Books.
July 10th, 2005 | by john |Books >> Textbooks.
I do not have a single clue what the deal is with textbooks; all textbooks I’ve held in my hand tend to over-complicate matters to the point of being absolutely intellectually fussy. I’m just referring to all the textbooks I was forced to buy high and sell low for; every single textbook made perhaps-interesting subjects into hazardous objects of boredom. It certainly does not help that most of the textbooks that my professors require are usually written by other PhDs who all seem to love their own personal style and diction when it comes down to writing a textbook. I can never seem to read one sentence without having run into the period at the end to think: “What in the world is this person trying to tell me?”
On the other hand, I love a good technical book I can buy for less than $49.99 minus tax, at my local regular bookstore. Now, those authors, they get to the point and they get to the point well. If I wanted to read about “How to do something” then all I have to do is flip through the Chapter X titled “Something” and start reading from the first paragraph to the last. In a textbook, I would probably be able to find a Chapter XX on page 689 entitled “Profoundly Abstract Something.” Then, I’d have to search for the first paragraph that actually explains what I wanted to find out since the first few pages will have some intellectual rant about the subject and how the reader should be aware of major assumptions that the chapter makes in order to explain the subject.
In reality, in all the technical writing classes that I was/am forced to take as a Computer Engineering major (about five total), our technical writing advisors always reminds us that simplicity is key. Well, I have to wonder where in time this advice turns from useful to something so petty that the high intellects of our society ignore it completely. Don’t they know that their work is being read by students? If not, then what is the deal with those problems at the end of every section and chapter? If so, then why write it as if it were to be read as a substitute to Unisom thirty-something minutes before you need to call it a night?
On a side note… personally, I think that the egos of upper-echelon intellects have fed themselves long enough. Unless you are Einstein, Newton, or any one of the intellectuals from earlier centuries, conceit should be bottled by a cork of modesty and stowed away in the cellar until maturity hits.
