Loved these diversions! I actually am quite a fan of endnotes and find they are an excellent means of developing incidental knowledge. Other intriguing "bits" I enjoy discovering are the handwritten dedications, library stamps, or bookseller's stickers which tell an additional story of used books' winding path.
"Flipping to the back is particularly annoying when reading a text for which the notes are an essential part of the experience. Noel Coward complained that reading footnotes is like 'having to go downstairs to answer the door while in the midst of making love.' With endnotes it’s more like walking to the end of the driveway."
Noel Coward's complaint is fresh and good. Your followup is EVEN BETTER!
But take it from the writer's side, too: I know that I stuff my footnotes with too much, often because of petty asides or stories and references that relate, sometimes well. Rather than stuff the prose (since it would end up as too ornamented love making), I stick the decorations and the references at the end of the driveway.
Another great article, Joel, made alive with your shimmering wit. You SHOULD write another book.
I don't mind endnotes over footnotes. I just use another bookmark. I _do_ mind hauling myself out of my reading chair, navigating the various treacheries on my office floor, and going to my computer to look up a particular book or journal article cited, then getting sucked down a rabbit hole. Happens all the time.
Also worthy of consideration is the list of the author's other books that often appears opposite the title page. In the first edition of The Silmarillion (at least the US first edition), one of Tolkien's other books is said to be Father Giles of Ham (not Farmer Giles of Ham).
This title suggests an alternate history idea in which Tolkien really did write a book called Father Giles of Ham. The idea would be that Tolkien had a phase before or after The Lord of the Rings in which he wrote overtly Roman Catholic stories. Perhaps he wrote a whole series called Tales from Niggle's Parish rather than just "Leafe by Niggle" with its character Parish. This was a series of interlocked stories about life in an English parish on the border of Faerie. Some of the stories were grave, like "Smith of Wootton Major," while others were comic, like the story of the Green Dozen.
The Berdaev footnote alone is worth the price of admission.
I rather prefer endnotes to footnotes, which is somewhat at odds with my usual grumpily conservative attitude toward everything. I simply read the book with two bookmarks, so flipping back-and-forth is not that difficult. I can decide which items I want to follow up on, and which ones I don’t want to bother with. Using Noel Coward’s metaphor, I can decide whether it is worth leaving the boudoir or not.
(One of my favorite sorts of things in this general category is the annotated bibliography. If a writer takes the time to give you his opinions and thoughts about the different sources he’s used that can often be very interesting. In the one book I’ve written I provided one, and it was my favorite part of the book to write, I suppose because I like talking about books. But no one else, even the handful of people who actually read the book, has ever mentioned it to me. Life is full of disappointments, big ones and small ones.)
Joel - thanks for all your posts. Just ordered Lifted by Angels per recommendation by one of your readers. Praying that I have one, and he is on duty 24/7.
I usually read all the endnotes at the end of the chapter or if they are in the back of the book, before I read the chapter. Doesn't make sense, but that's what I do.
I've long had a fondness for footnotes, for most of the reasons you mentioned. A trail of breadcrumbs to further research and deeper reading. But also the snarky winking from the periphery. And yet, I find endnotes a drudgery, it feels like it breaks the flow of my reading if I try to jump back and forth. And if I wait until I finish the book, I find my interest has waned and laziness has overtaken.
If memory serves, John D. MacDonald dedicated his novel The End of the Night to his two cats, who were given to roaming across his desk whenever they felt like it:
"To Roger and Geoffrey, who left their marks on the manuscript."
Sir Walter Scott wrote extensive notes for his historical novels that expand on the historical research he did for incidents and descriptions in the novels. Scott's works are public domain classics now and publishers seem to vary over whether they include these notes and where they place them. The notes are long enough to threaten the story flow if read simultaneously with the novel, often as much as two pages in small print - perhaps Coward had Scott in mind. Scott's introductions are lengthy essays of historical background in themselves. Yet Scott's novels are still highly romanticized fantasies of historical periods.
Terry Pratchett's footnotes to his fantasy Discworld novels seldom fail to make me snicker. They add a small jab in the side of the story, a slight twist to the tale.
I always read these extra bits first. The notes on the author first, the dedication and then the acknowledgements., before I get anywhere near the text.
I'm a fan of Flann O'Brien's "The Third Policeman." The never - named narrator of that surrealistic classic is in thralldom to a supposed great sage, de Selby. Some of the funniest bits in that very weird book are the footnotes, in which frequently, one of two books by de Selby, an obvious lunatic, is cited.
Terrific fun. Reminded me of the pleasure I got from rereading the Sherlock Homes stories a few years back. This was the Oxford annotated edition. Described as “explanatory notes” these slowed down the completion of each story by a considerable bit. But each note was carefully researched and surprisingly amusing, considering the publisher.
As for the time elapsed since your last book…I should imagine something must be in the works. Perhaps something along the lines of Mustich’s 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die?
Very entertaining discussion of some of my favorite bits of books! These days I often have multiple bookmarks in my serious reading, one to mark my place in the main text and a second to mark where I am in the End Notes. I also delight in good bibliographies and annotated ones are a gift (collectively they are a major source for my “read next” pile. But the dedication and the acknowledgment inform us about the author’s place in the world, their intellectual and emotional connections, and light for us the paths by which knowledge travels.
