible, mangled, offensive image in your head) which is understandable to leave out given the tone of the book but deserves mention due to being, probably, the easiest way to create images that stick (source: Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein).
Substitute Word: A complement to the link. For more abstract thoughts that are hard to literally imagine, come up with something silly that reminds you of that thought (e.g. Minnesota -> mini soda). This is pretty straightforward and done by almost every student in the United States, but it takes some practice to come up with really good ones that stick (you'll frequently run into "what the heck does mini soda stand for??" errors if your substitutes aren't good).
Some Applications:
Memorizing speeches - don't memorize word for word, memorize the focal idea of each sentence and then just talk in the correct order.
Foreign Language Vocabulary - come up with crazy phrases that remind you of the word
Names and Faces - use sub. word for their names and link that to some outstanding feature on their face. If you can't think of something outstanding (very rare) then just pick some arbitrary feature (e.g. nose) and if the next time you see them nothing stands out then you can just remember that. (there's a list of hundreds of substitute words for common names in here which points towards my filler gripe...)
Reminders - Put something extremely out of place and link that thing to what you want to remember, and when you see that again and think "why is this so out of place" you'll remember what you are trying to remember.
The Major System: Memorizing numbers seems really hard, but if you memorize a short list of phonetic associations you'll be able to convert numbers to words that can link easily. Good for telephone numbers or digits of pi, I suppose.
1 - t/d (t has one down stroke)
2 - n (n has two down strokes)
3 - m (m has three down strokes)
4 - r ("four" ends in r)
5 - L (if you hold out your left hand you'll make an L, your hand has 5 fingers)
6 - J/sh/ch/soft g (J and 6 begin with a similar stroke if you mirror one of them)
7 - k/hard c and g (K can kind of be drawn with two 7s if you have a weird tail with the k)
8 - f/v/ph (cursive f looks like an 8)
9 - p/b (p and 9 are mirrorish images)
0 - z/s/soft c ("Zero" starts with Z)
you can break down pretty much any word to it's phonetic components (i.e. silent letters aren't used, etc), and with this system you can convert pretty much any word into a number quite easily (components -> 7392210). Converting a number into a word is a little bit harder and it's a bit like playing a word game ("hmm, what's a word that I can turn 33 into with two m's and no other consonants... oh, how about 'Mom'"). I don't think the mnemonics for these are particularly good but there's only ten of them so memorizing them isn't that hard with some practice. Being good at memorizing numbers ends up just being an exercise in finding cute words from the consonants and then linking them together.
People use a similar system when blindsolving Rubik's Cubes, which turns the cube into a sequence of numbers and then applies algorithms to delete certain numbers, with the endpoint being there being no more numbers left. It's surprisingly straightforward and not-crazy!
The Peg System: These ideas are all and good for memorizing stuff in order, but if you need to quickly grab things by their location (e.g. "who was the 26th president of the United States") then you can just have words associated with those positions. The ones in the book are done via major system but there's a bunch of these out here with rhymes or just brute force.
1 - tie
2 - Noah
3 - Ms
4 - Rye
5 - Law
6 - shoe
7 - cow
8 - ivy
9 - bee
10/0 - toes
There's a whole list from 11-99 in here iirc but it strikes me as a bit more practical (albeit a bit slower) to just have 10 words for each digit (e.g. a set of 1s words, a set of 10s words, a set of 100s words) and to just link those things together (the nice thing about this is that you can literally do it from left to right and stop yourself if you only need a vaguely correct answer really quickly).
That said there's some very serious memory people out there that have enormously long peg words lists memorized so perhaps this might be less practical than I thought.
Playing Cards: Aw man this is one of my favorites
You can do this pretty easily by generating a word for each card by starting it with a C/H/S/D sound (club, heart, spade, diamond) and then putting the remaining words in by major system (Ace = 1, numbers = numbers, 10 = 0, JQK = 11,12,13). You'll get a list of 52 unique words, and you just have to link them together towards a shuffled deck.
imo you should create your own list of words for these instead of relying on the books', and if you want to break from the major system pattern that's perfectly fine so long as you end up being able to remember it easily.
Not mentioned, but worth noting for speed is PAO (person, action, object) where you create three lists of 52 words each, and then use them to flip over three cards at a time and memorize the cards in 3-card chunks. This is much faster and easier to remember (reduces image count from 52 to 18) but obviously requires a bit more up-front memorization (156 links).
You can use this to also remember which cards have been removed by "mutilating" the image associated with the card when it gets drawn. This way, to check which cards are remaining, you can just run through your cards list and pick out which ones aren't mangled in some way. If you need to do this a different way each time, then use a consistent mangling method for each hand/round (e.g. this hand everything removed gets burned, this hand everything removed gets crushed, this one ripped apart, etc etc).
The rest of the book: In general you can probably notice a pattern that you can pretty much apply these ideas to anything that you find a consistent and creative way to convert into numbers. You can memorize locations, for example, by creating a simple 2D grid and memorize the location on this grid (good for something like the periodic table, or locations of towns, or something). Anything you can encode into numbers you can easily memorize (end of world war II was 09/02/1945 which just becomes 09021945 which you know how to memorize already).
Being good at memorization really just means being practiced and being able to quickly come up with good images - the people fastest at memory competitions are really just able to create absurd images and quickly find ways to link them together, which is the hard part about this that quite literally just comes with practice. Memorizing something quickly is quite a task that takes a good amount of practice, but memorizing something slowly, i.e. a deck of cards in ~30 minutes, is something so easy that it's almost laughably trivial (it's quite like solving a rubik's cube, which to many is the impressive part, vs. solving a rubik's cube in 7 seconds, which impresses everyone, including people that can solve rubik's cubes).
Overall I'd personally recommend that you should not only read this book, but actually own it and regularly practice the things in it. Being able to memorize effectively is too useful to not do, and this book will show just how easy it really is.
July 31, 2011
I can't remember what it's about.
June 14, 2018
This book is about three systems:
1. Link system
2. Substitute system
3. Peg system
Link system tells you to link all the things you want to remember using a weird relation. (Not all of them at once, but as a linked list). And this works!
Example if you want to remember, mouse, aeroplane, chair. Visualize a mouse flying over an aeroplane. And a chair dropping out of aeroplane. As you are forcing your mind to think more about the relations, it memorized the relations. (You are being more mindful here, the author even sorts every word wrt the alphabets, results: more mindful and hence a better memory)
Substitute system tells you to replace the words you don't know with a word sounding the same. Works for foreign languages, new words and new names etc.
Peg system is little complex that it matches all the ten numbers to ten different sounds. And then you can also visualize intangible numbers with tangible concepts.
The initial barrier is big enough for people to be reluctant to learn this.
1. Link system
2. Substitute system
3. Peg system
Link system tells you to link all the things you want to remember using a weird relation. (Not all of them at once, but as a linked list). And this works!
