After reading "The Memory Book", I can have a group of people give me random words, one at a time, and memorize them... in the order in which they were given. Then, given a number, I can quickly recall the corresponding word. Or, alternately, given a word I can recall the corresponding number. It takes a few seconds for me to engrain each word, but I can easily do this with 20 words. I'm confident I could recall over 95 out of a 100 if I ever had a reason to try.
I have always considered my memory to be rather poor. But after using the VERY SIMPLE techniques in this book, I am capable of memorizing things many people would deem near impossible, with minimal effort. The first exercise listed ten words: Airplane, tree, envelope, earring, bucket, sing, basketball, salami, nose, and star. Then provided a child-like way to not only remember all ten words but also in the sequence in which they were presented. Some might, at first glance, think that's simple, but try it without a method! I had them memorized in about fifteen minutes and now they seem to be permanently etched in my brain; that was over a week ago and I just wrote them in this review from memory! The next exercise was a list of thirty words, most of which were complex and I had never seen before. That might impress some people, but these methods have real practical applications.
Memorizing names with faces, speeches, numbers (phone, credit card, a 50-digit number if you so desire) are what's taught in the first half alone. The use of "pegging" is central to the memorization methods taught in this book. Every number from 0 through 9 has a phonetic sound(s) associated with it. By mastering the basics, one can quickly figure out how to memorize a list of 100 words/names if he really wants to.
Here's an oversimplified example. Memorize the following ten groupings by using a simple rhyming method:
1. Bun
2. Shoe
3. Tree
4. Door
5. Hive
6. Sticks
7. Heaven
8. Gate
9. Vine
10. Pen
Now think of a word you want to memorize. This will be the first word in your memory. Now peg this word to the word "bun". For example, if you thought about a cloud, picture a hamburger bun with a big pile of "cloud" sitting in it instead of a hamburger patty. The more outlandish the connection you imagine, the easier it will be to recall. Peg your second word to "shoe" and so on.
This is really awesome. Why isn't this mandatory in elementary school?
