The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play

Though the book is a little dated in its language and examples, its applies just as well today. If you only try the most simple memory aid in the book, you'll always have your shopping list for recall, our any other list. Though many memory aids now have substitutes in smart phone apps, these exercises not only mean that you can remember with your mind, but also that you'll be more alert and notice more of the world during your sort time on it.

The systems in this book definitely work. It's almost spooky. Feeling as if you have known a long digit number for a long time after reading it once is a change of perspective. There are some redundant systems like the graph system and the chapters are extremely bloated as the concepts can be explained in a few short sentences yet the chapters explaining them use paragraphs of over-explanation and stories that don't really have to do with teaching memory systems.

Like the Mathematician, Russel McDonald, who wrote his review of this book at 55 (and started learning the system at 14) I am older (60) but read, studied, memorized, and applied the principles in this book when I was 16. It takes effort and time to fully master all of the mnemonic techniques, pegs, hooks, graphs and all of the other materials to guide you in using all of the advanced associative memory techniques better known as "the major system" well outlined and painlessly taught in this wonderful book. I have only met one person who professed to having read it, and she stopped at simple association and had never gone any further. You will only get out of this what you actively put into it with concentrated effort and time. It is an incredibly powerful, disciplined memory training system. One example of its power is the time I used it to teach myself to speak German when I was 28 years old from absolute beginner to college level in 6 months. I speak fluent German to this day. You have to want this badly, study it hard, and over-learn and apply it for it to work. Do that and your results will be nothing short of amazing.