FIR ’10: Reading Question #5

FIR is hosted by Katrina atCallapidderdays.

Every Tuesday this fall, Katrina will be posting a question about reading.

Today’s question: When you read a book, do you read EVERYTHING? In other words, do you read the dedication, the acknowledgment, the foreword, the afterword, the prologue, the epilogue, the appendices, etc.? Or do you just read the “meat” of the book? Or is your approach somewhere in between?

I read almost everything. I always read the dedications, forewords, prologues, and epilogues. I tend to skim the acknowledgments – sometimes reading the whole thing, sometimes just glancing at it. Generally I do not read that much non-fiction, but on the occasions when I do, I do read the table of contents and sometimes I glance through the index upon finishing the book. I’ve recently started reading the publication page – I like seeing what categories the book falls into.

What about you? Do you read everything in the book or do you start at chapter 1 and end with the final chapter?

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5 Comments

  1. CMash
    October 26, 2010 / 2:30 pm

    Yes…it does seem we attack a book the same way.
    CMash

  2. Gigi Ann
    October 26, 2010 / 2:45 pm

    I read almost everything. It all depends…

  3. Unknown
    October 26, 2010 / 5:08 pm

    Reading the pub page is a terrific idea – I think I need to start doing that!
    My answer to this week’s challenge question is here

  4. Sugar and Snark
    October 26, 2010 / 8:00 pm

    I read it all, except if its a Author bio that goes on forever

  5. Julie P
    October 27, 2010 / 2:34 am

    Acknowledgement, prologue, story, then epilogue for me and that is it. And I read the author bio if there is one. Other than that, I skip the rest. I don't want to get bogged down in the details–I want to skip right to the good stuff!