Example if you want to remember, mouse, aeroplane, chair. Visualize a mouse flying over an aeroplane. And a chair dropping out of aeroplane. As you are forcing your mind to think more about the relations, it memorized the relations. (You are being more mindful here, the author even sorts every word wrt the alphabets, results: more mindful and hence a better memory)
Substitute system tells you to replace the words you don't know with a word sounding the same. Works for foreign languages, new words and new names etc.
Peg system is little complex that it matches all the ten numbers to ten different sounds. And then you can also visualize intangible numbers with tangible concepts.
The initial barrier is big enough for people to be reluctant to learn this.
July 25, 2009
There are some people out there with great memories and excellent interpersonal skills. We've all probably met someone like this.... They seem to remember your name, your face, and little details about your life and past conversations way more than the average person. And we all LOVE being around these people. They make us feel important and valued, because it could be a year since you've seen them (and you only met them once), and they will recall specific details about your life and ask about them ("How is your grandmother doing? Last time we talked, she had just fallen and broken her hip. I hope she is doing ok.").
I totally want to be one of those people. This realization hit me all the more in the past few months as I have acquired the gradual realization that I am vey much a half-way wife, mom, and working professional. I get so consumed in work in the morning that I'll walk upstairs for lunch with my family and ask, "How was your morning? Did you have fun at the park?" But my mind is still 99% on work. My husband will answer and I won't even hear him, nor remember that I even asked the question in the first place. Five minutes later, I ask the same dumb question and my husband will look at me like, "What?" I recongize that in order to be a more meaningful person in this world, I've got to change that half-invested side of my attitude. If I am in a conversation, I need to be 100% focused and committed to that conversation, to that person. I need to let those around me know that when they tell me something, I am listening, I genuinely care, and I will remember.
Hence this book! It is full of excellent exercises to strengthen your memory, to become one of those great people who make others feel so valued...all becuase of an acute awareness and a strong memory.
I'm still in the middle of the book, but I am truly invested into trying everything so that I can improve. The book is great becuase it provides little exercises to help you see immediate progress. You want to know my grocery list from TWO WEEKS ago? I decided to venture out to the store with no list in hand just to try myself out:
- sugar
- vanilla
- hot dog buns
- bread
- basting brush
- floss
- prescription
- waffles
- aluminum foil
- face wash
Not quite changing the world with my memory yet, but I'm hoping this will help. Next time we have a conversation, I promise I'll remember!
I totally want to be one of those people. This realization hit me all the more in the past few months as I have acquired the gradual realization that I am vey much a half-way wife, mom, and working professional. I get so consumed in work in the morning that I'll walk upstairs for lunch with my family and ask, "How was your morning? Did you have fun at the park?" But my mind is still 99% on work. My husband will answer and I won't even hear him, nor remember that I even asked the question in the first place. Five minutes later, I ask the same dumb question and my husband will look at me like, "What?" I recongize that in order to be a more meaningful person in this world, I've got to change that half-invested side of my attitude. If I am in a conversation, I need to be 100% focused and committed to that conversation, to that person. I need to let those around me know that when they tell me something, I am listening, I genuinely care, and I will remember.
Hence this book! It is full of excellent exercises to strengthen your memory, to become one of those great people who make others feel so valued...all becuase of an acute awareness and a strong memory.
I'm still in the middle of the book, but I am truly invested into trying everything so that I can improve. The book is great becuase it provides little exercises to help you see immediate progress. You want to know my grocery list from TWO WEEKS ago? I decided to venture out to the store with no list in hand just to try myself out:
- sugar
- vanilla
- hot dog buns
- bread
- basting brush
- floss
- prescription
- waffles
- aluminum foil
- face wash
Not quite changing the world with my memory yet, but I'm hoping this will help. Next time we have a conversation, I promise I'll remember!
September 10, 2012
The Memory Book is a guide written by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas. Although it looks like a novel, the book is more like a textbook in that to really get the most out of it, one has to do the suggested activities while reading the book. The point of this book is, if not already evident, to help improve one's memory.
I don't have much to say about this book. I do like the idea behind the book, and I think the method can be quite powerful for memorizing things. However, I found most of the book to be examples, most of which I thought were quite redundant. In fact, I thought the book would, for the most part, be more effective as a simple pamphlet with two key points: first to associate ideas to be remembered with very bizarre imagery (bizarre imagery so that it is difficult to forget), and second to link ideas together using chains of bizarre imagery (or at least, these are the two tips I recall at the moment that truly defined the book). From these two points, all the examples from the book can be drawn.
Unfortunately, I couldn't bring myself to practice the techniques like a textbook. I also found myself getting quite bored reading all the different examples. However, I do hope to try out this system next time I have to memorize something in the future; I'm sure one of my remaining courses will have some memory component to it.
I don't have much to say about this book. I do like the idea behind the book, and I think the method can be quite powerful for memorizing things. However, I found most of the book to be examples, most of which I thought were quite redundant. In fact, I thought the book would, for the most part, be more effective as a simple pamphlet with two key points: first to associate ideas to be remembered with very bizarre imagery (bizarre imagery so that it is difficult to forget), and second to link ideas together using chains of bizarre imagery (or at least, these are the two tips I recall at the moment that truly defined the book). From these two points, all the examples from the book can be drawn.
Unfortunately, I couldn't bring myself to practice the techniques like a textbook. I also found myself getting quite bored reading all the different examples. However, I do hope to try out this system next time I have to memorize something in the future; I'm sure one of my remaining courses will have some memory component to it.
December 17, 2023
The best book I have read up until now! It's certainly a lifetime must-read!
https://booksfoodmylife.blogspot.com/...
https://booksfoodmylife.blogspot.com/...
August 27, 2008
This book is logical, honest, and practical.
Logical
Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas explain why memory techniques work and how they simply build on the way our minds already work.
Honest
From the very beginning readers are told memory systems take work, but they are possible and within everyone's reach. Like all good things, it takes effort.
Practical
The memory systems described in this book can be applied to remembering to-do lists, dates, names, places, events, phone numbers, etc. Who wouldn't like to remember those things better?
Logical
Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas explain why memory techniques work and how they simply build on the way our minds already work.
Honest
From the very beginning readers are told memory systems take work, but they are possible and within everyone's reach. Like all good things, it takes effort.
Practical
The memory systems described in this book can be applied to remembering to-do lists, dates, names, places, events, phone numbers, etc. Who wouldn't like to remember those things better?
January 23, 2018
My first twelve years of school I found to be impossibly difficult. I got C’s on my report card. The only A’s I got were in physical education and Choir. Everyone who took those classes always got A’s automatically it was a guarantee. I got C’s in my other classes. I tried so very hard to get a B but the test answers just would not stay in my head for the tests. I would forget what I had studied even after studying for many hours. Therefore, I logically assumed I was just not smart.
None of my relatives had ever gone on to college to get a higher education. Most didn’t even get a high school education. I realized it was obviously because school was so “very hard”.
Just before we went back to my hometown, my couple of friends from my church prepared a farewell party for me featuring a magician.
