The Complete Idiot's Guide to Improving Your Memory

by Michael Kurland

A simple instructional handbook explains how to teach the brain memory system functions, providing numerous ways--from mnemonic devices to vitamin supplements--that actually work to stimulate the brain and increase recall. Original.

352 pages, Paperback

First published June 17, 1999

About the author

aka Jennifer Plum

Michael Kurland has written many non-fiction books on a vast array of topics, including How to Solve a Murder, as well as many novels. Twice a finalist for the Edgar Award (once for The Infernal Device) given by the Mystery Writers of America, Kurland is perhaps best known for his novels about Professor Moriarty. He lives in Petaluma, California.

Reviews

[NightPatrolman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book around 2008 after seeing it in a grocery store (it's really not a whole lot of pages and looked like a little booklet at the checkout lane), and I thought it would be worth taking a look into. However, after reading the whole thing, I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. Most of the book builds up the concept of memory and explains how it works, and only at the very end does it finally tell you how to improve your memory, which is why anybody would pick up the book, to begin with.

After all of that buildup, the book reveals the "secret" to improving your memory lies in finding ways to associate one thing with another. In other words, just make up a few mnemonics or weird stories to help yourself remember things. While I did like the advice, this book only needed to be three or five pages at most if it wanted to cut to the chase faster.

[Robert Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth a read, whether for entertainment or usefulness.