This is a decent book, talking abt the importance of association in memory and how to improve it. I have found the advice very useful. However, this book is too repetitive. It gives a lot of examples with very similar methods sometimes. Thus, I’ll give it 3.5 stars

I can't remember what it's about.

The techniques in this book helped me graduate university back in 2012.

I had to memorise dozens and dozens of authors, year of publication and a summary of their findings.

I had no idea where to start and reading this book helped me so much.

I don't know how this compares to modern day memory books, but I can't imagine the techniques differ drastically, but they may be more visually engaging.

Great source to improve your memory. Lot of tricks. If you are a 16 years old student or 70 years old you need this for sure. !!

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.

there is a Simple techniques you can learn from this book that will help you to memorize alots of things

I'm only giving three stars because I read this back in the '70s, and, ironically, I don't remember any of it.

I can see some useful ideas out of this book. If you have a lot of time on your hands, and enjoy doing memory games then this is ideal. I will use the Link system and maybe some peg words, but overall writing things down is still going to be more efficient for me personally. This book is also very repetitive. I decided not to finish the last few chapters and move on to something else. DNF.

i like this book. it has very cool tricks to help you remember stuff, and its fun but time taking if your mind is not that creative.

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.

The imagination can distort memory just as much as it can reinforce it.

Three lessons:

Link it - imagine any way you want some B for A
Substitute it - use phoentic sounds to reproduce the memory
Peg it - peg a word to each number from 0-100 and use that as the base for future memorization

Read this for memorizing climbing beta for a flash attempt - will need to (1) add names to holds / moves , (2) imagine seeing/ touching each loci in 1st person , and (3) project my body in mind and see it in third person - while reciting the tip offs for each handhold and foothold and movement

Classic, still has lots to teach

There are quite a few dated references (circa 1974), and the techniques are shown with painfully lengthy examples, but the ideas are basic enough to get the first time through, with plenty of chance to practice. Groundbreaking work on the Peg System, Link System, and Loci System.