As a climax to his show his last trick: he with lighting fast speed memorized lots of information right before my eyes.
I always like to go back and talk with magicians after their shows.
Hi, I really enjoyed your performance. I really liked your last illusion; I have never seen anyone do anything like that before. So I assume you are a real genius with fantastic mental abilities.
No, it is just a trick. Like when a magician pulls off their thumb. Nothing to it, easy as pie, anyone can do it!
It is very hard hearing “that truth being told to me once”! I have been told thousands of times that college isn’t for everyone. You have to be extremely intelligent with special mental agility that only a few have. I am fairly sure; the magician must be lying to me. I am pretty sure that this magician is just an X-man type of person with special mental abilities. For me, to do something like that will border on real magic.
The magician is now saying, I hear you are returning to your old hometown.
Yes, I am.
Just get a book on the memory trick from Bob Nelson who owns the magic shop. Do you know Bob?
He and I are good friends. I saw him once a month at the Jr. Magicians meetings.
I assure you all you will need is that one book, to be able to do the same “trick” I do.
I really wonder if what he says is true. I will never be able to do what I just saw him do. That is way above my ability. I can’t memorize anything, it is very embarrassing, let alone doing it as fast as a lightning flash.
I can’t memorize scriptures at church and I can’t even memorize the Cub Scout Oath. It is awful being me! I feel like the scarecrow in the wizard of Oz movie, you know, if I only had a brain, that’s me. Just like the rest of my family who do not even have high school educations.
When we went back to my hometown, I “opened my mind” and I got the memory book. I read just a few pages from the book. Then I tried their memory secrets.
I’ll try this with my sister. Mary Anne here is a pencil and paper. Name things you see every day and number them one at a time and write them down. I’ll turn my back so I cannot see the list. Now with your list of one hundred things call out any number from one to a hundred.
Ok, 65.
That is something big and cold, an iceberg.
Your right how can you do that!
Call out another number.
43 is a bottle of rum.
That is amazing.
Immediately after reading few minutes I am doing this memory trick. I cannot believe how easy this is and how now I can memorize lots of information with ease lightning fast. The magician isn’t a genius. It really is just a trick!
The truth he told me once: I can hardly believe this is really true!
I am going to start believing people even when I feel what they are saying couldn’t possibly be true. Basically, this is inspiring me to be open-minded; no matter what I had been told a thousand times to the contrary.
At this same period of time, Clifton Inman, a University Representative came to my home and convinced me that I should go to a private College. I decided to give it a try because I had just learned the memory trick and I thought it might work in the university setting.
So I went to the university and used the memory trick to get my first B average in my life the “first” semester. I was then offered a scholarship. My grades kept on getting higher and higher and higher. I ended up getting a six-year $420,000.00 education (today’s private university cost) M.A. degree using the secrets from the memory book.
The memory book made me seem to be a genius to the other students because they could see that I seemed to “never study”. I didn’t join study groups or study with others. I did not need to join a study group. I just got to totally enjoy college. I loved it because college was so very easy for me. Nothing to it, a piece of cake, it was absolutely positively wonderful a fantastic fun time for me! My new found mental abilities even astounded my professors.
I wonder why Professor Johnson wants to see me. He said he wanted me to come alone. I have never had a professor ask me to meet with them like this in such a clandestine manner. I wonder what he wants.
Come on in Mr. Young be seated. I have been a teacher for twenty-five years and no one has ever gotten a 100% on my "essay" final exam.
(Now he is sitting there quietly like a stone statue and staring deep into my eyes with a purposely disquieting intensity. Should I tell him the truth I used a magic trick to get the 100%? No, I have a reputation of being a genius. I got it; he is one of the best teachers, most interesting teachers in the university. Bet he'll buy this.)
Mr. Johnson, your classes are so interesting and exciting you just inspired me to study and that's why I did so well on your final exam.
(I touched the magic button. He is smiling, he believes me. It worked!)
Thank you, Mr. Young, you have a nice day.
You know I didn't have the heart to tell him I got 100% on all my final exams.
It was embarrassing when the other students asked me how I thought I did on a test we had all taken. I always knew for sure that I got every answer completely correct and accurate in every way. I would just say, I did alright and I usually got the highest grade in the class on the test.
Back in the days that I went to the Universities, there was great respect for the professors and the professors had great respect for their students.
I am a certified college professor and it is not the same in today’s institutions of higher learning. Also, the very expensive private colleges and universities had a tradition of respect and honor that seldom is seen in the much less expensive institutions of higher learning that the large majority of students attend. I never attended the less expensive state schools a few decades old. My schools were the hundreds of year old with the very best professors.
This is the truth being told to you once;
Oh, there’s Professor Hamlin he’s way across the room. He’s looking at me. He’s coming this way. I think he’s going to talk with me. I have never had a Professor walk up to me like this. I wonder what he wants. He is standing right next to me smiling a big chaser cat smile. Wonder what he is going to say.
Hello Scholar Young.
He is slowly bowing his head and just standing there with his head bowed. I wonder how long he is going to keep his head bowed. Now he is slowly raising his head and looking into my eyes with that big chaser cat smile. How are you doing Scholar Young?
I am fine, how is your day going? (At least 60 students staring at me, this is very nice but embarrassing)
Things are fine with me; look forward to seeing you in class tomorrow. See you later.
Off he goes. All the students are watching me with a feeling of reverential respect mixed with wonder.
I had several professors who “every time” they saw me, would walk out of their way to come over to where I was standing or sitting. Then they would stop, look me in the eyes and say to me, hello scholar young.
Next, they would slowly bow their head and stand quietly for a few seconds with their head down. Then they would raise their head slowly look into my eyes with a big smile and ask how my day was going. After a short conversation, they would then move on to where they were going. They never walked within my line of sight without doing this ritual honoring, even when I was sitting with other students. While they were doing this, all the students around me watched in awe. The professors never passed me without doing this physical and verbal sign of high honor because I was one of the four Greek scholars in the University. They treated all four of us the same way. We were the only students treated this way by any of the professors.
I remember my first day of Greek class.
Hello students, welcome to Greek studies. Greek is the most rigorous subject that can be studied in any University. I appreciate your courage to attempt this study. We have a major test each day because there is so much to learn. We have hundreds of Greek vocabulary words to learn each day.
It will take you a minimum of five hours per night to memorize these words for the daily tests. Until this time you have not known what true scholarship is. Look at the person to your left and the person to your right they will not be here tomorrow.
Sure enough, in a day only four students were left out of a whole regular size class because of the rigorous scholarship that would be required each night.
Imagine trying to memorize hundreds of Greek words each night.
I remember my evenings in the dorm.
Oh, there’s Joe's room, he has his little green Greek book open and is in deep study. Let’s see, it is 5:00 P.M. I think I’ll go to the music room and practice the piano.
Here I am and it is 10:00 P.M. and there is Joe again and he is still studying his Greek. Oh, I can see in his room and he is just now closing his Greek book. He has been at it for five hours. Wow, that would drive me crazy.
