History Main / ButIReadABookAboutIt

* In ''Manga/PokemonSpecial'', the main reason Platinum went on her journey was to try out first hand the many things she read about. That said, sometimes she initially sucks at whatever she's trying out even when she recites whatever the book told her on the subject, like when she kept falling down when she was on a bike for the first time in her life.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', "Rise." Neelix claims to know everything about orbital tethers (flexible columns going from a planet to an orbiting station, so you can take an elevator to it). He must confess that he really only worked with models. Very detailed models as he's quick to claim, but still models. The practical knowledge he has is more than everyone else's put together, though--and it's enough to avert disaster at the beginning.

----> He seemed to have complete confidence that his instinct for mechanism would not let him down.

* Ume from ''Fanfic/SugarPlums'' uses this as an excuse for the skills she learned from her [[Reincarnation previous life]]. She's called out on it at least twice by another character, though the second time she actually throws a user manual at the character to explain that she did indeed read a book about what she was going to do.

* Ume from ''Fanfic/SugarPlums'' uses this as an excuse for the skills she learned from her [[Reincarnation previous life.]] She's called out on it at least twice by another character, though the second time she actually throws a user manual at the character to explain that she did indeed read a book about what she was going to do.

* DJ Croft of ''Fanfic/NeonExodusEvangelion'' is suspiciously good at sex, considering he's supposedly a virgin -- he learned the how-to from a book and filled in the gaps with just-that-awesomeness

* ''Manga/BattleRoyale'' uses this for two of [[{{Badass}} Kazuo]] [[TheUnfettered Kiriyama's]] Crowing Moments Of Awesome, both in {{Flashback}}. [[spoiler: The first has him breaking the arms, nose, and jaw of a bunch of bullies, with the explanation that "I simply used the information I learned from this book" * shows a human anatomy text* . The second has a [[SadistTeacher mean judo coach]] with a penchant for humiliating his students pick Kiriyama, reading a book in back, for the next spar. Kiriyama closes his book with the title facing the reader: "[[OhCrap Introduction to Judo]]".]]

* ''Literature/HoratioHornblower'' is constantly reinforcing his BadassBookworm status by reading. That and the fact that he is very GoodWithNumbers.

* Ted from ''{{Daria}}'' turns out to be good at a VR game because he read manuscripts on swordplay. It's almost the inverse of {{I Know Mortal Kombat}}.

* This was the shtick of the GoldenAge DCComics character Genius Jones (created by Creator/AlfredBester). Jones was stranded on a desert island with 734 books. He read all of the books and memorised all of the information in them, before eventually setting fire to them to attract the attention of a passing ship. Once back in civilisation he sets himself up as the Answer Man, a costumed hero who answered questions and solved crimes for one dime, using the information he had gained from the books.

* This was the shtick of the GoldenAge DCComics character Genius Jones (created by AlfredBester). Jones was stranded on a desert island with 734 books. He read all of the books and memorised all of the information in them, before eventually setting fire to them to attract the attention of a passing ship. Once back in civilisation he sets himself up as the Answer Man, a costumed hero who answered questions and solved crimes for one dime, using the information he had gained from the books.

You have a friend, who has never actually done whatever task you need to do, but hey, (s)he has read all about the subject so they are going to attempt it anyway. What could possibly go wrong... right?

-->-- '''Frasier''', ''Series/DueSouth''

** He's actually pretty good at the climbing. It's when he looks down that it all goes wrong.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Peridot has only read at least a few hundred years worth of gem history reports on Earth. Despite this, she didn't know there were still gems on the Earth other than [[spoiler:The Cluster and its prototypes]].

** In TheMiddleAges people venerated the civilisations of AncientGreece and AncientRome and couldn't believe that the classic authors could be wrong about ''anything''. UsefulNotes/TheScientificMethod hadn't been thought of; for example for a millennium people thought that insects had four legs, simply because an ancient Greek said so in a book. [[MedievalMorons No-one thought to check]].

* [[WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse Peridot]] has only read at least a few hundred years worth of gem history reports on Earth. Despite this, she didn't know there were still gems on the Earth other than [[spoiler:The Cluster and its prototypes]].

->'''Fraser:''' I did read a flight training manual in my grandmother's library. There were a couple of pages missing, but I'm sure nothing vital... And I'm guessing that there are a lot of similarities between a Sopwith Camel and today's light aircraft.
-->-- ''Series/DueSouth''

->''"The higher reaches of the military art were at first denied to these "unprofessional" officers but they embarked on a serious and successful programme of self-improvement. In December 1777, the Hessian captain Johann Ewald noted that it was common to find American officers in posession of the standard texts of Santa Cruz, Frederick, Turpin de Crisse, Grandmaison, Jeney, and Tielke as well as excellant small handbooks recently published by their own countrymen."''
-->-- '''Christopher Duffy''', ''The Military Experience in the Age of Reason''

-->--''Series/DueSouth''

-->--'''Christopher Duffy''', ''The Military Experience in the Age of Reason''