Today I just picked up a book at my university library, courtesy of inter-library loan, which kind of amazed me. I haven't even read the book, which is a detail of German-Soviet Relations up till the invasion by Hitler in '41, but what amazed me was the bibliography.
When it comes to Non-Fiction I typically have a ritual. I start in the back. The Bibliography/Notes to me is the most important part of the book. It is their evidence of reserach done and my evidence that it is worth my time. I am relient on a worthy piece of literature to make my case so as such I need a worthy bibliography. Popular Histories typically lack a Notes section and sometimes even a bibliography, this irks me to no end. I'm not sure why Footnotes/Endnotes are so bothersome to the masses but I need them! Anyway, the book is approximately 200 pages of content and another 100 pages of reference material (Bibliography, Notes, Index). This impressed me. I'm not even sure if the author's writing is worth its salt but I like the fact he took the time to at least pretend he did some research. The fact that its incredibly short also pleases me since I'm quickly running out of time for my paper on Hitler and Stalin.
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