History Main / IngestingKnowledge

* [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Gaspode the wonder dog]] claims to have picked up much of his knowledge through chewing books.

* In ''Film/MyStepmothersAnAlien'', the stepmother is shown opening books, laying her arm across the pages, and reacting to the contents.

* ''BlazBlue'' parodies and subverts this in ''Teach Me, Ms. Litchi! Reloaded''. [[BadassBookworm Tsubaki]] suggests this trope as a shortcut to reconstituting [[{{Ditz}} Taokaka's]] intellect from scratch, and offers up a dictionary for it. [[OnlySaneMan Makoto]] is not amused at the obvious results.

* How does the Dragonborn learn the [[MakeMeWannaShout Thu'um]] in TheElderScrollsVSkyrim? The quickest way would be to [[YourSoulIsMine absorb the soul of a vanquished Dragon]] and glean the knowledge from them, consuming the soul in the process.

* The Wayward Vagabond in ''{{Homestuck}}'' learns human etiquette by eating a book on the subject. Although it's possible that he read it and ''then'' ate each page when he was finished with it.

* In the novel ''ProfessorMmaasLecture'', the protagonists -- termites -- "read" human writing by eating the paper and remembering where they can taste the ink, then reciting the writing from memory.

* ''{{Chowder}}'': Attempted by Mung Daal on Chowder. He tries to cram a stack of books in his head instead of getting him to study!

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* [[DiscWorld Gaspode the wonder dog]] claims to have picked up much of his knowledge through chewing books.

* The Space Marines of ''{{Warhammer40k}}'' deserve a mention as they were revealed in ''Deathwatch'' to be able to literally gain a person's recent memories by physically eating a portion of their brain. Tasty.

* ''{{Firmin}}'' by Sam Savage is a book about a rat {{uplifted|Animal}} this way.
* In the novel ''ProfessorMmaasLecture'', the protagonists -- termites -- "read" human writing by eating the paper and remembering where they can taste the ink, then reciting the writing from memory.

* [[EvilSorcerer The Archmage]] from ''{{Gargoyles}}'' gains the power of the TomeOfEldritchLore, not by reading it, but by EATING it. Though he has to use another MacGuffin to make it possible, so [[spoiler: when he loses it, the energies of the book end up burning him alive from the inside]].

* One {{Janosch}} story is about a family of mice where in the son became smart by eating books.

* Happens in a vision in TheBible (the book of Jeremiah).
** In another vision, John (the writer of Revelation) is told to do this, and he does. It's sweet in his mouth, and bitter in his belly.

* One episode of ''{{Charmed}}'' has Phoebe use a smart spell that allows her to absorb the knowledge of a book by waving her hands over it. When this happens, the pages flip by themselves and there's the sound of whispering, as if the worlds were being spoken in a sotto voice.

* On the first ''FullMetalAlchemist'', Scar somehow is able to absorb some of the investigations made by the Elric brothers related to the Laboratory Five.

* The Space Marines of {{Warhammer40k}} deserve a mention as they were revealed in ''Deathwatch'' to be able to literally gain a person's recent memories by physically eating a portion of their brain. Tasty.

* In the [[AllThereInTheManual backstory]] to StarCraft, the Overmind absorbed the knowledge of the xel'naga by, well, absorbing them.

* In DungeonsAndDragons, intellect devourers, small brain-sized creatures (with legs) can eat a victim's brain, then insert themselves into the skull and control the body like a meat puppet. (They can heal the grievous hole they needed to make in order to get inside.) Making matters worse, they absorb at least some of the victim's memories, making it easier to impersonate them.

* Until a recent update, your character in ''DungeonsAndDragonsOnline'' used stat-enhancing books pretty much exactly like this.

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* In FanFic/ThroughTheEyesOfAnotherPony, [[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Princess Luna]] has a spell that allows her to absorb all knowledge in any written document (destroying the document in the process). She later bites off more than she could chew by using this to absorb [[spoiler: ''the internet'']].

See also PowersAsPrograms, for abilities instead and knowledge, and InstantExpert.

* The Wayward Vagabond in ''{{Homestuck}}'' learns human etiquette by eating a book on the subject.