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Do You Read the Notes In Nonfiction Books?

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Lauryn
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Posts: 175
Joined: April 2009
Location: Vancouver, CA

Post by Lauryn » Thu April 23rd, 2009, 9:58 pm

I do read the notes, ibids and all - the first time through the book. My librarian mother would be appalled, but in the cases where an end note is clearly worth the reading, I circle the note marker in the main body, and put a bronze line marker on the end-note for easy future reference. For "ibids," I just cross the note marker off as being largely irrelevant for future consumption. This means that the next time I read my copy of a NF reference book, I know when to ignore the end note, when it is strictly bibliographical, and when it is truly informative.

(The book darts also come in handy when HF authors include a lot of useful family trees or maps, or something else I'm likely to be referring to frequently while reading.)

Hmm, Santa seems to know my books are littered with these things - a tin of them shows up in my stocking almost every year :D .
Even the mighty oak was once just a nut that held its ground.

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