Coming back to what I did last week, I found and physically read a number of books. The one on basketball was an easy read and definitely filled a couple gaps in my understanding of the game. The book on coding was kind of dry but my high INT made sure I was able to sit through it and actually understand it.
Gave me a computer science skill. I will definitely grind this skill as I have some ideas from dead Lucas memories. I also checked out a book or two on finance and money management which I'll read soon and hopefully get some type of skill from them.
I held back from reading my school textbooks, deciding instead to stay at the pace of the teacher. These are full year classes so getting ahead will only leave me bored during class time where I can't do anything else.
Despite that, I'm learning things at a really fast pace than before, maybe it was INT or WIS that was accelerating my ability to learn but I was not complaining whatever it was.
The couple quizzes I've taken so far were stupid easy. I also got XP by performing well in those, just fifty-five points in total but that's way better than the low amounts I would get from doing basic chores.
At that rate and assuming tests give more XP, I could easily level up again before winter break. Who knew I would say this, but school is useful.
And I finally know what happens to books I 'learn.' They completely disappear as if they didn't even existed, no lightwork or anything while the information gets absorbed into my brain. I bought a cheap, soft-cover book on the advancement of modern warfare and accepted the prompt while alone in my room. One second the book was in my hands and the next it was gone. I didn't even have time to worry before I noticed new information I'd never sat down to learn.
I could easily see myself getting addicted to learning stuff that way. Maybe it's a good thing that I couldn't afford the books or I would become a book junkie. The very first in the world.
The whole skill-books thing really piqued my interest. Even while I was going around trying to find affordable books to absorb, there was one thing on my mind.
What makes a book be considered as a book?
Like, say I found an e-book version of a book from a site– those are usually cheaper than hard copies – and was able to download it and print it, would that be considered a book that I can absorb or maybe there are other requirements? Paperclips? Glue? Bindings?.
So in my free time I found myself researching something that would probably sound very weird. I want to learn what counts as a book, the types of books, and the elements that make a book a book. How many pages can be considered a book. Yeah, definitely the sort of thing no high school student would ever search. Or no sane person without a valid reason.
Is what I thought at first. But to my shock, what do I find after typing in 'making a book,' on YouTube?
Legit videos of people making books whether by hand or using machinery-traditional and high tech both And they have views too; some even with millions of views! Instead of spending time wondering why people cared about this subject, I decided to simply make use of them to continue my experiments. Don't look gift horses in the mouth and all that.
I scroll down the page, checking out moving thumbnails.
I find that the ones made by hand are more journal or diary-type books. Made with blank paper as the foundation. The books I'm familiar with, the ones you just read, are made in factories using automation. To my surprise it was very relaxing to watch book making.
I surfed around a bit more after watching funny cat videos, I got sidetracked for some time there. and clicked on a video about book binding at home.
I make sure it's a simple book too, not some fancy, medieval-looking tome. You know the type, the ones you see in games featuring spell books; the ones with buckles and metal corner protectors on them. Something like that would only be a waste of time. So I start the video and brace myself to be bored to death.
I watch two of those videos for the sake of variety and what I see does not make me happy. Sure I now know about signatures, and using string in the spine of the book, and even how to go about making the exterior of the book but the handcrafted version simply takes too much time.
Not as much perhaps as having to actually read the book but I'm certain there's a quicker way to go about this. So I check out the factory version of book making. I'd chosen not to start there because I don't have the machinery but maybe I can come up with alternatives with my new INT stat.
Couple takeaways from watching books be mass produced: it's actually pretty simple and a lot of paper seems to be thrown to recycling. The process starts with pages being printed, then the exterior is printed and seemingly laminated, and after that the pages are clasped together while adhesive is applied to the spine. The machines then stick the pages onto the jacket and after slicing off the excess, the book is basically ready for shipping. Not bad. Much more to my liking.
And now we move on to the testing phase.
Not every book brings up the skill-book notice. Or I would have noticed it was earlier.
From what I've noticed, only – and I'm going to put this in my own words – hard data can be 'learned.' Things like agreed upon terms, math equations, scientific laws and theories. And language books as well.
A book about military tactics used in WW1?
I can learn that.
A copy of any Harry Potter book?
That's a no.
AP-level psychology?
Yes.
A book made for children stories?
No.
I could go on but I won't. As long as it's some type of knowledge that applies to this world and people generally agree on, there's a chance that I can learn that book.
Makes me wonder how it works with contrasting ideas. Like, even just a few decades ago people were operating under misconceptions that people today think are obviously wrong. So assuming people as a whole can be and often are wrong, what are the odds that a skill-book I learn today becomes invalidated tomorrow? Would I get some sort of software update to fix that skill? A patch of some sort? Food for thought but it's not like I am complaining here but I just like to think.
Would I even be notified or would my skill be changed without my awareness? Like today I know something and tomorrow it's changed?
You know what, that's actually kind of invasive and scary.
Ok, time to repress these thoughts for now.
This whole monologue about what counts as a skill-book is because I had to take a trip to the school library and find a book that one, was learnable and two, was short.
If I was going to print some book as a test then logic dictates the book be as short as possible to save on money. I found a decent one after a bit of searching, the subject was history. Not what I'd have preferred but it met the criteria.
AN: Show some support and throw some power stones.