My three fellow Greek scholars all told me they knew I was a genius because they were each studying five hours per night in their little green Greek textbooks.
Ok time for me to study. I like standing by the window outside the Greek class before the class time. I can see the Greek class door from here. Thinking I have to go in there and take the test is just the motivation I need.
Now I look down at the word and now I look out the window up into the white chiffon clouds. Ok, I got that one, now I just repeat this identical process over and over again. I glance down and look up into the clouds over and over. Hi Joe, I can’t talk with you right now. See you in the class. Finally, finished and I have a few minutes until class time.
Brace yourself for this absolute truth told to you once. I just got finished studying the same Greek book for five minutes and I know for sure I will get a hundred on the test. I just wish people would stop trying to talk to me as they walk by; it makes it hard to concentrate.
It was so easy for me. I knew absolutely positively that after my five minutes I would get 100% on the daily tests. And I knew all this information would stay permanently in my mind without any additional study. I really did feel sorry for the other three Greek Scholars who really worked their heads off studying five hours each night.
I felt a little guilty when the professors walked up to me daily and bowed to me in front of all the other students. It really didn’t seem fair when the other three Greek scholars had to study five hours each night and me only five minutes.
My fellow students noticed that I was not studying at all for any of my classes. So they asked me how long I had been a real genius. No other student would believe me when I sincerely honestly told them the truth once. I had simply read a book called the memory book and it was just a magic trick anyone can do.
Even my fellow Greek Scholars would not believe: the truth told to them once: it was just a trick anyone can do with ease, I told them over and over again. No matter what I said my fellow students had convinced themselves that I had to be a real genius.
Finally, I just gave up telling them the truth once and let them think what they wanted to. Remember the first law of real magic: People would rather believe a lie told to them a thousand times than the truth told to them once!
I found people are not opened minded. They have been lied to a thousand times and are convinced the lie is true. It is such a shame. The good life so close but so far; if they would have just believed the truth I told to them once. They could have had full tuition scholarships and enjoyed their university social life like me.
They had evidently been told thousands of times that there are real geniuses and figured I must be one of them.
Now, something really astounding did happen as I advanced on in my university studies. It blew my mind! After all, I was the wizard of Oz scarecrow C student all through my first twelve years of school. Coming from a family where most of my relatives did not get a high school education.
Here is again the truth being told to you once:
I remember when it happened. I am listening to the Dr. Rippy and I just realized I forgot to take notes on his lecture. What am I going to do? All my fellow students just walked out the door. I don’t want to tell Dr. Rippy how stupid I was to not take notes. Let me see, what was it; he was saying. Oh, I remember he was talking about the formula for changing a person’s frame of reference. You know I remember that complicated formula. He also talked about the different ways we can help people: by offering help, by indirectly helping them through their peers and you know I remember every single detail. I don’t need to take notes, it just all stayed in my head.
Let me try reading our textbook. Now I close it. I remember every word in what I just read every single word. This is amazing and I am not using the secrets in the memory book. I am remembering everything. This must be what it feels like to be a real genius! Wow, this is really weird, a good weird, but nevertheless weird as it can be. Me, Mr. dumb scarecrow with no brain and now a real genius from reading a book; hard for me to believe, dare I say: Real Magic!
Eventually, in my master’s degree study, I was able to “stop using” the secrets in the memory book. I found, I still easily got 100% on my final exams. It got so I could just set in the class and automatically remember every single detail of the professor’s lectures. I got so I could read a book and remember everything I read after one reading.
It was amazing how the memory book actually transformed me into a real genius with real magical super mental powers. It seemed like real magic that I liked very much. It made college so much fun, so inexpensive and it gave me so much free time to just enjoy my University social life.
You want a free almost half million dollar education; get, read, and use the secrets in the memory book, I did.
Here’s something for you to think about. There are many students using this book and they keep it a secret. They are your competition for scholarships. It is hard to compete with people who get 100% on all their tests.
By the way I not only got full tuition scholarships, but all my books and electronic equipment were also paid for with scholarship funds. My food was free and my housing was also free.
Will you believe the lie told to you a thousand times, or the truth told to you once, I wonder? This book worked for me Mr. no brain, it will probably work for you.
None of my relatives had ever gone on to college to get a higher education. Most didn’t even get a high school education. I realized it was obviously because school was so “very hard”.
Just before we went back to my hometown, my couple of friends from my church prepared a farewell party for me featuring a magician.
As a climax to his show his last trick: he with lighting fast speed memorized lots of information right before my eyes.
I always like to go back and talk with magicians after their shows.
Hi, I really enjoyed your performance. I really liked your last illusion; I have never seen anyone do anything like that before. So I assume you are a real genius with fantastic mental abilities.
No, it is just a trick. Like when a magician pulls off their thumb. Nothing to it, easy as pie, anyone can do it!
It is very hard hearing “that truth being told to me once”! I have been told thousands of times that college isn’t for everyone. You have to be extremely intelligent with special mental agility that only a few have. I am fairly sure; the magician must be lying to me. I am pretty sure that this magician is just an X-man type of person with special mental abilities. For me, to do something like that will border on real magic.
The magician is now saying, I hear you are returning to your old hometown.
Yes, I am.
Just get a book on the memory trick from Bob Nelson who owns the magic shop. Do you know Bob?
He and I are good friends. I saw him once a month at the Jr. Magicians meetings.
I assure you all you will need is that one book, to be able to do the same “trick” I do.
I really wonder if what he says is true. I will never be able to do what I just saw him do. That is way above my ability. I can’t memorize anything, it is very embarrassing, let alone doing it as fast as a lightning flash.
I can’t memorize scriptures at church and I can’t even memorize the Cub Scout Oath. It is awful being me! I feel like the scarecrow in the wizard of Oz movie, you know, if I only had a brain, that’s me. Just like the rest of my family who do not even have high school educations.
When we went back to my hometown, I “opened my mind” and I got the memory book. I read just a few pages from the book. Then I tried their memory secrets.
I’ll try this with my sister. Mary Anne here is a pencil and paper. Name things you see every day and number them one at a time and write them down. I’ll turn my back so I cannot see the list. Now with your list of one hundred things call out any number from one to a hundred.
Ok, 65.
That is something big and cold, an iceberg.
Your right how can you do that!
Call out another number.
43 is a bottle of rum.
That is amazing.
Immediately after reading few minutes I am doing this memory trick. I cannot believe how easy this is and how now I can memorize lots of information with ease lightning fast. The magician isn’t a genius. It really is just a trick!
The truth he told me once: I can hardly believe this is really true!
I am going to start believing people even when I feel what they are saying couldn’t possibly be true. Basically, this is inspiring me to be open-minded; no matter what I had been told a thousand times to the contrary.
At this same period of time, Clifton Inman, a University Representative came to my home and convinced me that I should go to a private College. I decided to give it a try because I had just learned the memory trick and I thought it might work in the university setting.
