I'm watching "The Big Bang Theory" and Sheldon apparently once tried to learn how to swim by reading a book on how to do it. This reminded me of how my husband did the same thing when deciding he wanted to learn how to sail.
He read a few books, felt he now was capable of sailing, went out with a friend (not sure if the boat was his friend's or if they rented it) and proceeded to capsize it. Still positive that his book reading was all he needed, he and his brother, Wayne, took Wayne's son, Brent, and my daughter, Shelley, out in a rented sailboat in Florida and capsized it.
Mary and I were pretty darned stupid to let those idiots take our children out in a sailboat at all considering neither of the men knew what they were doing but Dennis was very convincing. He probably should have been a salesman.
Anyway, they were rescued by a passing boatman and brought back to our motel by paramedics. Dennis was furious that all of this embarrassment had befallen him but never in his life would he admit that learning to sail by reading a book was foolhardy. He always blamed Wayne for the mishap, too.
In time, he did learn how to sail but all of us, except him, knew that it was because of hands on experience and not those books that made him a good sailor.
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