Reading Reference Books

A few years ago I heard a newsreader and journalist dispel a rumor that he'd learned english from reading the dictionary. It was a little thing in a long interview but it stuck in my memory.

How is that relevant? Well, I spent today feeling ill and reading Couture Sewing Techniques by Claire B. Shaeffer, and it's full of details that you could never hope to remember after one go without an eidetic memory. So why did I do it?

When she was young, my mum read the whole encyclopedia, and, even though she didn't remember the details, she could usually tell you if a specific topic was in there or not. I'm going to be referring to this book allot in the future to help me improve my sewing and it would be good to know when I can turn to it. I can come across a task and think, 'This was covered in that book I read!"

Much more useful than digging up facts about airplane crashes in Mary Roach's 'Stiff'. (Over the 2-ish years I wasn't sewing I read about 300 books.)

Did you know when airplane crash victims his water they often end up stripped naked by the force? Something to think on.