How do you feel about footnotes? Do you skip em' or is that

>>9171418
Read only odd numbers.

>>9171418

If it's footnotes that aren't from the author to explain historical contexts or archaic language, I skip it if it doesn't seem relevant or if I already know what's being said.

If I ever get around to reading Infinite Jest, I'll read all the footnotes because they're apparently relevant to the story.

I've actually read literature where the footnotes (written by the author) added substantially to the book.

For non-fiction it's generally just references which is only interesting if you want to dig deep. I did find a faulty reference in one book though but that was only because I had read the source that was misquoted.

>>9171418

I at least look at them. Some of them, like sources, don't need much attention, maybe the source but not the page numbers or something to filter out what's non-essential

>>9171428
lol, but that does remind me that I read short ones two at a time and buffer the second one for when I get to it in the main text. That minimizes losing the flow

>>9171487
What about pic related? it has tons of non authorial footnotes that I find to be a pain in the ass.

>>9171679
i think they helped in explaining biblical and theoloigcal references, plus some english authors i hadn't heard of.

>>9171679

Haven't read that edition of Portrait, but it sounds >>9171689 like the notes would be helpful for someone without the theological background

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It's funny you ask this. I just bought the Oxford version of Portrait, and this too has many pages of end-notes (and also a lengthy introduction).

I think I will just read it straight through first without the scholarly end-notes, just as the author intended. I usually do read end/foot-notes but since this edition doesn't have them numbered throughout the actual text, I'm just going to skip them first time around.

>>9171801
their ulysses will drive you insane, it's got 200-300 pages of endnotes similarly lacking numbers throughout the actual text. super illuminating but fucking hell it was annoying

>>9171418
footnotes are great
>making a gag book with some friends on Google Docs
>want to start my own in LaTeX so I can go crazy with formatting and footnotes

I want to make some sort of discrete mathematical node structure using footnote references as connections, maybe write some super secret encoded message in there

Generally I read non-fiction for the information so I won't skip them. I like to see what has been cited, the kind of thing cited, and if it looks interesting I will read it too.

>>9171817
Oh, yea I was thinking it must be something like that. I'm probably going to purchase a copy of Ulysses after I'm done with Portrait and was considering OWC for that too.

>>9171418

Footnotes are good for context, and I appreciate them more now that I'm an adult.

That said, OP's picture choice and footnote comment bring something back for me, directly related: focusing too much on the footnotes directly ruined a reading experience for me.

When I first read Portrait, myself then a much younger man, I reasoned pretty quickly that on reading this stuff, I really didn't know anything about Ireland, Irish history, etc. Some woman had fans in her skirt or something, one for Parnell, etc (who?). I figured that I was missing stuff. So every single time I came to a footnote, I autistically STOPPED the flow of reading, immediately flipped to the back of the book, and got the appropriate slang/historical reference (smugging = homosexual activity). Predictably, this ruined the reading experience, and shortly after I'd got done, even though I picked up just a bit of info about Ireland, I realized that I had Done It Wrong. I hadn't /properly read the novel/. I hadn't /experienced the book/, etc, because I hadn't just read the thing proper, unto itself, in a go. The only actual stuff that I internalized at all was the simple fact that the prose style matures as the character does, and the bit about the priest traditionally telling the boys just how truly horrible hell is (IIRC this is cited as a bit of culture in the movie "The Departed").

The point being that if you're reading a novel just to read it, focusing too hard on footnotes as I did can totally ruin the read, which shouldn't be surprising for anyone. In my defense, I really didn't know half the references in the book, so I was half-right in the above that I needed the context. Notice how I can actually remember context of a few footnotes themselves, as they relate to the book. The really interruptive process, as I recall, was /flipping to the back to get the footnote/, rather than having the footnote on the same page. I'm sure penguin made this choice so as to unclutter the text body, but in more "academic" pages with heavy same-page footnotes, I do find now that I can much more easily contextualize and stay "of a place" if the footnotes are on the damn page, and have improved retention that way of the bigger picture, and details at the same time. My action of /physically and mentally at the same time/ flipping from prose-plot to historical-footnotes distracted me about both, and is what basically ruined the read that I refer to.

Suddenly I realize that I know a lot more about Ireland these days and that I could breezily re-do the book the right way. Must do sometime, then the old greek things, then finally that Ulysses that I never read.

>>9171418
Notes are the only thing I look at when I buy a physical book
I need to make sure it has the just right amount of information without getting excessive

>>9171418
Depends
With Jmy yet here's a lot of Irish colloquialisms that doesn't translate but I get the themes and politics so I just have notes up on my IPad and online notes usually just focus on unusual words and phrases
If I really don't get the references I look them up but if you read Joyce in publication order you start to pick up on things pretty quick

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I love footnotes and endnotes. They're great to give you insight you might not be able to obtain without serious scholarly work. It also feels wonderful to look up a footnote and have your thoughts confirmed. It feels amazing to notice something in the text that would have deserved a footnote, but didn't get one.

>>9172671
jesus christ

Hard to tell in the byron collection i am reading which are his and which arent. Byron's are generally good. Annoys me when i get pulled out of the poem to be told about some really obvious thing like that Stygian means of the styx or something i mean wtf does not know

Footnotes are essential since they refer and open up subejcts. Especially helpful in politics and economy books

>>9173608
it's just the publisher selling absence

>>9173610
Nah. They're really handy, even as a recommendation for reading.

>>9173631
what an bump induction soup

>>9173635
wat

>>9173643
you know that vendors just make a scene to steer their beloved output to the primitive soul

>>9173650
wat?

>>9171418
Depends. Like you said, if they're mostly sources, I skip them. I'm reading Count of Monte Cristo, and I read all the footnotes. There's a lot of history, and I actually learned a lot.

>>9173660
I find them very helpful when they references studies and essays that were released in journals or magazines.

I usually start off determined to read through with the footnotes in order to get the most out of a book, but then give up after a while and only check them if I need to.

>>9173668
Yeah, but the problem with sources is that you don't know if they're quoting a reputable text, or if they're quoting a single paragraph in a 1000 page book on something else entirely. I've had this problem often.

It doesn't devalue footnotes of course, but I'm probably too casual to bother with it, seeing as I'll probably never read any of the scoured texts.

>>9173679
I tend to read the ones I find are attached to important topic after I've read that chapter of the book. Went through tons of econ essays and newspaper articles like this. It's fun.

>>9173683
Yeah, I enjoy learning stuff like that as well, but if I'm reading something, then it can't be longer than a paragraph- I have concentration problems as it is. What I enjoy doing is looking up words and foods. Image search, if I'm on my computer.

I'm reading the Penguin classic edition of Capital Volume 1 (Marx) at the moment and the footnotes are ridiculous. Some of them are several pages long. By the time I've finished the footnote I've forgotten what the fuck is happening in the main text. I had similar issues with some Freud books; I don't know if was just the style of writing back then or what but it's infuriating. I feel obliged to read them all in case they contain something important even though I know most of them don't.

>>9172056
Do you actually though?
I've read several books where there's over 100 pages of references.
While interesting I will only look up things that stand out to me.

>>9171431
Yes its very important in all of DFW's work to read the notes. But with IJ there are complete integral chapters in the footnotes.