So I went to the university and used the memory trick to get my first B average in my life the “first” semester. I was then offered a scholarship. My grades kept on getting higher and higher and higher. I ended up getting a six-year $420,000.00 education (today’s private university cost) M.A. degree using the secrets from the memory book.
The memory book made me seem to be a genius to the other students because they could see that I seemed to “never study”. I didn’t join study groups or study with others. I did not need to join a study group. I just got to totally enjoy college. I loved it because college was so very easy for me. Nothing to it, a piece of cake, it was absolutely positively wonderful a fantastic fun time for me! My new found mental abilities even astounded my professors.
I wonder why Professor Johnson wants to see me. He said he wanted me to come alone. I have never had a professor ask me to meet with them like this in such a clandestine manner. I wonder what he wants.
Come on in Mr. Young be seated. I have been a teacher for twenty-five years and no one has ever gotten a 100% on my "essay" final exam.
(Now he is sitting there quietly like a stone statue and staring deep into my eyes with a purposely disquieting intensity. Should I tell him the truth I used a magic trick to get the 100%? No, I have a reputation of being a genius. I got it; he is one of the best teachers, most interesting teachers in the university. Bet he'll buy this.)
Mr. Johnson, your classes are so interesting and exciting you just inspired me to study and that's why I did so well on your final exam.
(I touched the magic button. He is smiling, he believes me. It worked!)
Thank you, Mr. Young, you have a nice day.
You know I didn't have the heart to tell him I got 100% on all my final exams.
It was embarrassing when the other students asked me how I thought I did on a test we had all taken. I always knew for sure that I got every answer completely correct and accurate in every way. I would just say, I did alright and I usually got the highest grade in the class on the test.
Back in the days that I went to the Universities, there was great respect for the professors and the professors had great respect for their students.
I am a certified college professor and it is not the same in today’s institutions of higher learning. Also, the very expensive private colleges and universities had a tradition of respect and honor that seldom is seen in the much less expensive institutions of higher learning that the large majority of students attend. I never attended the less expensive state schools a few decades old. My schools were the hundreds of year old with the very best professors.
This is the truth being told to you once;
Oh, there’s Professor Hamlin he’s way across the room. He’s looking at me. He’s coming this way. I think he’s going to talk with me. I have never had a Professor walk up to me like this. I wonder what he wants. He is standing right next to me smiling a big chaser cat smile. Wonder what he is going to say.
Hello Scholar Young.
He is slowly bowing his head and just standing there with his head bowed. I wonder how long he is going to keep his head bowed. Now he is slowly raising his head and looking into my eyes with that big chaser cat smile. How are you doing Scholar Young?
I am fine, how is your day going? (At least 60 students staring at me, this is very nice but embarrassing)
Things are fine with me; look forward to seeing you in class tomorrow. See you later.
Off he goes. All the students are watching me with a feeling of reverential respect mixed with wonder.
I had several professors who “every time” they saw me, would walk out of their way to come over to where I was standing or sitting. Then they would stop, look me in the eyes and say to me, hello scholar young.
Next, they would slowly bow their head and stand quietly for a few seconds with their head down. Then they would raise their head slowly look into my eyes with a big smile and ask how my day was going. After a short conversation, they would then move on to where they were going. They never walked within my line of sight without doing this ritual honoring, even when I was sitting with other students. While they were doing this, all the students around me watched in awe. The professors never passed me without doing this physical and verbal sign of high honor because I was one of the four Greek scholars in the University. They treated all four of us the same way. We were the only students treated this way by any of the professors.
I remember my first day of Greek class.
Hello students, welcome to Greek studies. Greek is the most rigorous subject that can be studied in any University. I appreciate your courage to attempt this study. We have a major test each day because there is so much to learn. We have hundreds of Greek vocabulary words to learn each day.
It will take you a minimum of five hours per night to memorize these words for the daily tests. Until this time you have not known what true scholarship is. Look at the person to your left and the person to your right they will not be here tomorrow.
Sure enough, in a day only four students were left out of a whole regular size class because of the rigorous scholarship that would be required each night.
Imagine trying to memorize hundreds of Greek words each night.
I remember my evenings in the dorm.
Oh, there’s Joe's room, he has his little green Greek book open and is in deep study. Let’s see, it is 5:00 P.M. I think I’ll go to the music room and practice the piano.
Here I am and it is 10:00 P.M. and there is Joe again and he is still studying his Greek. Oh, I can see in his room and he is just now closing his Greek book. He has been at it for five hours. Wow, that would drive me crazy.
My three fellow Greek scholars all told me they knew I was a genius because they were each studying five hours per night in their little green Greek textbooks.
Ok time for me to study. I like standing by the window outside the Greek class before the class time. I can see the Greek class door from here. Thinking I have to go in there and take the test is just the motivation I need.
Now I look down at the word and now I look out the window up into the white chiffon clouds. Ok, I got that one, now I just repeat this identical process over and over again. I glance down and look up into the clouds over and over. Hi Joe, I can’t talk with you right now. See you in the class. Finally, finished and I have a few minutes until class time.
Brace yourself for this absolute truth told to you once. I just got finished studying the same Greek book for five minutes and I know for sure I will get a hundred on the test. I just wish people would stop trying to talk to me as they walk by; it makes it hard to concentrate.
It was so easy for me. I knew absolutely positively that after my five minutes I would get 100% on the daily tests. And I knew all this information would stay permanently in my mind without any additional study. I really did feel sorry for the other three Greek Scholars who really worked their heads off studying five hours each night.
I felt a little guilty when the professors walked up to me daily and bowed to me in front of all the other students. It really didn’t seem fair when the other three Greek scholars had to study five hours each night and me only five minutes.
My fellow students noticed that I was not studying at all for any of my classes. So they asked me how long I had been a real genius. No other student would believe me when I sincerely honestly told them the truth once. I had simply read a book called the memory book and it was just a magic trick anyone can do.
Even my fellow Greek Scholars would not believe: the truth told to them once: it was just a trick anyone can do with ease, I told them over and over again. No matter what I said my fellow students had convinced themselves that I had to be a real genius.
Finally, I just gave up telling them the truth once and let them think what they wanted to. Remember the first law of real magic: People would rather believe a lie told to them a thousand times than the truth told to them once!
I found people are not opened minded. They have been lied to a thousand times and are convinced the lie is true. It is such a shame. The good life so close but so far; if they would have just believed the truth I told to them once. They could have had full tuition scholarships and enjoyed their university social life like me.
They had evidently been told thousands of times that there are real geniuses and figured I must be one of them.
Now, something really astounding did happen as I advanced on in my university studies. It blew my mind! After all, I was the wizard of Oz scarecrow C student all through my first twelve years of school. Coming from a family where most of my relatives did not get a high school education.
