Textbooks

“What do you want to do?” she asked me, with a tone of voice that suggested she was ready and willing to laugh at whatever I said.  A group of us were sharing a drink after work, and somehow, in the course of the banter, I said I was going to retire early and find something else to do with my time.

“What do you want to do?”

“Make novelty ceramic dogs and sell them at weekend markets.”

That tickled her fancy.  She wanted a cheap laugh and she got it.  But then she turned half serious and said:  “But, really, if you weren't going to be a librarian, what would you like to do?”

“Write textbooks,” I replied.  She laughed at this even more than she had laughed at the ceramic dogs.  Then she seemed to noticed I had answered her honestly.

“Textbooks?  Why would anyone want to write textbooks?”

“They're endlessly fascinating.  I love looking at the design of them.”

“What would you write a textbook about?”

“I have a few different ideas.  I just need to learn more, first.”

It's true.  I love textbooks.  I love looking at course material - how have they designed it?  What's the layout, the breakup of content, the balance between information and activities...? 

I particularly like the textbooks that are usually set as “recommended texts”.  You know the ones I mean.  You get a list of textbooks for your subject, some are listed as “required texts” - these are going to be the textbooks you will actually *have* to read in your weekly studies to pass the subject.  But then there are “recommended texts” - books that will add to your understanding and make you a more rounded practitioner of whatever it is you are doing… if you take the time to squeeze them into your busy schedule.

Hardly anyone buys the “recommended texts”.  Even if you do buy it, you'll probably never find time to read it.  But I do love looking at them. They're almost always more entertaining than the “required texts”, and can be quite enlightening if you take the time to read them.  Which, I must admit, I rarely do.

These are the books I want to write:  the ones that have interesting graphic designs and chunky, textbooky layouts, but border on being non-fiction rather than course material; the ones that add to your understanding in almost completely non-essential ways; the ones you'll probably buy if you're naive enough to buy everything on the textbook list, but will probably never read because you don't have time for such things.

Why?

I don't know.  The heart wants what it wants.  I looked at a lot of different language books and materials when I was working on my last Masters, and at some point I realised I actually really loved this genre.  It's more than just information - it's also presentation of information.  It's more than just knowledge and ideas - it's the way knowledge and ideas are grouped and scaffolded and slowly sold to an unsuspecting public.

This genre challenges me with its need for clarity and brevity.  I am prone to waffling, and taking too many words to explain as much as I can.  Text books need to be concise and to the point.  How can I say all that needs to be said without wasting a single word?  Is it even within my abilities?

Maybe I will never actually write a textbook.  It may very well be that I never write anything beyond a few self-serving blogs.  I don't know.  But I can dream, can't I?