Plaidophile

This is useful for reading any book written solely by Arthur Clarke (especially his more recent stuff, like 3001), or any recent interviews with him:

Take a shot when:

• he laughs at his own joke
  • twice if it's actually funny
• he quotes someone else
  • twice if you've heard the quote before
  • three times if you've heard the quote before as written by him
• he answers a question which hasn't been asked
• he answers a different question than what has been asked
• he assumes that esoteric facts of science and mathematics are common knowledge
• he gets basic physics wrong
  • twice if he explains it with a feeble "advanced technology" explanation
  • three times if he explains it with a "it just works" explanation
• he predicts a specific implementation of future technology
  • twice if he gets it right
  • three times if he gets it wrong, but later makes it sound as if he was right anyway
  • down the bottle if his prediction specifically explains, in great detail, how this (in the future) "present" technology is so much amazingly better than how it was back in the (present) "dark ages"

(Meant with all due respect. He has been a very good author if you ignore the Rama sequels and the second half of the 2001 series. But, you know. Nobody's perfect.)