I've frequently been jealous of Scrabble players, as they have their own dictionary, but those of us who memorize things as a pastime don't have such a handy reference work. At least, that we didn't until now.

Dr. Rod L. Evans has written a book called Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge. This is a handy little reference book (218 pages) that is divided up in various topics, ranging from Astronomy to Zoology. Each section has various mnemonics related to the topic.

The topics are just academic ones, as you might expect. You can even find sections about hunting, birthstones and even distinguishing your right hand from your left!

Many of these you'll already know, such as “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge” (the bars of the treble clef: E, G, B, D, F) or “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” (mathematical order of operations: parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction). However, you'll also find new and original ones, such as “My Very Eccentric Mother Just Served Us Nude” (the order of planets, without Pluto: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune).

If you're in school, this book will prove very handy in almost any topic. It's not just for the studious, though, but trivia lovers and bar-bet-settlers, as well. In short, it's fun, useful and handy.