Posted on 12/08/2015 12:13:11 AM PST by dennisw
I started reading it one third in. Read it to the end and am now at the beginning of the book to read the first third. The author is a conservative though does not state his views outright.
No, that’s blasphemy.
If you haven’t already read it, I highly recommend “Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors” by James Hornfischer.
I’ll open books to either table of contents or the index, find something that may be of interest, and start reading there, in order to figure out if I will want to read the whole thing (we’re talking non-fiction, I don’t read fiction too often). This takes place at the bookstore. :’)
I always read the intro first, then the table of contents, then the index in the back. Then I begin with chapter one and proceed throughout the book.
That is so methodical. I will try this sometime
I once read two chapters in a book on political philosophy that was so packed in a political legalese that it took me two weeks to read both those chapters.
I would read one sentence over and over, and get up, walk around the house and sit down re-read it and write down some notes. Then read another sentence and get up and do it all over. That was the toughest reading I have ever had to do. I needed the information or else I would have just chucked the whole book.
I might read a nonfiction book elsewhere if I were curious about something specific. Then, I’d start at the beginning.
I read the last chapter first.
Then if I’m interested I go back to see how they got there.
It’s a habit I got in to right after seeing the movie “Sunset Boulevard” with William Holden and Gloria Swanson.
I have to jump around.
I simply cannot read non-fiction like it is a novel.
Only Playboy.
No. Why would you do that?
I start with the first word and always end with the last one.
what’s this book stuff I keep hearing about
yes.
I always read the last chapter first to see if it really was the butler, with the candlestick, in the library.
Then I throw the book away because I lost interest.
I’ve published seven fiction novels on Amazon. Authors knock themselves out to capture you in the first paragraph. The rule is start in “medias res;” in the action.
You can try a few first paragraphs here:
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A133140011%2Cp_27%3ABern%20Pearson
So I guess you got a big kick out of the Seinfeld “Backwards Episode,” huh?
No, but I read all of the odd pages first, then go back and read all of the even ones....
(Not really, but I do have an odd habit of needing to verify each page number before and after I turn to it - OCD can be a real pain)
Much the way I peruse non-fiction in book stores. With technical books the order is index, bibliography, table of contents.
Non-fiction, read first page.
Shopping for Kindle/ebooks is not so interesting as physical meandering through bookstores. Good used bookstores are increasingly rare and especially those with worthwhile choices. Vastly different stock depending on location. Academic and affluent neighborhoods offer quality goods, others trash novels and remaindered Walden remainders.
-PJ
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