Reminds me of sitting for my doctoral exams, back before the flood when a doctoral exam was actually serious.  They could ask you any detail from any one of thousands of books (literature doctorate), and you had to be able to answer.  I remember so clearly one examiner (there were 5, and there was an audience, for full humiliation possibilities) asking me what type of tree grew beside the front door of the house described in the opening chapter of Père Goriot. Of course I remember because I got that one wrong!  Anyhow I spent a couple years sleeping with a bright light in my face so I'd only sleep as long as my body was exhausted and then wake up and go on reading. There was no "life," just books.  It did prepare me to teach the entire range of undergraduate classes as well as graduate classes in my area of specialization, which I've done now for 40 years, but it sure wasn't for the faint of heart or young people wanting a life with "fun" as part of the deal.

Reminds me of sitting for my doctoral exams, back before the flood when a doctoral exam was actually serious.  They could ask you any detail from any one of thousands of books (literature doctorate), and you had to be able to answer.  I remember so clearly one examiner (there were 5, and there was an audience, for full humiliation possibilities) asking me what type of tree grew beside the front door of the house described in the opening chapter of Père Goriot. Of course I remember because I got that one wrong!  Anyhow I spent a couple years sleeping with a bright light in my face so I'd only sleep as long as my body was exhausted and then wake up and go on reading. There was no "life," just books.  It did prepare me to teach the entire range of undergraduate classes as well as graduate classes in my area of specialization, which I've done now for 40 years, but it sure wasn't for the faint of heart or young people wanting a life with "fun" as part of the deal.

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