Loved these diversions! I actually am quite a fan of endnotes and find they are an excellent means of developing incidental knowledge. Other intriguing "bits" I enjoy discovering are the handwritten dedications, library stamps, or bookseller's stickers which tell an additional story of used books' winding path.
"Flipping to the back is particularly annoying when reading a text for which the notes are an essential part of the experience. Noel Coward complained that reading footnotes is like 'having to go downstairs to answer the door while in the midst of making love.' With endnotes it’s more like walking to the end of the driveway."
Noel Coward's complaint is fresh and good. Your followup is EVEN BETTER!
But take it from the writer's side, too: I know that I stuff my footnotes with too much, often because of petty asides or stories and references that relate, sometimes well. Rather than stuff the prose (since it would end up as too ornamented love making), I stick the decorations and the references at the end of the driveway.
Another great article, Joel, made alive with your shimmering wit. You SHOULD write another book.
I don't mind endnotes over footnotes. I just use another bookmark. I _do_ mind hauling myself out of my reading chair, navigating the various treacheries on my office floor, and going to my computer to look up a particular book or journal article cited, then getting sucked down a rabbit hole. Happens all the time.
Also worthy of consideration is the list of the author's other books that often appears opposite the title page. In the first edition of The Silmarillion (at least the US first edition), one of Tolkien's other books is said to be Father Giles of Ham (not Farmer Giles of Ham).
This title suggests an alternate history idea in which Tolkien really did write a book called Father Giles of Ham. The idea would be that Tolkien had a phase before or after The Lord of the Rings in which he wrote overtly Roman Catholic stories. Perhaps he wrote a whole series called Tales from Niggle's Parish rather than just "Leafe by Niggle" with its character Parish. This was a series of interlocked stories about life in an English parish on the border of Faerie. Some of the stories were grave, like "Smith of Wootton Major," while others were comic, like the story of the Green Dozen.
Dale Nelson
Footnotes and endnotes are the life blood of history- they're as essential to it as Pine-Sol is to a custodian.
Outstanding post!
The Berdaev footnote alone is worth the price of admission.
I rather prefer endnotes to footnotes, which is somewhat at odds with my usual grumpily conservative attitude toward everything. I simply read the book with two bookmarks, so flipping back-and-forth is not that difficult. I can decide which items I want to follow up on, and which ones I don’t want to bother with. Using Noel Coward’s metaphor, I can decide whether it is worth leaving the boudoir or not.
(One of my favorite sorts of things in this general category is the annotated bibliography. If a writer takes the time to give you his opinions and thoughts about the different sources he’s used that can often be very interesting. In the one book I’ve written I provided one, and it was my favorite part of the book to write, I suppose because I like talking about books. But no one else, even the handful of people who actually read the book, has ever mentioned it to me. Life is full of disappointments, big ones and small ones.)
Joel - thanks for all your posts. Just ordered Lifted by Angels per recommendation by one of your readers. Praying that I have one, and he is on duty 24/7.
I usually read all the endnotes at the end of the chapter or if they are in the back of the book, before I read the chapter. Doesn't make sense, but that's what I do.
SO enjoyable. Thanks for this!
I've long had a fondness for footnotes, for most of the reasons you mentioned. A trail of breadcrumbs to further research and deeper reading. But also the snarky winking from the periphery. And yet, I find endnotes a drudgery, it feels like it breaks the flow of my reading if I try to jump back and forth. And if I wait until I finish the book, I find my interest has waned and laziness has overtaken.
If memory serves, John D. MacDonald dedicated his novel The End of the Night to his two cats, who were given to roaming across his desk whenever they felt like it:
"To Roger and Geoffrey, who left their marks on the manuscript."
Sir Walter Scott wrote extensive notes for his historical novels that expand on the historical research he did for incidents and descriptions in the novels. Scott's works are public domain classics now and publishers seem to vary over whether they include these notes and where they place them. The notes are long enough to threaten the story flow if read simultaneously with the novel, often as much as two pages in small print - perhaps Coward had Scott in mind. Scott's introductions are lengthy essays of historical background in themselves. Yet Scott's novels are still highly romanticized fantasies of historical periods.
Terry Pratchett's footnotes to his fantasy Discworld novels seldom fail to make me snicker. They add a small jab in the side of the story, a slight twist to the tale.
I always read these extra bits first. The notes on the author first, the dedication and then the acknowledgements., before I get anywhere near the text.
I'm a fan of Flann O'Brien's "The Third Policeman." The never - named narrator of that surrealistic classic is in thralldom to a supposed great sage, de Selby. Some of the funniest bits in that very weird book are the footnotes, in which frequently, one of two books by de Selby, an obvious lunatic, is cited.
Terrific fun. Reminded me of the pleasure I got from rereading the Sherlock Homes stories a few years back. This was the Oxford annotated edition. Described as “explanatory notes” these slowed down the completion of each story by a considerable bit. But each note was carefully researched and surprisingly amusing, considering the publisher.
As for the time elapsed since your last book…I should imagine something must be in the works. Perhaps something along the lines of Mustich’s 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die?
Cheers,
Brian
Very entertaining discussion of some of my favorite bits of books! These days I often have multiple bookmarks in my serious reading, one to mark my place in the main text and a second to mark where I am in the End Notes. I also delight in good bibliographies and annotated ones are a gift (collectively they are a major source for my “read next” pile. But the dedication and the acknowledgment inform us about the author’s place in the world, their intellectual and emotional connections, and light for us the paths by which knowledge travels.