Product Description

'My Very Elegant Mother Just Sat Upon Nine Porcupines' reminds us of the order of the planets in the Solar System. This is a compilation of memory aids guaranteed to simplify masses of confusing facts on numerous subjects, including rhymes, acronyms, rules, phrases and diagrams. It offers an eclectic mix of reference and nostalgia. It is the only book you'll ever need that features more mnemonics than you'll ever need to know. Something for everyone, the book covers a number of different subjects - history to mathematics, mythology to physics, music to the human body and many more. Ever find yourself struggling to remember simple facts and rules? Is the ever increasing pace of life and glut of information challenging your memory? "I Before E (Except After C)" is full of memory aids to help you out. From well-known rhymes such as the popular 'Thirty days hath September, April, June and November', memorable sayings including 'Spring forward, fall back', and mnemonics such as 'Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain', to a selection of more modern methods of boosting one's failing memory, "I Before E" is the definitive guide to help you to unjumble your mind and improve your ability to recall names, dates, facts, figures and events, and contains all the mnemonics you'll ever need to know.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #660 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 176 pages

Choice Magazine, Oct 07
"A fun and useful mix of mnemonics, rhymes and acronyms"

Daily Express, August 07
"an excellent way to drum in essential facts and spellings"

Sunday Express Magazine, August 07
"the little poems that make a big difference to your brain power"

Customer Reviews

30 days hath september, April June and November
Only one minor criticism of this book is that it does not have an index. With computers it is very easy to do an index and any serious book should have one.

I still use the rhyme for the days of the month the famous Thirty days hath September etc

To spell or not to spell taught me that the mnemonic for DIARRHOEA which is a very difficult word to remember and is Dash In a A Real Rush Hurry Or Else Accident.

A common mistake because people get confused with the American spelling is licence / license and practice/ practise

s is the verb and c is the noun, that's the rule that runs the town.

A great little book which deserves a lot of study. It is a must for fans of arcane trivia. There were things in there that I had never heard of such as the taxonomic classification and the Buddhist ten states of mind.

A great present for those who think they know it all. They will soon realise they do not.

If you take time to memorise the contents of this book you might achieve number ten being Buddha, the state of perfection.

Indulge yourself!

This is a little gem of a book; I bought it thinking it would give me helpful ways of knowing and remembering more about grammar - but it's so much more than this.

The whole book is about mnemonics and rhymes as memory aids, grouped into 17 themed categories as listed in the contents page, which is viewable on the 'Search Inside' feature.

This book is ideal for flicking open and dipping into whatever page it lands on as it not only cites fascinating facts/trivia it also provides the means for remembering them!

To give a flavour of the diversity of information in this book, here's a rhyme which caught my attention (I hope the information's accurate!) on what's good to choose for firewood:

Beech wood fires are bright and clear,
If the logs are kept a year,
Chestnut's only good, they say,
If for long it's laid away.
Birch and fir logs burn too fast,
Blaze up bright and do not last.
Elm wood burns like churchyard mould,
Even the very flames are cold.
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills you eyes and makes you choke.
Apple wood will scent your room,
With an incense like perfume.
Oak and maple, if dry and old,
Keep away the winter cold.
But ash wood wet and ash wood dry,
A king shall warm his slippers by.

Brimming with fun ways to remember useful and useless facts
I was given this fun, nostalgic and potentially very useful book for Christmas, and I've enjoyed dipping in and out of it.

The mnemonics and aide-memoires in ` I Before E (Except After C)', are divided into thematic sections such as `Animal, Vegetable, Mineral' and `Musical Interlude', and include everything from practical ways of remembering spellings and scientific formulae to old-fashioned rhymes to remind one of delightfully pointless information.

The factor that really limits the usefulness of the book as a reference work, is the absence of any sort of index. Let's say, for example, you're after an easy way to remember trigonometry. All you can do to locate the information is to identify the chapter it's likely to be listed in, and flick your way through that until you stumble upon it. Despite this minor frustration, the book is ideal for anyone wishing to find better, or more fun ways of recalling key facts - from fans of trivia to older people struggling with memories less reliable than they used to be. In fact, every household should have one - in the smallest room and on the book shelf.