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View Poll Results: Where do you prefer your ebook to start? | |||
Cover |
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74 | 69.81% |
Title page |
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5 | 4.72% |
Table of contents |
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0 | 0% |
Foreword or preface |
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2 | 1.89% |
Epigraph |
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1 | 0.94% |
Main reading content (e.g., the introduction, if one exists, or first chapter, if no introduction) |
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10 | 9.43% |
I don't care |
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14 | 13.21% |
Voters: 106. You may not vote on this poll |
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#1 |
Passionate Reader
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Karma: 1829152
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Central Jersey, USA
Device: Samsung Galaxy Tab S3, Kobo Clara HD, Fire HD 8, Voyage, Oasis 3, PW5
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Your Preferred Start Location
Recently, I have encountered several ebooks that opened immediately to Chapter 1 when I first started them. In each case, there was material before Chapter 1 that I would have missed: an author's preface, an introduction, even an epigraph that set the tone for the book. Whenever I start a book, I automatically use the navigation to go right to the front cover and then page my way through the frontmatter in order not to miss anything. I'm wondering if others are also irked by books that shart at Chapter 1.
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#2 |
Wizard
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Karma: 45301087
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Ohio
Device: iPhone 13 Pro, iPad mini, iPad Pro 12.9",Paperwhite 6.8", Scribe 2022
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I don't read the front matter on light fiction, so chapter one is ok. I do read front matter on nonfiction. But I don't really care...it's easy enough to navigate to wherever I please.
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#3 |
Grand Sorcerer
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Karma: 204127028
Join Date: Jan 2010
Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD
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I don't care. It's trivial for me to back up and see if I missed anything (if I feel like it).
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#4 |
Bibliophagist
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Karma: 168961900
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Vancouver
Device: Kobo Sage, Libra Colour, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos
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I prefer to start at the first text in the story for fiction. I'd rather skip the cover, copyright notices, blurbs, also by, etc. and start at the prologue, epigraph or first chapter.
That being said, I really don't care where the book opens to since it is pretty trivial to skip to the place I want to start reading. Last edited by DNSB; 01-31-2019 at 12:15 PM. |
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#5 |
o saeclum infacetum
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Karma: 234636059
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: New England
Device: Mini, H2O, Glo HD, Aura One, PW4, PW5
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I went with title page. I like to skip the blurbs but see everything else.
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#6 |
Wizard
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: US
Device: ALL DEVICES ARE STOCK: Kobo Clara, Tolino Shine 2, Sony PRS-T3, T1
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Is the poll asking where I want the book to automatically open to? Or where I prefer to start reading?
I can't recall buying or borrowing from Overdrive any ebook that didn't automatically open to the cover page. Normally my first step is to access the table of contents. Then if I see the book has an epigraph I start there. Otherwise I start with Chapter 1. I don't just start paging through from the cover because occasionally books will have filler material in the front such as reviews or lists of other books by the author and I prefer to skip those. |
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#7 |
Wizard
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Device: PW3, Fire HD8 Gen7, Moto G7, Sansa Clip v2, Ruizu X26
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I prefer for the book to open at the very first page - the cover. Then I can more conveniently choose what I want to skip over, not somebody else.
I pretty much always start reading at the prologue after having skipped everything previous, but occasionally there is stuff before that I am interested in. A graphic of a map, for example. Or an epilogue that sets the stage for the novel. Bottom line - I want to decide what is important for me, not somebody else. And this may vary from novel to novel. When some pretentious fool, the editor or whatever, decides to jump ahead with the eBook start point, I just scroll back and wipe out their decision ... and set my own start point. It's not that annoying to be required to do this, but I'd rather not have to. |
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#8 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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Karma: 239219453
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Estonia
Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2
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Quote:
As for reviews, other titles and all such absolutely unnecessary stuff, I delete them in the Calibre editor before transferring books to my reader. The same goes for excerpts from other books in the end - I totally hate those. |
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#9 |
Grand Sorcerer
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Karma: 204127028
Join Date: Jan 2010
Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD
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I am soooo glad I cured myself of the need to edit every ebook I buy before reading it.
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#10 |
languorous autodidact ✦
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: smiling with the rising sun
Device: onyx boox poke 2 colour, kindle voyage
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I prefer the ebook to open at the first page that the author intended for the book. That would include the epigraph and any forward by the author specifically meant to be read before the main book content regardless of edition of the book (i.e. basically part of the book content itself). The closest to that was choosing 'epigraph'.
Otherwise, I prefer to start at the cover, but sometimes that's annoying when there is too much information or too many pages between the cover and the actual start of the main content, especially when there aren't good links in the ebook. So all things considered I'd prefer the default opening to a book to be the epigraph/beginning of the author's content. The only exception is that this should include non-spoilery translator's notes as well. I consider all that as the 'main' content and separate it from preamble content such as introductions and most forwards because I hate that most of them are full of spoilers and would prefer all content like that to be afterwards but unfortunately the world isn't built around me. I wouldn't mind reading them first if it's a re-reading and already know the story, but there is so much I want to read that I've never read that it's very rare I re-read. All this also touches on a huge pet peeve of mine as well. When you want to preview a book, such as at Goodreads or Amazon or wherever, they usually only give you a short excerpt to preview. All too often, this preview begins with the introduction of a book and so the actual preview of the main content is cut, and often the introduction is so long that the entire preview is of introductory materials. It's really ridiculous. |
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#11 |
Grand Sorcerer
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Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Estonia
Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2
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#12 |
C L J
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Birmingham UK
Device: Sony e-reader 505, Kindle PW2, Kindle PW3, Kobo Libra2
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Although I voted Cover I often add blurb at the beginning of the book using Calibre metadata. I usually read that first.
I like tinkering with my books too. Last edited by BookCat; 01-31-2019 at 02:50 PM. |
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#13 | ||
Wizard
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: US
Device: ALL DEVICES ARE STOCK: Kobo Clara, Tolino Shine 2, Sony PRS-T3, T1
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Quote:
Quote:
If you have access to an Overdrive library, they usually have substantial samples of the main content. |
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#14 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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Karma: 204127028
Join Date: Jan 2010
Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD
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Quote:
![]() Now I only "pop the hood" on my purchases if there's something specific about one that will help me debug a Sigil issue. Only truly atrocious formatting would ever interrupt my reading, and in those rare cases, I've found it's easier to abandon it rather than waste time fixing it. *shrug* Last edited by DiapDealer; 01-31-2019 at 02:54 PM. |
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#15 |
Grand Sorcerer
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Karma: 204127028
Join Date: Jan 2010
Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD
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I know how and have no desire to do so any more. Like you, I have no issue whatsoever with "thumbing" backward or forward a bit when starting a book.
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