Here is again the truth being told to you once:
I remember when it happened. I am listening to the Dr. Rippy and I just realized I forgot to take notes on his lecture. What am I going to do? All my fellow students just walked out the door. I don’t want to tell Dr. Rippy how stupid I was to not take notes. Let me see, what was it; he was saying. Oh, I remember he was talking about the formula for changing a person’s frame of reference. You know I remember that complicated formula. He also talked about the different ways we can help people: by offering help, by indirectly helping them through their peers and you know I remember every single detail. I don’t need to take notes, it just all stayed in my head.
Let me try reading our textbook. Now I close it. I remember every word in what I just read every single word. This is amazing and I am not using the secrets in the memory book. I am remembering everything. This must be what it feels like to be a real genius! Wow, this is really weird, a good weird, but nevertheless weird as it can be. Me, Mr. dumb scarecrow with no brain and now a real genius from reading a book; hard for me to believe, dare I say: Real Magic!
Eventually, in my master’s degree study, I was able to “stop using” the secrets in the memory book. I found, I still easily got 100% on my final exams. It got so I could just set in the class and automatically remember every single detail of the professor’s lectures. I got so I could read a book and remember everything I read after one reading.
It was amazing how the memory book actually transformed me into a real genius with real magical super mental powers. It seemed like real magic that I liked very much. It made college so much fun, so inexpensive and it gave me so much free time to just enjoy my University social life.
You want a free almost half million dollar education; get, read, and use the secrets in the memory book, I did.
Here’s something for you to think about. There are many students using this book and they keep it a secret. They are your competition for scholarships. It is hard to compete with people who get 100% on all their tests.
By the way I not only got full tuition scholarships, but all my books and electronic equipment were also paid for with scholarship funds. My food was free and my housing was also free.
Will you believe the lie told to you a thousand times, or the truth told to you once, I wonder? This book worked for me Mr. no brain, it will probably work for you.
September 5, 2014
I couldn't finish this book.
The information is helpful, but by the fifth chapter, it gets extremely repetitive. It was like pulling teeth for me to actually sit down and read a page or two. Once you understand their main tricks to memorizing, you can basically apply them to any area of your life. I'd like to use them more often, but it does take some practice and time to form these habits.
The information is helpful, but by the fifth chapter, it gets extremely repetitive. It was like pulling teeth for me to actually sit down and read a page or two. Once you understand their main tricks to memorizing, you can basically apply them to any area of your life. I'd like to use them more often, but it does take some practice and time to form these habits.
September 17, 2010
كتاب مررررة حبيته ..
من فضل الكتب اللي قرأتها في هالمجال ..
يساعد فعلاً في التخلص من مشاكل النسيان وتقوية الذاكرة ، يعلمك ايش اساباب النسيان وكيف تزيد تركيزك في هالناحية ..
فادني كثير في حفظ التواريخ والأرقام ..
أنصح بقراءة هالكتاب ..
من فضل الكتب اللي قرأتها في هالمجال ..
يساعد فعلاً في التخلص من مشاكل النسيان وتقوية الذاكرة ، يعلمك ايش اساباب النسيان وكيف تزيد تركيزك في هالناحية ..
فادني كثير في حفظ التواريخ والأرقام ..
أنصح بقراءة هالكتاب ..
July 22, 2011
This book could have been a tenth of it's size. I didn't teach me much more than Joshua Foer's Moonwalking With Einstein and was much less engaging. Did learn a trick or two though, so two stars.
September 12, 2019
Finally, a memory book that has actionable content. I could put some of the ideas to use immediately, and they have plenty of examples to show that the fundamental ideas can be applied at different scenarios.
The book is old. The last few chapters were about remembering things like phone numbers and locations of places on the map, which unfortunately I skimmed over because I don't ever see myself using them. This shouldn't dissuade anyone from picking up the ideas in the book.
Note that deliberate practice is necessary to retain and inculcate these ideas in everyday life before it becomes natural.
The book is old. The last few chapters were about remembering things like phone numbers and locations of places on the map, which unfortunately I skimmed over because I don't ever see myself using them. This shouldn't dissuade anyone from picking up the ideas in the book.
Note that deliberate practice is necessary to retain and inculcate these ideas in everyday life before it becomes natural.
March 5, 2018
A great read. Some very helpful suggestions as to how to memorize various things. As with anything we doi the more effort you put into it the more successful you will be.
Recommended
Recommended
December 21, 2015
Focus on what you want to remember--if you want to remember. The best example is learning someone's name. Forget it right away? You're not being aware enough. When meeting new people, rhetorically repeat, "What is their name? What is their name?" Have that be your main nagging thought.
Substitute words for similar words. Page 73 is list for last names.
Put things in the same place every time. To remember to do or get something put something in your path or awkwardly out of place to spur original thought. "anything that looks out of place [...] wearing your watch on the wrong wrist"
(I haven't practically used that which is below--enough--to be useful.)
Learn the phonetic alphabet backwards and forwards to remember...not learning so shallow. Start with license plates around your home, then work; simply add acrostics for the three end letters. This is not to impress people that you remembered their license plate. No, it's merely support struts to more quickly create phone number memories--the real goal. With that, the license plate letters don't even need to be remembered.
Birthdates of family & friends are the next (practical) exercise. After these, phone numbers will be quickly translated to sounds. Why not start with your frequent contacts? (Eventually, the number will replace your mnemonic aid.)
Memorize peg number -> word. I broke every five pegs into a picture. E.g., for 6-10, I see my running shoe with a cow, suspended inside it by ropes of ivy, with bees around its right back hoof, which has some abnormal toes jutting out at weird angles from it.
6 = shoe
7 = cow
8 = ivy
9 = bee
10 = toes
A tot is in a tin shaped tomb, rolling down a hill inside a mono(tire)wheel rolling on a tile path. (11-15)
A spinning dish on a tack (like a wheel for clay), has a dove nested inside. All of which is surrounded by tub sculpted as a nose. (16-20)
A net caught a nun, with name Nero, hanging by a nail. (21-25)
A notch in your neck by a knife, now a knob for a nose, and a mouse next to your house. (26-30)
Matt went to the moon, while mommy used the mower instead of a mule. (31-35)
Match the mug to the movie, then (DNA) map a rose. (36-40)
A road with rain, cut scene, ram & rower rule. (41-45)
A roach under a rock on a reef near a rope lasso. (46-50)
A lady lion eats a lamb after using lure of lily. (51-55)
A leech on a log in lava spilling from the lip of cheese. (56-60)
A cheetah in chain from stealing a gem, eats a cherry in her hanging jail. (61-65)
A judge saw chalk (as the murder weapon), a chef on a ship (as the prime suspect) with a case (as the motive). (66-70)
A cat bought a gun to play a game in a car with coal. (71-75)
A cage with a gage in a cave guarded by a cop all for a vase/fuzz. (76-80)
A fit/foot tries to get a phone but foam (like plastic) from a fire keeps it in file(ing cabinet). (81-85)
A fish swimming in fog named Fife tries to fob open a bus. (86-90)
A bat of bone is held by a bum while a bear fights a bull. (91-95)
On a beach/bush a book lies next to bad beef, but a babe still gets daisies/disease. (96-100)
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To practice remembering them, I set each 'story' or at least the first peg picture inside a memory palace. Actually, it's my backyard:
Corner number one, the first picture (not described above); going clockwise, corner two near garden, a giant soiled shoe (6); corner three, a tot...(11); spinning dish over birdhouse (16). Going to side lawn, clothes line has a net hanging from it (21); corner, clockwise, where an angry neighbor is making making a notch (26); big tree splits in half while a rocket comes out with Matt at the controls (31); (36).
