Reading in reverse …

… Stuart Hannabuss - Index Appeal | Literary Review | Issue 474. (Hat tip, dave Lull.)

You don’t need to be a bibliographer to read in reverse: we all do it, all the time. One quick-fire way to evaluate a book is to go straight to the bibliography to see what the author has read. But to get really intimate with the text, turn to the index (contents pages are not enough and are often cryptic anyway). Indexing involves dissecting, cross-checking, systematising, reconceptualising and illuminating – in other words, anatomising a book.