The Context of Content pt: 1

If has to be understood that not only does the content of a book have a context, but books themselves do too.  Here are some tips for exposing that context.

1. Who is the author?  It is always good to look up a author you don't know to see what you can learn about them.  What else have they written?  Where do they will live?  Are they married or have a family?  You would expect those who write on marriage or parenting to be mar;ried or have kids, but not always. If the author has alphabet soup after their name (PhD. ThD. D.Phil, PsyD. LL.D.) what do these letter mean? Most likely they will tell you about the person education.  But what do other letters or titles mean (OFM, Rt. Rev., Prioress,)? 
2. Notice how many pages are in a book.  Notice too how many chapters.  Do the math and you can figure out about how many pages are in each chapter. This will help you schedule out a reading plan for the book.  Short chapters makes the book more flexible since you can start and stop in only a few minutes.  Longer chapters will require you to spend more time reading in a single setting if you are wanting to not break up a chapter flow.
3. Does a book have a forward, introduction or prologue? Read these.  What about a conclusion or epilogue? Read these too!  They are part of the book.  If they weren't the author would not have written them or included them in the book.
4. Dedications. Who is the book dedicated to and why? 
5. Does the book have footnotes or endnotes?   They are both ways for the author to include tangential information they think is useful, but maybe not essential enough to included in the text itself.  I am geek, so I read footnotes and endnotes. What about an index or bibliography?  Again, information that you may find useful while reading the book.

More next time.