yep. There's something to be said for reading "a great book" from cover to cover. It is really an investment of time, effort and discipline over many days. I

yep. There's something to be said for reading "a great book" from cover to cover. It is really an investment of time, effort and discipline over many days. I think people (and I include myself) buy such books often with an aspirational intent, to spend that "perfect" weekend or weekends deeply ensconced in the subject matter and coming out of the reading as a different, better and more skilled person. It never happens that way, of course. We're just trying to re-live some past time as students where the world was an oyster of knowledge. For the most part memories of those days are grossly inaccurate, merely softened into nostalgia by the passage of time. In reality, many of us behave like monkeys continually zapped by shock-collars just trying to keep up with shit that never works right and always living in a profound deficit of knowledge, while drowning in information. Still, its good to have books, and worthwhile to take insane measures to get alone-time to read them. The short practical ones are best. Comprehensive reference books are good too because you can read just what you need while ducking from life's flying shit.