Age-Proof Your Brain starts off with a simple questionnaire to check how sharp your brain is, and continues to provide challenges that aim to tone, build and boost your memory. According to the author, if you use the techniques and tips prescribed in the book to train your brain, the results will be plain to see in seven days. Well, it is actually a seven-day 'get sharp' plan, followed by a seven week 'stay sharp' plan, topped by a lifetime 'keep at it' plan. But more on that later.
The theory of the book – dealing with topics such as the map of the brain, types of memories, methods from ‘chunking’ to rhymes, exercising, eating right, and stress busting – is written in a simple style, and also packs in trivia as well as advances relating to human memory. The practical aspects of the book start off with flashbacks. Remember those math problems from high school where Sam and Tim's ages added up to 75, and Sam was twice Tim's age five years ago? You will most likely saunter through these, and names of the planets, and feel reasonably respectable about your mind. Buzan brings on the toughies gradu-ally and then you realise why the road to being a mastermind is less travelled. Try learning the names of the nine muses (goddesses in the Greek mythology who ruled over the arts and sciences) and their skills in two minutes. To give you an idea of what you will be dealing with, Terpsichore is the muse of dance, Polyhymnia is the muse of sacred poetry, and Melpomene is the muse of tragedy. Meanwhile, you are also expected to solve mysteries, crack messages in Morse code, and memorise Shakespeare's sonnets, even as you fill in the gaps in stories where the first and last lines are provided.
The effectiveness of the exercises is hampered somewhat by a couple of factors, the first of which is the time that the book prescribes for different ones. Two minutes are allotted to memorise the names of all the US presidents since World War II and the years in which they served. If you take five minutes for this exercise, have you failed at sharpening your memory? Conversely, you get ten minutes for 45 multiple choice questions that test your general knowledge, and that seems like too much time. Secondly, in the skill developing section, it is assumed that you choose music, which Buzan recommends. If you have chosen some other skill, you will be at a loss through the subsequent exercises. But we have to say that this book has its heart in the right place and it breaks down a rather lofty goal into small, achievable targets. Go on and do what it asks of you. Your brain, as it says, is in your hands.
Hardcover Business Best Sellers
WHERE HAVE ALL THE LEADERS GONE? by Lee Iacocca. (Scribner, $25.) The former CEO of Chrysler protests the lack of political and business leadership on issues like health care and energy policy.
DO YOU! by Russell Simmons with Chris Morrow (Gotham, $23.) The Hip-Hop mogul describes his successful visions and ventures.
THE BLACK SWAN, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. (Random House, $26.95.) The role of the unexpected.
THE EXCEPTIONAL PRESENTER, by Timothy Koegel. (Greenleaf, $21.95.) Techniques for improving your communication skills.
NOW DISCOVER YOUR STRENGTHS, by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton. (Free Press, $30.) How to identify and develop your talents and those of your employees.
WOMEN & MONEY, by Suze Orman (Spiegel & Grau, $24.95.) How women can achieve financial security.
FREAKONOMICS, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. (Morrow (revised and expanded), $27.95.) A maverick scholar applies economic thinking to everything from sumo wrestlers who cheat to legalised abortion and the falling crime rate.
THE DIP, by Seth Godin. Temporary setbacks need not be dead ends.
BLACKWATER, by Jeremy Scahill. (Nation/Avalon, $26.95.) An account of the rise of military outsourcing and the powerful private combat corporation, Blackwater USA.
THE FLIP SIDE, by Flip Flippen. (Springboard Press, $23.99.) A contrarian corporate trainer sheds light on personal constraints that hold people back from success.
SECRETS OF THE MILLIONAIRE MIND, by T. Harv Eker. (HarperBusiness, $19.95.) Think rich to get rich.
THE WORLD IS FLAT, by Thomas L. Friedman. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $30.) A columnist for the New York Times analyses 21st-century economics and foreign policy and presents an overview of globalisation trends.
OUR ICEBERG IS MELTING, by John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber. (St. Martin's, $19.95.) A fable about how to bring about change in a group, through the eyes of a penguin bearing bad news.
GO PUT YOUR STRENGTHS TO WORK, by Marcus Buckingham. (Free Press, $30.) A guide to being more productive, focused and creative at work.
THE NO ****** RULE, by Robert I. Sutton. (Warner Business, $22.99.) Building a civilised workplace and surviving in one that isn't.
Source: New York Times Best sellers list June 24
3 quick lessons
Age-proof your brain
It is not your age that counts
The brain has an amazing capacity to learn
Memory has no limits
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