I had a student who was really floundering: bored, stoned, getting in trouble but utterly brilliant. He'd sleep/drool all week long, come in Friday and ace one of my notoriously tough chemistry quizzes. It infuriated everyone!
To him, school stood in the way of what he wanted to do. His parents were successful entrepeneurs and he wanted to do that, too. He needed a bigger challenge a classroom could offer and he knew that if there was something he really needed to learn, he was smart enough to pick it up along the way.
So I took him aside one day and shared what I had observed about him and told him about Llewellyn's book- that it was for kids like him who were ready to move beyond the classroom- and that I had a copy he could borrow if he were interested.
He said (this is a quote): "Naw, thanks. I don't read."
LOL!--that's classic :) One of the smartest people I know is dyslexic and he hates to read because of it. He had an attitude towards textbooks similar to your student's, but he could solve any science problem you gave him by dealing with it hands-on. They sent him to a think tank school that let kids learn at their own pace through super-accelerated programs, but even that bored him. He keeps getting degrees in different things and then after a few years he gets bored with it and switches to something else. Very challenging for a teacher to try to deal with, I imagine.