Big Foot Notes

Did you think this title referred to a post about:

1) Bigfoot?

Get a haircut and get a real job

2) having a big foot or feet?

A small alligator or a really big shoe?

3) footnotes?

blah, blah, blah

Lately I've been spending a lot of time reading. If you want to see the books I've gone through lately just click on the Books page at the top, there.*

I've read some great and enjoyable books and recently expanded my horizons into history books. For example, I'm currently reading a biography about former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. I'm enjoying it as it describes a period in Canadian history close to 40 years ago when I wasn't really paying too much attention to politics.** Although in subsequent years, having worked as both a political journalist and a bureaucrat, I've grown to become a bit of a political junkie and am fascinated by what goes on behind the scenes.

Now, while "Just Watch Me" by John English is a fascinating read for a political junkie there's just one thing about the book that bugs me. Footnotes. And there are a lot in this book.

They're annoying. Just when you're in the middle of an ongoing narrative*** an asterisk appears forcing you to go down to the bottom of the page to read something the author thinks is important to expand on. This often causes me to lose my place in the narrative (see earlier footnote on narrative). Sometimes the footnote carries across the bottom of two pages. This isn't so bad when the two pages face one another. But on those occasions when you have to turn the page to complete the footnote and then turn back to find your place again in the narrative (remember narrative?) before you can turn the page again it's most frustrating. It's almost like reading two narratives at once. Although, that can't be. One's a footnote.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share that with you today. Gotta go, though. I've got 8 chapters of endnotes**** to catch up on.

* The Books Page was created so I could share with visitors who also are into books just what I've been reading. This footnote is illustrative and completely unnecessary.

** The period was the late 60s/early 70s and if I remember correctly I was much more interested in, as Ian Drury used to say, sex and drugs and rock and roll. This footnote is also illustrative and completely unnecessary.

*** A narrative is a story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious. This footnote is somewhat illustrative as you may not have known this. Thus it might be completely necessary.

**** You don't want to know. In this instance the footnote is not illustrative but most useful and necessary.