Front door, (41); main front door, (46); closest corner of driveway, (51); Preis corner of driveway, (56); small gate, (61); other side of small gate,(66).
Up, top of fence to roof corner, (71); counterclockwise next roof corner, (76); farthest roof corner, (81); next corner, (86); next corner, (91); last corner above back door from beginning, (96).
Substitute words for similar words. Page 73 is list for last names.
Put things in the same place every time. To remember to do or get something put something in your path or awkwardly out of place to spur original thought. "anything that looks out of place [...] wearing your watch on the wrong wrist"
(I haven't practically used that which is below--enough--to be useful.)
Learn the phonetic alphabet backwards and forwards to remember...not learning so shallow. Start with license plates around your home, then work; simply add acrostics for the three end letters. This is not to impress people that you remembered their license plate. No, it's merely support struts to more quickly create phone number memories--the real goal. With that, the license plate letters don't even need to be remembered.
Birthdates of family & friends are the next (practical) exercise. After these, phone numbers will be quickly translated to sounds. Why not start with your frequent contacts? (Eventually, the number will replace your mnemonic aid.)
Memorize peg number -> word. I broke every five pegs into a picture. E.g., for 6-10, I see my running shoe with a cow, suspended inside it by ropes of ivy, with bees around its right back hoof, which has some abnormal toes jutting out at weird angles from it.
6 = shoe
7 = cow
8 = ivy
9 = bee
10 = toes
A tot is in a tin shaped tomb, rolling down a hill inside a mono(tire)wheel rolling on a tile path. (11-15)
A spinning dish on a tack (like a wheel for clay), has a dove nested inside. All of which is surrounded by tub sculpted as a nose. (16-20)
A net caught a nun, with name Nero, hanging by a nail. (21-25)
A notch in your neck by a knife, now a knob for a nose, and a mouse next to your house. (26-30)
Matt went to the moon, while mommy used the mower instead of a mule. (31-35)
Match the mug to the movie, then (DNA) map a rose. (36-40)
A road with rain, cut scene, ram & rower rule. (41-45)
A roach under a rock on a reef near a rope lasso. (46-50)
A lady lion eats a lamb after using lure of lily. (51-55)
A leech on a log in lava spilling from the lip of cheese. (56-60)
A cheetah in chain from stealing a gem, eats a cherry in her hanging jail. (61-65)
A judge saw chalk (as the murder weapon), a chef on a ship (as the prime suspect) with a case (as the motive). (66-70)
A cat bought a gun to play a game in a car with coal. (71-75)
A cage with a gage in a cave guarded by a cop all for a vase/fuzz. (76-80)
A fit/foot tries to get a phone but foam (like plastic) from a fire keeps it in file(ing cabinet). (81-85)
A fish swimming in fog named Fife tries to fob open a bus. (86-90)
A bat of bone is held by a bum while a bear fights a bull. (91-95)
On a beach/bush a book lies next to bad beef, but a babe still gets daisies/disease. (96-100)
-----------
To practice remembering them, I set each 'story' or at least the first peg picture inside a memory palace. Actually, it's my backyard:
Corner number one, the first picture (not described above); going clockwise, corner two near garden, a giant soiled shoe (6); corner three, a tot...(11); spinning dish over birdhouse (16). Going to side lawn, clothes line has a net hanging from it (21); corner, clockwise, where an angry neighbor is making making a notch (26); big tree splits in half while a rocket comes out with Matt at the controls (31); (36).
Front door, (41); main front door, (46); closest corner of driveway, (51); Preis corner of driveway, (56); small gate, (61); other side of small gate,(66).
Up, top of fence to roof corner, (71); counterclockwise next roof corner, (76); farthest roof corner, (81); next corner, (86); next corner, (91); last corner above back door from beginning, (96).
January 13, 2021
A very unique approach to memory training w/tangible, practical approaches to remember any & everything from names to numbers to entire lists. A very visual & imagery-centric guide, so if this is not your strong suit, will take some work. But overall user friendly & attainable to all.
March 11, 2020
I re-discovered the book in the basement and couldn't remember a thing about it. Not a good sign for a book about improving your memory but it's never to late.
The most important methods presented here are
Word substitution
It's hard to remember words that don't make sense and it's better to come up with something that is easier to visualize. The authors give endless examples for that and I became jealous how easy it is for them. There is nothing that they can't simplify and I hope that it's just a matter of training or having the right mindset because it's the base of their system.
Linked lists
Another fundamental are linked lists. Forming creative and outrageous associations between words helps to remember them and, this is the best part, you only have to memorize the beginning. The rest will flow from there and I can confirm that this method works great.
Major system for Numbers
For numbers the authors promote something that is now known as major system. Each of the digits from 0-9 is associated with a consonant and the trick is to form words to remember long numbers, e.g. rose would be 40, buffalo would be 985 etc. You can find a lot of information on the internet and learning words for the numbers from 0-99 will pay off a thousand times. A little bit frustrating was to see how easily the authors find words for long numbers. This is something I can't do yet although by having something for the 2-digit numbers enables me to use the system too.
New to me was the so-called memory graph, a system with coordinates that you could use to remember locations or anatomy easier. Very interesting was also the remark that your helper images will disappear after a while and just the fact will pop up in your mind. This allows you to re-use the pictures without getting confused, e.g. having 100s associations with rose might make it difficult what exactly was meant.
The only negative point for me was the chatty style. I have read other books about memory improvement so the important things were clear to me. This wasn't the case when I bought the book in the 90s and I wouldn't recommend it if you need clear instructions. For seeing the system in action though it's absolutely priceless. If you are familiar with the various methods and want examples then this book is for you.
For better instructions I recommend The Memory Workbook.
The most important methods presented here are
Word substitution
It's hard to remember words that don't make sense and it's better to come up with something that is easier to visualize. The authors give endless examples for that and I became jealous how easy it is for them. There is nothing that they can't simplify and I hope that it's just a matter of training or having the right mindset because it's the base of their system.
Linked lists
Another fundamental are linked lists. Forming creative and outrageous associations between words helps to remember them and, this is the best part, you only have to memorize the beginning. The rest will flow from there and I can confirm that this method works great.
Major system for Numbers
For numbers the authors promote something that is now known as major system. Each of the digits from 0-9 is associated with a consonant and the trick is to form words to remember long numbers, e.g. rose would be 40, buffalo would be 985 etc. You can find a lot of information on the internet and learning words for the numbers from 0-99 will pay off a thousand times. A little bit frustrating was to see how easily the authors find words for long numbers. This is something I can't do yet although by having something for the 2-digit numbers enables me to use the system too.
