My clearest memory of that summer congealed around what I was reading in High School Subjects Self Taught. Not knowing where to start first, I would begin by perusing randomly through different sections. Because the algebra and other math sections were so foreign to my eyes, I decided to save those for last. The book began with Ancient History, so that's where I began.

The writer of this section could easily have scripted for Cecil B. Demille. I got a lot of sweep and grandeur, but not a whole lot of detail. Had it not been for the copious maps and timelines, I would have been more confused than I was. I was particularly drawn to the portions that served up Ancient Egypt and pre-Imperial Rome, but there were also vivid images of Periclean Athens and Alexander the Great. Having seen almost 10 years worth of sword-and-sandal epics on our TV — everything from The Robe to Demetrius and the Gladiators — the visuals came easily to me.

Once I got past all the history, astronomy, even the chemistry and physics, I was hooked. I actually found it

all fascinating. A day without opening a book was almost unthinkable at the time. I began reading some of Bob's old college textbooks to supplement the sketchier sections of High School Subjects Self Taught, which helped me a great deal, except in the one area that would torment me for the next decade: Algebra.

I slammed into this wall without even knowing how much effort it would take to scale it. I started off well enough with the idea of the variable and solving simple equations. I stumbled over factoring, but got over that. It was somewhere in the chasm between linear and quadratic equations that the sun refused to shine, and all was muck and mire to me there. The quizzes in the back of the section foiled me completely. I could not come up with a correct method or answer to save my life. Throw in more than one variable, and I was completely unhinged and reduced to moronic incomprehension. I was completely dumbfounded and thoroughly defeated.

I pounded away again and again, refusing to believe there was anything I could not learn. I would pound away for several more years, failing algebra twice in High School. Only in college did I finally ace it, learning