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Reader question: Please explain “textbook example” in the following: His computer keeps rebooting itself. The CPU fan gets really loud and then it just shuts down and restarts. It looks like a textbook example of spontaneous reboot due to overheating. My comments: A textbook example refers to a typical case or situation. As could have been described in a “textbook”, a computer user manual for instance, overheating may make the CPU fan go crazy – it “gets really loud” – and then the computer shuts down and restarts on its own, repeatedly. In short, a textbook example points to a situation where something happens exactly the way it should happen. In other words, it’s as though you’ve plucked the situation straight out of a textbook. Also textbook case - a typical situation as (though it were) described in the textbook. Watch Tiger Woods, for example, to learn how to play the game of golf – His forms and motions are sometimes described as textbook examples of how to hit the golf ball. Or watch Kobe Bryant for textbook examples of how to shoot a 3-pointer or a turn-around fade-away jumper. They made a bad example of themselves off the field, as a matter of fact – each having been found cheating on his wife – but that’s of no particularly grave concern here because we’re merely entitled to dealing with words and sentences. And so let’s stick to the point – on the golf course or on the basketball court, Tiger and Kobe, as pro athletes, are in many ways peerless. | 
