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The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play Paperback – Illustrated, August 27, 1996
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It’s there in all of us. A mental resource we don’t think much about. Memory. And now there’s a way to master its power. . . .
Through Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas’s simple, fail-safe memory system, you can become more effective, more imaginative, and more powerful at work, at school, in sports, and at play.
• Read with speed and greater understanding.
• File phone numbers, data, figures, and appointments right in your head.
• Send those birthday and anniversary cards on time.
• Learn foreign words and phrases with ease.
• Shine in the classroom and shorten study hours.
• Dominate social situations: Remember and use important personal details.
Begin today. The change in your life will be unforgettable
- Print length237 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateAugust 27, 1996
- Dimensions5.53 x 0.67 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-100345410025
- ISBN-13978-0345410023
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"From the Paperback edition.
About the Author
Jerry Lucas is the author, with Harry Lorayne, of the bestseller The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Memory systems date back to antiquity. In the ancient world, a trained memory was of vital importance. There were no handy note-taking devices, and it was memory techniques and systems that enabled bards and storytellers to remember their stories, poems, and songs.
Early Greek and Roman orators delivered lengthy speeches with unfailing accuracy because they learned the speeches, thought for thought, by applying memory systems.
What they did, basically, was associate each thought of a speech to a part of their own homes. These were called “loci,” or “places.” The opening thought of a speech would, perhaps, be associated to the front door, the second thought to the foyer, the third to a piece of furniture in the foyer, and so on. When the orator wanted to remember his speech, thought for thought, he actually took a mental tour through his own home. Thinking of the front door reminded him of the first thought of his speech. The second “place,” the foyer, reminded him of the next thought; and so on to the end of the speech. It is from this “place” or “loci” memory technique that we get the time-worn phrase “in the first place.”
Although Simonides (circa 500 B.C.) is known as the father of the art of trained memory, scraps of parchment dating back a thousand years or so before Simonides state that memory techniques were an essential part of the orator’s equipment.
Cicero wrote that the memories of the lawyers and orators of his time were aided by systems and training and in De oratore he described how he himself applied memory systems.
It’s important to realize that oratory was an important career during those early days. “We should never have realized how great is the power [of a trained memory],” wrote the philosopher Quintilian, “nor how divine it is, but for the fact that it is memory which has brought oratory to its present position of glory.”
The ancients also knew that memory training could help the thinking process itself. From a fragment dated about 400 B.C. we learn that “A great and beautiful invention is memory, always useful both for learning and for life.” And Aristotle, after praising memory systems, said that “these habits too will make a man readier in reasoning.”
If Simonides was the inventor of the art of trained memory, and Cicero its greatest early teacher, St. Thomas Aquinas was to become its patron saint, instrumental in making the art of trained memory a devotional and ethical art.
During the Middle Ages, monks and philosophers were virtually the only people who knew about and applied trained-memory techniques. The systems, whose use was mostly limited to religion, were basic to some religions. For example, memory systems were used to memorize Virtues and Vices, and some priests and philosophers taught that memory systems showed “how to reach Heaven and avoid Hell.”
In 1491, Peter of Ravenna wrote The Phoenix, which became the best known of all early memory-training books and brought the art of trained memory out into the lay world. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, many other books were written on the subject.
King Francis I of France used memory systems, as did England’s Henry III. Shakespeare is held to have used trained-memory systems—his Globe Theater was called the “memory theater.” Philosophers of the seventeenth century taught memory systems (Francis Bacon has one in his book The Advancement of Learning), and some scholars insist that Leibniz invented calculus while searching for a memory system that would aid in memorizing numbers.
So you see, there’s nothing really new about trained-memory techniques. Unfortunately, the techniques fell into disuse for centuries. Some people who did practice them were actually regarded as witches. It’s true that memory systems remained in use as a source of entertainment for others—in our own century, vaudeville players used memory systems to perform “mental tricks” onstage—but they were seldom if ever used for practical purposes or serious learning. Here and there someone would try to bring the systems to the fore again, but without success.
In a book titled Memory, William Stokes, a philosopher and memory teacher of the 1800’s, summarizes the degree of public interest in the art of trained memory:
It is true … that notwithstanding the records of the past and the achievements, triumphs, and trophies of the present, the “educated,” the intelligent masses—the world—know not and seem not to care to know its wondrous worth. The adoption of the science by a few paltry thousands cannot be regarded as anything when we consider the countless myriads peopling the earth—when we realize the fact that it is as essential to the proper exercise and full development of our intellectual existence as proper breathing is to our physical well-being; in spite of all that has been said and done, we may say comparatively—almost absolutely—that the art is a thing unknown!
