Aids to Reading Books
Oct. 5th, 2005 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebDo you ever make aids to help you read books?
I almost never do, but several times I have decided I wanted a list of characters. (I've learned to check the back of the book before starting, just in case there's already one there.) I put the name, the number of the page on which the person was introduced, and an identifying characteristic from that page or soon after. (I add other parts of the name as I discover them, unless knowing that would take away from the reading experience.)
Usually when I start such a list after some confusion at the beginning of a book, I quickly discover that the number of characters is not very high after all, and I end up tossing it.
I started making a list of characters with my current book, Georgette Heyer's Behold, Here's Poison. Then I decided that what I really need is a family tree. When I'm done, I'm going to copy it more neatly onto some acid-free paper and leave it in the book. (If you'd like a copy, let me know and I'll send you one when I'm done.) It's not like the family is very complicated at all by modern standards, but the author just dribbles the names and relations out bit by bit. Even if it only helps for the first fifty pages, that's fine.
Another kind of aid is maps. Often they have maps in books when you don't really need them, but I did enjoy the one in Watership Downs I know someone who drew huge, beautiful maps for some of those old Infocom video games.
The other classic is the glossary, again usually hidden at the end where you don't notice it until it's too late, but usually it's not necessary. But I suppose for some books, especially science fiction (say, A Clockwork Orange) and some of those older or snootier ones peppered with foreign words, a glossary could come in handy.
I almost never do, but several times I have decided I wanted a list of characters. (I've learned to check the back of the book before starting, just in case there's already one there.) I put the name, the number of the page on which the person was introduced, and an identifying characteristic from that page or soon after. (I add other parts of the name as I discover them, unless knowing that would take away from the reading experience.)
Usually when I start such a list after some confusion at the beginning of a book, I quickly discover that the number of characters is not very high after all, and I end up tossing it.
I started making a list of characters with my current book, Georgette Heyer's Behold, Here's Poison. Then I decided that what I really need is a family tree. When I'm done, I'm going to copy it more neatly onto some acid-free paper and leave it in the book. (If you'd like a copy, let me know and I'll send you one when I'm done.) It's not like the family is very complicated at all by modern standards, but the author just dribbles the names and relations out bit by bit. Even if it only helps for the first fifty pages, that's fine.
Another kind of aid is maps. Often they have maps in books when you don't really need them, but I did enjoy the one in Watership Downs I know someone who drew huge, beautiful maps for some of those old Infocom video games.
The other classic is the glossary, again usually hidden at the end where you don't notice it until it's too late, but usually it's not necessary. But I suppose for some books, especially science fiction (say, A Clockwork Orange) and some of those older or snootier ones peppered with foreign words, a glossary could come in handy.
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no subject
on 2005-10-05 06:58 pm (UTC)