when looking for information inside a non fiction book which sections do you look at first?

Question

do you look at chapters,index,glossary,table of contents,spine.
choose two?

Answer 1

Table of contents
& the index.

Answer 2

The book's spine provides the first piece of information you look at.

After you have selected a possible book, usually by reading the title the first piece of information you want to look at is the author. Did he/she live during the time of the book's subject matter? If they did then the information is considered first hand. If they did not then it is considered second hand, and the author can distort the events. Of course if they use quotes from first person accounts then the book may be more historically accurate, but each person looks at something from their own point of view. Modern man can read the myths of Greece and see an interesting work of fiction, but the ancient Greeks saw them as real explanations of how and why things worked.

Then you want to look at the table of contents to try and get an idea of what the book covers. Not every nonfiction book contains an index or a glossary. If they are there then you want to look at them later. Before you do that you want to read the first paragraph, and the last paragraph on the last page to see if you can understand the book. If it is written at a level beyond your understanding then you will want to go on to another book. If it seems too simple then it might not contain enough information.

Answer 3

Index

Answer 4

Table of contents, index in that order.

Answer 5

Table of contents or index.

Answer 6

i always use the index and then i would go to the table of contents but i will almost always use the table of contents

Answer 7

Personally i would recomend the glossary although it would depend on the subject and also the author. I have found that some authors will put numbers next to the text and the source will be revealed at the bottom of that page so you will have to make a note of it after reading that particular page.

Answer 8

index then table of contents

Answer 9

Table of contents and skim the chapters

Answer 10

Index, always the Index!