New to me was the so-called memory graph, a system with coordinates that you could use to remember locations or anatomy easier. Very interesting was also the remark that your helper images will disappear after a while and just the fact will pop up in your mind. This allows you to re-use the pictures without getting confused, e.g. having 100s associations with rose might make it difficult what exactly was meant.
The only negative point for me was the chatty style. I have read other books about memory improvement so the important things were clear to me. This wasn't the case when I bought the book in the 90s and I wouldn't recommend it if you need clear instructions. For seeing the system in action though it's absolutely priceless. If you are familiar with the various methods and want examples then this book is for you.
For better instructions I recommend The Memory Workbook.
January 16, 2019
I've read several books on memorization techniques and other more broad books about the brain, memory and how it works. This is probably the most practical one I've come across so far. Very easy to read, covers a lot of different techniques and has many examples for each technique. You won't become an expert overnight, you still have to practice the different methods in the book, but this is by far the most comprehensive book I've come across. It will cover the basics such as memory palace, peg system, and Major System (memorizing numbers using letters and sounds) and also goes into both abstract and practical applications (you're typical memorizing a deck of cards, which is useless outside of impressing people or memory competitions; to memorizing peoples names, foreign language vocab, etc., which are more practical day to day). Some of the practical applications are a bit outdated in this day and age where we have a smartphone glued to our hand and Siri or Google Home to ask it anything; however, they are still cool to learn how to do (e.g. memorizing phone numbers, birthdays, knowing what day any date of the year is, memorizing day to day tasks and shopping lists, etc.). It's refreshing sometimes to know something off top of your head without pulling out your phone to check.
From what I remember it also gets into some broad tips and techniques for studying new material and textbooks (very practical for your typical university or college student). However, if you're more interested in studying techniques I would recommend A Mind For Numbers by Barbara Oakely.
From what I remember it also gets into some broad tips and techniques for studying new material and textbooks (very practical for your typical university or college student). However, if you're more interested in studying techniques I would recommend A Mind For Numbers by Barbara Oakely.
March 11, 2014
Turns out that when an atom of Cesium is bombarded with energy is starts vibrating / ticking and every such 9129631770 ticks counts as a second. Hence the name atomic clock. Now in order to remember that number I just go: button push meets cow cozy (actually thinking of a button with push written on it talking to a happy cow). Absolutely brilliant.
This was my first memory improvement book and I loved the techniques mentioned in here. Although extremely impressed, I know I have to keep working on these techniques for a long time to get comfortable with them. Will start recommending this book to a few people who might find it interesting.
"It is impossible to think without a mental picture." - Aristotle
This was my first memory improvement book and I loved the techniques mentioned in here. Although extremely impressed, I know I have to keep working on these techniques for a long time to get comfortable with them. Will start recommending this book to a few people who might find it interesting.
"It is impossible to think without a mental picture." - Aristotle
October 10, 2020
Not a page turner after the first 4 or 5 chapters
This is a book on improving your memory by using a combination of systems and associations to remember common things such as names, places, telephone numbers, appointments etc. The first couple of concepts on Link and Substitution were great and then it got quite repetitive through the rest of the chapters. I guess once you 'memorize' a few tricks it can basically be applied to many areas of life. By a few hacks, I was able to memorize all 50 states of the US alphabetically. That said, for the rest it does get quite repetitive and will take time and patience to memorize the remaining memory systems.
This is a book on improving your memory by using a combination of systems and associations to remember common things such as names, places, telephone numbers, appointments etc. The first couple of concepts on Link and Substitution were great and then it got quite repetitive through the rest of the chapters. I guess once you 'memorize' a few tricks it can basically be applied to many areas of life. By a few hacks, I was able to memorize all 50 states of the US alphabetically. That said, for the rest it does get quite repetitive and will take time and patience to memorize the remaining memory systems.
February 20, 2019
The way cheaper alternative to all those meddling and costly training programs of Jim Kwik and the like :) Suggested methods really work if you practice well, some – even quite fast and with little efforts. The thing is that with emerging technologies people no longer care about training their memory. Each and every remembering process gets easily replaced by combination of hard- and software, in the same time putting our mind’s abilities in certain limits and even reducing these abilities (e.g. attention span).
February 23, 2008
there is a Simple techniques you can learn from this book that will help you to memorize alots of things
June 4, 2012
نتائج هذا الكتاب-بعد التطبيق- فورية..!!
June 7, 2013
Simply put: It works well, but requires putting much additional energy into creating memory sequences that I feel are not practical for the person looking for general memorization tricks
May 24, 2014
I'm only giving three stars because I read this back in the '70s, and, ironically, I don't remember any of it.
September 18, 2017
The way it's written is quite old fashioned, long winded, and utterly boring. I couldn't finish it.
December 1, 2013
Good book. Does not go into memory palaces but has lots of good info. Also has lots of fluff.
February 6, 2020
The first chapters of another self-help book on mnemonics that seem to appear regularly have nothing new. A more recent one I read Moonwalking with Einstein: the Art and Science of Remembering Everything (2012) was probably more thorough as an overview of what goes on in this arena. Who needs to memorize the fifty states in alphabetical order from A to W and backwards? It’s enough to know their geographical location in your mind’s eye. I did not care to go through this exercise to practice building a memory aid scheme. It does get better further on.
The chapter on absentmindedness is helpful. “Think of what you’re doing during the moment in which you’re doing it” to solve absentmindedness. (p. 96) The authors advise to make an association each time you put down your glasses or whatever and to force yourself to make a picture association between the object and the spot where you put it and make this a habit. (p. 97) The picture may be something ridiculous but you must be paying attention. You must make the effort and it will become a habit quite soon.
My interest in building a mnemonic method faded except the foreign language primer perhaps. This would have been useful before our most recent excursion into French speaking province but we have no such plans in the foreseeable future by which time this will be forgotten or hard to find.
Learning to convert numbers to words is formidable task. I simply opted out of it. I noticed that one of the authors established himself as some kind of a magician performer. There may be future in that for someone not for me.
The chapter on absentmindedness is helpful. “Think of what you’re doing during the moment in which you’re doing it” to solve absentmindedness. (p. 96) The authors advise to make an association each time you put down your glasses or whatever and to force yourself to make a picture association between the object and the spot where you put it and make this a habit. (p. 97) The picture may be something ridiculous but you must be paying attention. You must make the effort and it will become a habit quite soon.
My interest in building a mnemonic method faded except the foreign language primer perhaps. This would have been useful before our most recent excursion into French speaking province but we have no such plans in the foreseeable future by which time this will be forgotten or hard to find.
Learning to convert numbers to words is formidable task. I simply opted out of it. I noticed that one of the authors established himself as some kind of a magician performer. There may be future in that for someone not for me.
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