At school, Boris Liberman could not earn even a passing grade in dictation. Later, he graduated from an engineering institute with honors. At eighty, he took up writing a book about his own life.

A C in Dictation Was Beyond Me is a memoir of family, work, inventions, and life in Israel. School exams give way to college and military service; early engineering problems lead to new questions. Along the way are the people who remain vivid in his memory: his father, loved ones, friends, and colleagues.

Liberman recalls learning through practical work, taking on unfamiliar tasks, and finding solutions. He remembers his mistakes as well as the help he received. His humor often turns on himself: at his first job, graduating with honors was worth an extra ten rubles a month.

Fifteen chapters trace the life of a man who keeps trying something new. The epilogue, 'White Horses,' introduces another undertaking: using AI to help turn spoken memories into a book. He reads, refines, and corrects the text, retaining his own view of the people and events he describes.

'At school, they dictated to me. Now I'm the one dictating.'

Translated from the Russian.

A C in Dictation Was Beyond Me

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