It has been suggested that one could learn how to make a lovely jam by reading Anna Karenina, and one could learn about gamekeeping or flower arranging by reading Lady Chatterley's Lover. This is possibly a thread to go with the one about Big Books. Anyone else have some practical skills they've picked up in books?

Moby Dick has some lovely recipes for chowder.

I think one might pick up a couple of tips on love-making while reading the Kama Sutra.

;o)

I was thinking that about Lady Chatterley's Lover. Did they really arrange flowers and keep game? I don't remember any that!

:o))

I learned how many things can be made from a butchered pig in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy.

I learned how to whitewash a fence from The adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Message edited in vain to get touchstone to work.

Message modifié par son auteur, Mar 15, 2008, 10:13pm.

Learned how to manually process whale oil in Moby Dick.

And learned how to rip off people depositing money into ATM machines in American Gods.

Message modifié par son auteur, Mar 15, 2008, 10:14pm.

Learned how to make soap in Fight Club.

Learned how to fend off the Undead in The Zombie Survival Guide.

Learned how to wrestle in Beowulf.

Allegedly you can learn to make a Vesper Martini in Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, but I haven't read it so I can't be sure...

Everything I know about horses I learnt from reading fantasy novels. Of course, that's not much, but that's beside the point.

There is a wonderful treatise on the sewers of Paris in Les Miserables, and likewise on the architecture of Paris in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

One can learn much about sailing boats and their construction from Rebecca.

I learned to raise a dragon from ERagon and how to act like a man from The Alphabet of Manliness (no, I'm not a man)

When reading The mysterious island one can learn how to make soap, glass, and - if I remember things correctly - dynamite, starting with two bare hands and a good knowledge of chemistry.
But basically the books I read teach me things I have no use for IRL other than on a more philosophical level.
I mean, things like how to survive a jump through hyperspace (different authors, different interpretations), the true use for dwarf's bread (as of the Discworld books), or how to structure a felicitous sentence in Ragi (the atevi language, in the Foreigner books) have little to do with how I spend my waking hours, eh? ;-)

Message modifié par son auteur, Mar 16, 2008, 4:12pm.

#11 - I'm not sure Busifer, dwarf's bread has seemed very useful to me, and I must say, I've made some loaves of bread and even some cakes which qualify!

I learned about weaving and a little about dying yarn in The Lady and the Unicorn

#12 - You mean you bake dwarf's bread?!?! I think I'll better stay clear of your neighbourhood! ;-)

Swiss Family Robinson also has lots of educational passages in it. If I remember right, the author intentionally wrote it to teach about the skills used by the Robinsons in a way that boys would find interesting.

I learned how to fly by reading the Hitchhiker's Guide series. You just throw yourself at the ground and miss!*

*Well, it works in the dreamworld.

#14 - I'm saying I've had bread and cake turn out which could probably have passed for dwarf's bread. It wasn't intentional! :D

If one wants to know how to raise 4 daughters on a budget, Little Women would be the book for you.

If anyone is looking to learn more about the history of chess then you might want to look into The Flanders Panel

I learned to play mumbley-peg (and ~lots~ of other really cool things) when I read How to do Nothing with Nobody All Alone by Yourself.

I also learned how to waste a lot of time by reading How to Massage a Cat, although I'm pretty sure our quite-absent feline LT user, Catalog, would disagree.

In The Perfume you (of course) learn everything about perfume and how to make it.

Wilderness survival skills in My Side of the Mountain

and, of course, in Jock of the Bushveld

How to exit a murder scene in The Godfather: Leave the gun, take the cannoli.

Or is that only in the movie?? It's been a while since I read it.