Speaking Volumes

When you start a new book, do you read the description on the flaps? thumb to the dedication? read the acknowledgements? pay attention to quotations and wonder why the author picked that one? or do you jump right to the opening chapter and get on with it?

Myself, I read it all before getting into the nitty gritty of the book.  They often provide insight into the author or the story.

I find dedications quite interesting. When you think of the work that goes into writing a book, choosing a person(s) or thing to express in tribute seems like an act of love and a baring of your soul. On Saxton Reads & Reviews, I post a dedication from a book each Sunday. I try to pick dedications that touch me in some way. Many are to one person, like "to my wife", "to my husband". Others may pledge to the person who started the author reading, or someone who stood beside them through the process of getting the book published. And others are testaments to causes or beliefs.

Quotations also capture my attention. Usually they are the words of someone well known, either living or dead. So many authors use them to preface a story and often pepper them throughout. Do you wonder why the author chose the one and how it relats to theestory they are telling?

Look at this one from What is Left the Daughter by Howard Norman...

I can't swim at all, and it is dangerous to converse with an unaccustomed Element...Erasmus

I just finished this and have no idea why the author picked this particular quote.

How about this one from The Singer's Gun by Emily St. John Mandel

Something about the tanks at London's Heathrow Airport changed my mind. Before they rolled into place, in the innocent days when security just meant men with submachine guns, a travel book could be fluffy, silly, familiar or carefully manufactured, and it hardly mattered. Afterward, every destination acquired a sudden glow of hellfire, every trip an element of thoroughly unwanted suspense. Escape has become a problem in itself. A travel book without danger -- to the body, the soul or the future -- is entirely out of time.
...We stand in need of something stronger now: the travel book you can read while making your way through this new, alarming world.
... Michael Pye The New York Times, June 1, 2003

The above seems to be so much more in context to the story.

The reason I'm even thinking about the partsof a book today have to do with the following quotation I read on several blogs this weekend...
 

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself. "... Neil Gaiman

The sentiments are lovely, are they not? I wonder if they will preface a book someday or if perhaps, they already have.

If you're a non-fiction reader like me do you read the notes? the footnotes? I know my book group when reading a particularly long book always takes note of the number of pages at the end of the book devoted to author notes. If you're not going to read them all, the book may be much shorter than originally thought.

And lastly acknowledgements! I always read these. Usually they thank the people that helped with the creation of the story, perhaps family, an editor, or a person or department who offered technical expertise on a subject you knew little about,  They may be at the beginning or ending of a book. Some are only one page, while others go on for a whole chapter. I've seen some nice acknowledgement to librarians that always make me proud of my profession.

If you have a favorite quotation or dedication please let us know.

To one and all  I wish you a  Happy and Healthy New Year filled with lots of good reading!