Introductions, prefaces, and other boring stuff

[Tiassa]

Do you read the introduction or preface when undertaking a work of non-fiction?

Background of the question: I, personally, became notorious for not reading introductions because, as a child, I was mostly subject to literary prefaces aimed mostly at telling us what a genius the author was, or the vague and useless introductions of large-survey textbooks (usually hardcover). In my theological studies, I've found that many introductions or prefaces are like literary prefaces, which merely expound on the genius of this or that guru.

However, in many--perhaps most--works of nonfiction, the introduction does help put the rest of the book into context. To read, for instance, Trout's Eastern Seeds, Western Soil, one finds that the introduction specifies the focus of the survey, so that one might be able to set aside certain conflicts that come up during reading ("But ... this person said this, and I don't see it included in that portion of the text, where it seems it should be.") Trout's book, for instance, is hardly comprehensive, but is meant as a general overview of the post-Hindu phenomenon that has so subtly affected American culture. Or, to read Basham's The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism, we see a roadmap:

The first chapter begins with an examination of the prehistorical religion of South Asia which dates from about 2700 to 1700 BCE. It is based principally on informed speculation from archaeological reports ....

Chapter 2 uses the latest, or tenth, book of the Rg-veda and the Atharva-veda, a somewhat later Vedic text, to launch into a discussion of hinduism's attempts to explain the origin of the world ....

Chapter 3 focuses on the further development of Hindu philosophical thought in the speculative literature of the Aranyakas and Upanisads .... (Basham, xiii)

So, anyway, who reads introductions or prefaces these days?

thanx,
Tiassa

 

[Adam]

The only non-fiction I am reading these days are technical manuals and such, including such books as Internetworking With TCP/IP Architecture (the bible of packet-switched telecommuncations technology), and so on. In such books I do find the introduction useful as a general preparation before diving into the hardcore stuff.

When it comes to extra material in books about the authors, I occasionally read those little biographical bits. For example the textbook for Electrical Design Principles was written by my lecturer for that subject. He is a senior member of the IEEE and has worked on nuclear reactors around the world, and works on several local and international teams for improved alternative energy sources and such. He specialises in power systems. That particular little bio I found very interesting, and since one of my major projects was on photovoltaic power cells, I knew where to go for some extra information.