Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge
The Book of Mnemonic Devices

by Rod L. Evans

Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge Devices: The Book of Mnemonic Devices by Rod L. Evans is a collection of mnemonic devices (devices that aid in remembering information) old and new. Most of us are familiar with HOMES (how to remember the Great Lakes—Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior) and George Eliot’s oldest girl rode a pony home yesterday) how to remember how to spell the word “geography.” Evans has provided us with such devices in forty-six categories from astronomy to zoology.

The devices are helpful and entertaining, but of course, the reader will be selective in which ones he will use. For example, most of us would not need to name (or remember) off the top of our heads the taxonomic classification, but biology students might so they have--King Philip came over for good spaghetti—I will let you figure out the answer using the clues in bold letters. The book is an eye opener to the way the brain can be trained to remember things, plus it is fun to read.

An offshoot of these given devices is our ability to come up with our own devices (either new or original). I always told my students that the word “conscience” could be spelled this way--con + science, and that the word “separate” had a rat in it. Used over time, these devices become part of the reader's thinking.

This is an entertaining and useful book.