THE ART OF MEMORY · LESSON 27 OF 30 · PART VI: MASTERY

Keeping a Book

Monks who carried a hundred and fifty psalms in their heads, and a way to keep the shape and the key ideas of a book or article.

Memory hook: before dawn a monk kneels at a book whose pages fold up into a little cloister, each arch holding one illuminated picture.

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In this lesson: you will learn a five-step method for books and articles, map a text before you read it, turn the map into a palace, and recall the argument in your own words.
Where we left off
What is the rule of three in a speech?
Ideas in threes feel complete and are easy to remember.
What is an anchor?
A fixed gesture or picture that marks a turn in a speech.
How do you plan a twenty-minute talk with palaces?
A main palace with a room for each section, and a short chain of detail pictures in each room.

The monk and the psalter

A monastery in medieval Europe, before dawn. A bell rings, and the monks file into the church in the dark. They do not carry books. The service they are about to sing is made of psalms, the 150 ancient poems of the Bible, and many of the monks know them by heart.

The rule that governed monastic life asked monks to sing through the whole set of psalms in the course of a week. Newcomers had to learn them. It was normal to spend years memorising the psalter, and then to keep it all of one's life.

What did many medieval monks do with the psalms?
They learned all 150 by heart, and sang through them every week.
Talk about it. What is the longest text you have ever learned? How long did you keep it?

How did they hold so much? Scholars of medieval memory say that the monks did not try to hold each psalm as a block of words. They built a structure: they knew the order of the psalms, divided them into groups, and tied each to a place, a picture, or a tune. A text in their minds was a building with rooms.

Some teachers in the Middle Ages went further. They told students to picture a great diagram, such as a ship or a building, and to hang the parts of a book on it, section by section. The book became a place you could walk through.

How did the monks hold such long texts?
As a structure: groups, order, and places or pictures, not as one block of words.
Talk about it. Do you remember a book by its shape (beginning, middle, end) or by its details?

Most of us read books and articles very differently. We start at the first word, read to the end, and a week later can say only that we enjoyed it or it was long. Some of this is natural. But if you read for study or work, you want the argument, the key ideas and the evidence to still be there when you need them.

The method in this lesson is built on the monks' insight. First see the shape, then fill it in. You will map the text before you read it, turn the map into a palace, and read with a purpose.

What is the main idea of the method?
See the shape of the text first, then fill in the detail, and give each part a place.
Talk about it. What book or article do you most want to keep in your head?

Words worth knowing

Say what you think each one means, then open it.

a sacred song or poem; one of the 150 in the Book of Psalms.
the way something is organised. The structure of an argument.
here: a connected series of reasons that lead to a conclusion.
facts that support an idea.
to read quickly to get the main idea.
a short account of the main points.

Scholars of medieval memory, such as Mary Carruthers, describe the monastic memory of the psalter. Told here in our own words.

Five steps for a book or article

Read in two passes: first for the shape, then for the substance.

  1. Survey. Five minutes: title, contents, headings, first and last paragraph of each chapter. Do not read the body yet.
  2. Map. Draw a mind map (lesson 14): the main question at the centre, one branch for each chapter or main section.
  3. Place. Turn the map into a palace: one room per chapter, with a big picture for its main idea.
  4. Read and add. Read each chapter. Add two or three key details as pictures in its room: a fact, an example, a quotation.
  5. Test. Close the book. Walk the palace and say what each room holds, in your own words. Then check.
An article in four rooms
An article on why cities need trees, with four sections: heat, air, mood, money.
Door: introductionA tree growing through the front door with a sign: 'Why cities need trees'.
Hall: heatA thermometer melting in the shade of a huge leaf; the temperature falls by a few degrees.
Kitchen: airA tree breathes in a cloud of dirty smoke and breathes out clean bubbles.
Bedroom: moodA smiling tree sits on the pillow.
Garden: moneyA tree with coins for leaves.
The picture: Five rooms, five pictures: the article is a short walk with one key idea in each room.

Good habits

  • Ask a question first. What do I want from this text? A reader with a question reads better.
  • Use your own words. A summary in your own words is a memory; copying is not.
  • Keep the argument. What is claimed, what is the evidence, and what follows?
  • Review by walking. A short walk through the rooms a day later, a week later, a month later.
  • Do not memorise everything. Choose what matters. A palace of the ten key ideas is worth more than a vague memory of the whole.
see the shape first.
then fill in the rooms.
Say it aloud. Describe aloud the structure of an article or book you know well: the main question and its sections.

Now you build

Have a go before you open any answer. A rough attempt teaches you more than a perfect model you only read.

Map a text

Choose an article or chapter you have read. Write its main question and four or five sections (one line each).
Question: how to learn faster. Sections: 1 the forgetting curve, 2 testing yourself, 3 spacing, 4 mixing topics, 5 sleep.

Rooms for the sections

Give each section a room in a palace you know and a big picture for its main idea. Write them.
Door: a curve sliding down a slide (forgetting curve). Hall: a person grading themselves with a red pen (testing). Kitchen: a calendar with five dots (spacing). Stairs: a deck of mixed cards (mixing). Bedroom: a pillow with a brain on it (sleep).

Two details

Pick two sections and add one key detail (a fact or example) to each, as a picture in its room.
Kitchen (spacing): the calendar's dots flash on days 1, 3, 7 and 30 like traffic lights. Bedroom (sleep): the pillow sings a lullaby in the voice of a professor.

The steps

First, the text: look at headings and the first and last paragraphs.
Then draw a with a branch for each section.
At the end, close the book and yourself.
Why use your own words in a summary?

Say the article

Walk through your palace and say what each room holds, in your own words, for two minutes.
2:00

Drill

Flash cards

Say the answer first, then tap the card.

tap to turn over

Quick quiz

What is the first step?
What does a good palace hold?
Why ask a question first?
When should you review?

The memory challenge

Memory challenge: the five steps

Learn the five steps of the method in order: survey, map, place, read and add, test.

One room for each step: a pair of binoculars, a map, a flag, a book with a plus sign, an exam paper.

0:00

The list has gone. Type what you remember, one item per line.

Look back

These reach back to earlier rooms. Answer in your head or out loud, then check.

Lesson 26 · The Long Speech. What is the rule of three?
Ideas in threes feel complete.
Lesson 25 · Ideas You Cannot See. What are four ways to make an abstract idea concrete?
A symbol, a person, a scene and a feeling.
Lesson 14 · Drawing Your Thinking. What does a mind map's branch carry?
One main idea, with a key word.
Lesson 20 · The Night Before the Exam. Why does testing yourself beat re-reading?
It trains recall, which is what you need later.

What I can do now

A thought to keep

Which book on your shelf would you most like to keep? What are its five rooms?

Saved on this device as you type.

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