for me, it was easy to learn the parts--(i had borderline photographic memory (its no were near so good now))
i can't see the words (so i can't spell them) but i could see the text, the ideas behind the words, and once they went in my head, they lodged there..
recently, a friend was reading a knitting history book and i commented about it. (No Idle Hands, a history of knitting in America, anne McDonald) i pointed out a minor deficientcy with the book, on page 66 she refers to the american traditional leaf design counterpane --with out giving a pattern--at the time she wrote the book (the 1960's) many would have immediately know the pattern, but today, there are major fracture lines in the knitting tradition, and many are unaware of what pattern she is talking about..
the woman looked at me like i had 2 head.. but she opened the book, and glances at it, and yes, oh, yeah as i was reading this, i was wondering about the pattern..
the passage stuck in my head (i read the book in the 1980's (late 1980's but definately before i was divorced, so i can date it) it was one of the few faults i found in with the book, and lodge there, it remain, waiting for ...what ever.
(same thing happened with binary and octal numbering systems. i learned them.. umm early/mid 1960's--(post JKF assination, but before 1965) knowledge of them remained lodge in my head, until in 1982 i got a computer.. and suddenly, working in hex, (with cross references to the binary code) binary re-appeared--and learnign hex was a snap! (i still know octal pretty well too..)
i was quite good in subjects the simple required read and remember the facts.. but often bored. Arther made history wonderful he help me understand the facts had meaning.
lots of fact still lodged in my head --many haven't found the connections that make them wonderful, but i have a store house of facts, one day i might use them all!
OP
