Footnotes, endnotes or online notes?

[STS Lincolnite]

(03-29-2014 05:53 PM)Wild Bill Wrote:  Funny. . . . I always read any footnotes, end notes, or whatever notes, especially the long ones, first before I read the text, because they contain the best material and tell one which way the author is going.

But I also read books table of contents, intro/preface, then backward starting at conclusions, then each chapter beginning with the last, each chapter last page, first page, and then each paragraph within the chapter last line first, first line next.

An old college prof taught us that and then assigned us six books of about 300 pages each to read by next class period and write a one page review on each. We were then finished with the required class reading. Using that method I could read a combination of books and articles totaling around 1200 pages and take notes in less than a day (10 hours or so).

Yeah, I know, I'm nuttier than a fruitcake, but of 12 PHD candidates at LSU in the spring of 1970, I was the second of two who passed (my lucky number was candidate #7; the other who made it was #5) and this reading method got me my degree 2 years faster than the rest of the History Department candidates. Thank God for long footnotes!

I often read the footnotes/endnotes first when I am doing professional reading (I am not a professional historian); I feel a little foolish to say that it has never occurred to me to read historical works that way. I suppose it is because I'm usually reading history for pleasure.

Thanks so much for the scholarly reading tips though. I want to try that technique as soon as I get my hands on a history work I am using to for prep for a talk (either my own or someone else's). After your process is done do you ever go back and read the whole book front to back?