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Do You Read the Notes In Nonfiction Books?

Carla
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Post by Carla » Fri September 19th, 2008, 10:39 pm

Yes, I read the notes, and sometimes I go and look up the original references as well if I can find them. It's a good way of finding out what's factual and what's interpretation. I prefer endnotes to footnotes (but that might be because I'm used to them in my job), but I don't much mind as long as they're there somewhere.
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donroc
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Post by donroc » Fri September 19th, 2008, 11:32 pm

Yes, because some offer more important information than the basic text when I am doing research for my HF.
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tsjmom
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Post by tsjmom » Sun September 21st, 2008, 1:49 am

I actually do. I like to know what happened after the book ends.

To that end, I also really like it when they put a follow up to characters at the end of movies. I guess in my heart I'd always like everyone to have a happy ending.

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Alaric
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Post by Alaric » Sun September 21st, 2008, 3:53 am

I do as well.

I also have an annoying habit of reading the footnote at the end of the page before I finish the page and end up losing my place and having to re-read the page again.

tsjmom
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Post by tsjmom » Wed December 3rd, 2008, 4:03 pm

I always do. I like to know if there's any additional info on how things turned out. Kind of like the short summaries at the end of some movies.

Helen_Davis

Post by Helen_Davis » Sun December 7th, 2008, 10:46 pm

[quote=""donroc""]Yes, because some offer more important information than the basic text when I am doing research for my HF.[/quote]

totally offtopic, but is that McCain in your avatar?

Chatterbox
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Post by Chatterbox » Thu April 23rd, 2009, 6:05 pm

Love notes. Hate ibids.

My fave format: when a note is given with its page # -- makes it so much easier to find it quickly in a big thick book. I will always turn to a note when a piece of information piques my curiosity, not as much just to see the source of a quotation or fact. Often, notes send me scurrying off to other books and sources.

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boswellbaxter
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Post by boswellbaxter » Thu April 23rd, 2009, 6:10 pm

[quote=""Chatterbox""]Love notes. Hate ibids.

My fave format: when a note is given with its page # -- makes it so much easier to find it quickly in a big thick book. I will always turn to a note when a piece of information piques my curiosity, not as much just to see the source of a quotation or fact. Often, notes send me scurrying off to other books and sources.[/quote]

What I hate is a large book where in order to find the notes for a chapter, you first have to flip to the beginning of the chapter to find the chapter number, because the notes are referenced only by chapter number. I love publishers/authors that indicate which notes correspond to which page numbers.
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SonjaMarie
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Post by SonjaMarie » Thu April 23rd, 2009, 6:16 pm

The one's I hate, and Erik Larson is guilty of, is when the notes in the back are not numbered but have the beginning of a sentence. He also doesn't mark in the book where a note is going to be in the back. You're constantly turning to the notes to see if there's going to be one coming up and what the sentence starts with connected to the note, sigh!

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donroc
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Post by donroc » Thu April 23rd, 2009, 8:39 pm

[quote=""Andromeda_Organa""]totally offtopic, but is that McCain in your avatar?[/quote]


McCain? That's a first one. No, it is I, whom assorted people said resembled when I had curls cascading down my forehead: Jeff Chandler, Tony Curtis, and Rossano Brazzi --

In between the Shah of Iran's bodyguard,

And since I became smooth of pate: Alan Arkin, Yul Brynner, Gavin MacLeod, and Henry Mancini.
Image

Bodo the Apostate, a novel set during the reign of Louis the Pious and end of the Carolingian Empire.

http://www.donaldmichaelplatt.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXZthhY6 ... annel_page

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