SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I regularly do not read any of the non-book parts of the book: preface, foreword, afterword, postscript.

What are your thoughts on these book bonuses? Should we read them or skip them in order to get to the next TBR faster?

I find the parts that come after the end (acknowledgements, authors' notes, afterwords, thank yous, etc.) are enlightening or interesting to me, and I usually read and enjoy them.

If the preface, forward, or introduction is written by someone else, I sometimes find them to be spoilery and will most often skip them. (If they are written by the author, though, I usually read them.) This happens with more "classic" works that have multiple editions. The introduction often assumes you've read the book already and is more of an analysis of the story and its impacts. Or for books of short stories, sometimes the introduction is where the author talks about each story and its inspiration. Occasionally, I will go back and read those after I have read the book.

I usually read them.

I recently read the preface to Lonesome Dove and had a pretty major plot point or two irrevocably spoiled for me so I think that will be the end of that for me. Why an author would spoil their own book in the preface is beyond me but apparently it can be done.

What I might do is read them after because I do enjoy them and find they sometimes give insight or context I wouldn’t otherwise have.

I will read (almost always) prologue/preface and afterword/postscript and author's notes. My experience has been that these are either part of the book or add to it. I do not read (with rare exceptions) acknowledgments, thank yous, or about the author because they are not part of the story of the book and are not why I read it.

I usually read it all. If an introduction seems spoily, or too long and academic, or uninteresting, I’ll stop and maybe revisit it later.

Melanie wrote: "I regularly do not read any of the non-book parts of the book: preface, foreword, afterword, postscript.

What are your thoughts on these book bonuses? Should we read them or skip them in order to..."

for some books, the preface or forward sets up the storyline for the rest of the book. And as some authors don't label them, it could actually be a prologue which could be essential (Ninth House is an example)

As a boy I loved the extras in a book; they felt like a free bonus!
I must have spent weeks going through the appendices of the Lord of the Rings at 11.

And I learnt to appreciate the academic intros as a teen while going through the classics of ancient Greece (having some context helps) and later at uni, when I started reading modern literature in other languages. — Ok, at the time I was supposed to be able to read ancient Greek as well, but the approach is different and double text is always provided for dead languages.

Occasionally I've found intros to contemporary novels, sometimes written by other famous figures, surprisingly uninformative. At other times, they are horrendously spoileriferous.

Case in point: do NOT read Chuck Palahniuk's intro to The Stepford Wives if, like me, you're among the few candid souls unaware of the major plot twist.
I could knife him in the hand, jeez.

I generally read what is included in the original edition. Forewords are on a case by case basis. Anything after the main story will be read if I liked the book and skipped if I didn't. A preface should be read at the end or not at all unless the story is incomprehensible without it.

Melanie wrote: "I regularly do not read any of the non-book parts of the book: preface, foreword, afterword, postscript.

What are your thoughts on these book bonuses? Should we read them or skip them in order to get to the next TBR faster?"

I skip them, as a rule.
- I barely read book descriptions because I want to avoid preconceived notions about the book, I like to go in blind, and let the book speak to me on its own.
- I don't want plot events or developments (even minor ones) spoiled.
- I don't want to be told how to think about or understand a book before I've read it. I'm not interested in reading someone's summary and thoughts and analysis about it.
- I don't want the author's other works, or their history, or history in general, or anything extraneous to be lumped in to the analysis of this particular book. These things may be valid and relevant, but I want the book to stand on its own and tell me its story itself.

That being said, I did listen to a big chunk of the foreword from Margaret Atwood for the "We" audiobook version today - because I was driving and couldn't easily skip it in Hoopla. >_>

And it spoiled a lot of things, and gave a lot of history and how I should think about things and how I should interpret things, what "O" represents, etc.

Not a fan.

Most of the time, I skip them, but usually after reading the first two or three lines. If their contents have nothing to do with the story, or just don't seem to flow naturally, I ignore those sections entirely.

I do read 'other books by the author' though, albeit briefly.

I read everything except notes, footnotes, references and the like. The stuff interests me.

I actually love footnotes. Especially when they are witty asides to the story.

Melanie wrote: "I actually love footnotes. Especially when they are witty asides to the story."

Like Terry Pratchett!

I will skip an introduction or preface, especially if it’s written by someone other than the author. If it’s a short story collection, though I might read notes from the editor if it precedes all of the stories. I’ll generally read whatever comes afterwards, like someone else, especially if I liked the book. Sometimes I might even go back and read a preface/intro. It also depends on how long they are and if they are boring I will just skip skip skip.

I enjoy reading these, sometimes I come back to them after or a long time after I have finished the main part of the book.