5 ms·
I find footnotes annoying even in print books. When I'm reading a book, I have to figure out if the book is the type that uses footnotes as citations or the typ
by hardwaregeek 6y ago
I find footnotes annoying even in print books. When I'm reading a book, I have to figure out if the book is the type that uses footnotes as citations or the type that uses it as actual content. Or worse, the type that does both. If it's the type that uses them as citations, then meh, I can skip over them. If it's the type that uses them as content, well ugh now I need to read this footnote and then get back to the original text, which is a context switch. Even worse if the footnotes are actually endnotes because then I need to physically flip the pages. Even worse if the endnotes are gigantic and have subnotes (cough Infinite Jest).
If it's the type that does both then I have to look at every damn footnote only to be disappointed by a "Pfaffenberger, 2016" 90% of the time.
I don't have a good answer to these problems. Tufte style is better because I don't have to move my eyes that much. But there's only so much one can put in a note in the margin. And it still distracts.
- User23 6y agoI like endnotes best. For a book where they are actually useful I either unbind or buy two copies so I can lay out the endnotes side by side with the book. Think of it like having two monitors where one is the working screen and the other is the reference screen.
- JadeNB 6y agoWouldn't it be more useful not to have to do this? Keeping them footnotes saves buying another copy, or damaging yours.
- User23 6y agoThink of it as the difference between having two monitors and having one monitor where the bottom 1/8th to 1/2 randomly gets hijacked. Two monitors are also more expensive. My method has its trade-offs as you note, but I find having an uninterrupted flow through the main text while having access to the notes on an as desired basis works best for my enjoyment and comprehension. Without my method endnotes are so frustrating I almost never use them, and about half the time when I think ok this time it's worth it to context switch, it turns out not to be. This all comes down to Tufte's idea of letting the optic nerve do the work. A glance requires almost no conscious brainpower, this is why thumbing through a book you've read works so well. Thus I can glance over at the footnotes pages and decide if I care to read the note without even slightly interrupting my flow reading the main text.
- cafard 6y agoOr you can just use two bookmarks.
- pottertheotter 6y agoI agree. I read best with physical books, so don't bother with ebooks anymore. But it's frustrating to have to constantly flip to the end of a chapter or the end of a book to figure out if a footnote is of interest to me. I think academic papers largely get this right. First, footnotes and references are separated. Second, footnotes are actual footnotes at the foot of the corresponding page.
- JadeNB 6y agoSome disciplines don't separate them, using footnotes as references (but I think all would be improved if they did separate them).
- senkora 6y agoFootnotes and endnotes are definitely much more usable on an e-reader. That's how I read Infinite Jest (and most other books) and I sympathize with anyone who tried to read that in physical form.