Improving Our “Signals” and “Beings”

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This is a book review of Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas’ The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play. I’ve written a review of the book because having a good memory is important in speeches, conversation subjects, and remembering people’s name.

You forget a person’s name. You leave important papers at work. You lock your keys in the car. You have trouble studying for a test. You can’t remember a speech so you have to read it. All of these are common situations that you no longer have to experience thanks to The Memory Book.

Co-author Harry Lorayne is a magician and card specialist. His most notable card “trick” involves accurately saying a complete deck of cards in order. How does he do it? He is able to memorize 52 cards in their exact order. Freaky? Definitely not once you read the powerful memory systems shared in this book. Both co-authors have demonstrated their “unusual” memory feats on television. Harry Lorayne has performed on television shows by reciting up to 500 names of audience members. One of his most remarkable feats involves remembering 13,000 names and telephone numbers from the Manhattan telephone book! I’m sure anyone can learn from someone with that skill.

Having studied memory systems for decades, Harry has developed efficient and effective memory techniques that are applicable to our everyday lives so you no longer have to kick yourself when forgetting something. There is a specific technique in this book for remembering people’s names, long digits like telephone numbers, speeches, appointments, foreign languages, sequences of information, and many more common situations where a good memory is useful – this includes eliminating absent mindedness!

Other specific techniques taught and demonstrated in the book are for speed reading, knowing the day of any date within the current year, remembering music, historical dates, and more. If the area you are interested in for improving your memory is not discussed, you’ll find the systems can be applied to remembering almost anything. By practicing the memory techniques a little and going through the simple given exercises, you’ll have the ability to remember almost anything within reason.

When co-author Jerry Lucas was a child, he developed his own patterns of memory. During college he read one of Harry Lorayne’s memory books and “blended” the techniques into his own; mixing and matching the memory techniques where appropriate. At college he was able to study one-quarter of the time that his fellow students spent studying for an exam. Not only was he able to study more efficiently, but it was more effective because he received top grades. Memory is certainly a case of being more productive, efficient, and successful. The ones who practice the hardest aren’t always the winners.

Later on in life, Jerry Lucas played professional basketball for the New York Knicks. Around that time he was able to meet up with Harry Lorayne for a meeting that lasted a whopping 18 hours. A lot of ideas in The Memory Book are from that meeting. At the start of each chapter, parts of the dialog from Jerry and Harry’s meeting is included, which makes for an interesting anecdote. For me, the funniest part involved one of Jerry’s basketball teammates who took off his long pants during warm up for a basketball game. After taking them off, people started laughing at him which made him realize he was wearing absolutely nothing below! Maybe your memory isn’t that bad, but the systems shared in this book will definitely help you.

I’m not someone who regards himself as having a good memory. Like many people, I think of myself to have a poor memory. However, I started reading the book and came across my first exercise in chapter two. Each memory principle has a worked example so that you can practice the technique and learn about it at the same time. The book is filled with worked examples for your benefit. I did the first exercise and couldn’t believe it! I remembered 10 completely random things in perfect order and was effortlessly able to recall this list in perfect order the following day. If that wasn’t enough, I could easily recite the 10 things backwards!

I was able to do this by simply reading and following the simple and step-by-step instructions given. It was like discovering this hidden potential within myself that I never knew about. Harry and Jerry believe any person can improve their memory. That means you!

The major memory systems used are linking and phonetics, while others include peg words, substitutes, and keywords. One downside to phonetics, which is an integral part of most memory techniques shared in The Memory Book, is the time required to get started with the system. It needn’t be a second nature process for you to benefit from the system, though it probably should be for things you don’t see on paper – the things you don’t have time to think about. However, it’s like an investment where you put a little extra effort in at the beginning to get a bigger return in the form of quick memorization that sticks.

The book doesn’t go into much depth as to why we remember, which may or may not be appealing to you. However, you are able to learn why the techniques work and at the same time you aren’t flooded with information that isn’t very useful for your daily living. The book is slightly smaller than the size of my palm at a little over 200 pages. In it are a lot of samples demonstrating the techniques making it a good read.

Many of today’s memory books and memory courses are based off of the powerful techniques shared in this book as it is a must-read in the memory world. Whether you want to memorize 52 cards in a row to impress your friends or not, you’re bound to find many useful applications of the memory systems.

By spending a few hours reading the book and practicing the techniques, you’ll save yourself countless hours of wasted productivity, frustration, and annoyances of not remembering things. The systems are reliable and you can count on them to work. Time magazine has called it “a never-fail system.” Grab your copy now from Amazon by clicking here.

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