(no subject)

[the_rck]

Am I the only person who, when reading non-fiction, prefers footnotes to endnotes? I'm pretty much never willing to interrupt my reading for long enough to page to the back and find the note and read it, but I feel like I'm losing something by not doing it. Except that, if I do page back and it's an ibid or an op cit, I feel very, very cheated. I like scholarly digressions and expansions. I think it's because those are better potential hooks for stories because they're off at an angle from what everybody knows.

I'm currently trying to pull my head together enough to answer some emails and to call my mother. I'm simply not all here, and I worry that I'll end up saying something ridiculous/incomprehensible or offensive because my brain is somewhere six miles away from here and only talking to me by semaphore. I suppose my mother will likely forgive me most stupidity.

And I just tried to call Mom and got an all circuits are busy message. That's disappointing after the stress of working myself up to do it.

Comments

[sylvaine]

I love footnotes. Though that may also have been influenced by Terry Pratchett ^^

[the_rck]

::laughs:: I've enjoyed the footnotes in the Pratchett I've read. Mostly, I can't read his stuff, but I really love the Tiffany Aching books, so I keep circling back and trying other stuff.

[edenfalling]

If I'm reading a book that has endnotes (and the endnotes are more than bare-bones reference citations), I usually keep a bookmark in that section so I can go check them without having to refind the relevant page every time.

But yeah, unless your digressive notes are regularly more than, say, two paragraphs long, footnotes are much more convenient.

[the_rck]

I probably should start using a bookmark that way. I think that it's largely laziness that makes me not.

[malkingrey]

As a reader, I prefer footnotes . . . but I remember what it was like in Ye Olden Tymes, when theses and seminar papers and the like had to be prepared on a typewriter, and how much backing and filling and calculation one had to do to get footnotes onto the same page as the text. I was deeply grateful that none of my professors insisted on footnotes, just so long as we didn't staple our pages together, and when I had to turn in my dissertation -- for which footnotes, not endnotes, were required -- I paid a professional to do the job.

(Well, to be truthful, my father paid for it, as my graduation present for getting my doctorate. But I accepted the gift with profound gratitude.)

[the_rck]

Oh, goodness, yes! I remember doing footnotes on a typewriter for undergraduate papers. We started getting access to word processors on campus during my undergraduate years, and some of those could do footnotes. I remember that being huge, but I wasn't able to do most of my papers at the computer centers.

But, as a reader, I much prefer footnotes because they're convenient.

[melannen]

I prefer footnotes as a reader, and I agree about the betrayal of an op. cit. When I'm reading something with endnotes I tend to wait until I'm done with the book and then read the endnotes all together, going back to the text if I have to.

[the_rck]

I tend to read the end notes after I finish the book, but I'm not generally willing to go back to the text to see what's being referenced.

[sixbeforelunch]

I prefer footnotes. Endnotes are way more distracting to me.

[the_rck]

I'm wondering now if there's some sort of logistical or economic reason to use endnotes. It makes no sense when I print straight from a word processing document, but I could see difficulties if I wanted to be able to fiddle with a document in some way.

[zhelana]

I prefer footnotes to endnotes. that's how I was taught to do it and i think it makes mor sense.

[the_rck]

As a reader, I much prefer footnotes, but I remember writing papers on a typewriter when I was in college, and footnotes were nasty because you had to figure out how much space you needed for them on each page and whether that shifted the main text enough to change where a given note needed to be.

So I have some sympathy for people who choose endnotes. Footnotes are easier to do now than they used to be, but I don't know what the constraints are for doing book layouts in terms of placing things like that. I could see endnotes being somehow cheaper.

[zhelana]

I think people choose endnotes becaue they don't interrupt the flow of reading.

[retsuko]

I adore footnotes, as I feel much the same way you do about ibid. David Foster Wallace's _A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again_ (besides having the world's best title) has a TON of footnotes and it is super-funny.

[the_rck]

Thanks for the recommendation! I've put a hold on it. I could use a laugh.

[tropicsbear]

I prefer footnotes because flipping all the way to the end and then going back is such a hassle.

[ramenkuri.livejournal.com]

I totally agree - I hardly ever bother to read endnotes - I much prefer to read footnotes. Sorry your mom wasn't available, but at least you tried!

[evalerie.livejournal.com]

I totally agree about endnotes vs. footnotes.

[trepkos.livejournal.com]

Yes, footnotes every time.