There can be little doubt that before long, it will be generally recognized as an established science; and posterity will look back, and regard … this plea on behalf of memory … as an indication of the intellectual darkness of this age of boasted enlightenment.…
Let us hope that the day will come when it shall be considered as great a disgrace not to use memory systems as it is at present not to read!
Stokes’s book was published in 1888. Nearly a century later, it is our pleasure to bring the art of trained memory back into the foreground—not only by teaching memory systems, but by bringing them to a level that the ancient (and not-so-ancient) thinkers would never have conceived as being within the realm of possibility.
Product details
- Publisher : Random House Publishing Group; Illustrated edition (August 27, 1996)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 237 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0345410025
- ISBN-13 : 978-0345410023
- Item Weight : 7.7 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.53 x 0.67 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #24,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #19,221 in Literature & Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757 – July 12, 1804) was a Founding Father of the United States, chief staff aide to General George Washington, one of the most influential interpreters and promoters of the U.S. Constitution, the founder of the nation's financial system, the founder of the Federalist Party, the world's first voter-based political party, the Father of the United States Coast Guard, and the founder of The New York Post. As the first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton was the primary author of the economic policies of the George Washington administration. Hamilton took the lead in the funding of the states' debts by the Federal government, the establishment of a national bank, a system of tariffs, and friendly trade relations with Britain. He led the Federalist Party, created largely in support of his views; he was opposed by the Democratic-Republican Party, led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, which despised Britain and feared that Hamilton's policies of a strong central government would weaken the American commitment to Republicanism.
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by John Trumbull [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Harry Lorayne is the world's foremost memory-training specialist and the author of The Memory Book, a New York Times bestseller for 46 weeks. His other books include Super Memory, Super Student; Remembering People, Memory Makes Money, and Harry Lorayne's Page-a-Minute Memory Book. He has appeared on national television many times, including 40 appearances on The Tonight Show, and has made hundreds of personal appearances, teaching seminars at major corporations, schools, and other organizations. His instructional 'Memory Power Package' of DVDs has sold thousands of copies on TV and the Internet. He lives in New York City.
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The Memory book is co-authored mnemonics guide written by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas, both of whom have made a living by demonstrations of their prodigious memories - perhaps moreso Harry Lorayne - who was an irregular guest during the Johnny Carson era of the The Tonight Show . Initially published in 1974, the authors both converse and elaborate in an informal tone on both the history and techniques of not just improving memory but also distinct methods on particular matters as simple as remembering shopping lists to sports plays. Starting with a simple elaboration about the well-known image linking method of remembering lists, the authors build on it with homonyms and codes that can be applied to almost anything that needs to be learned.
I really enjoyed this book in several ways. The light and conversational tone forgoes the drier explanations about psychology with simple and effective details that will have you remembering things faster than you thought. While most of us have resigned ourselves to the brute force approach of repetition in remembering anything, those seeking alternative methods will be very interested in applying the techniques that the authors elaborate. In my case, the chapter on learning a second language has been an incredible guide to remembering vocabulary, moreso when it is something as alien as the Japanese language .
There is one passage that really stuck to me – In chapter 2 they were quick to declare that “virtually all learning is based on memory” and that while some educators might take offense to having their lessons simply “memorized”, the authors countered with an anecdote about the three steps of basic learning: 1) the search for information, 2) remembering the information, and 3) applying the information. By concentrating on the second step, everything else you want to know will coalesce around and finally you will be actually learning. While I seriously doubt the methods and exercises will turn you into stage act on par with Harry Lorayne, being able to remember names, faces, and the associated phone would be an impressive feat in this age of the omniscient contact lists.
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?
Top reviews from other countries

I did wonder if the system was going to turn me into a certifiable crazy person at times: the things going on in one's head often do not bear repeating, but it really does help you store and save and reproduce far more information than one otherwise would normally manage.

But you have to have the desire and inclination to make the book work. But if you do you will be amazed what you can learn and remember. I used to know all the States in the USA and their capitals and all sorts of information. Recommend you try it - you won’t be disappointed! The authors at the time and still may be, are exceptional memory men at the very highest level!

About an hour after reading the requisite chapters it was job done.
Works perfectly and explained in a way a numpty like me can understand.
Well worth the money.

It's rather old fashioned and all the examples are America orientated. So I didn't finish it but went on to Lynne Kelly who is excellent!
