I adore footnotes. Honestly. While doing research (or just reading history books for fun), few things delight me more than those little gobbets hidden in the lower margin. Even when reading about a topic that interests me greatly, a digression proves too inviting to resist.
Let’s look at the book I’m currently reading, a history of the Battle of Britain called With Wings Like Eagles by Michael Korda. Now, apart from being a well written, engaging book with an ample bibliography, Korda makes use of footnotes. Enjoy this snippet (digression taken while discussing the difference between Luftwaffe and RAF bases):
“Our quarters at a former Luftwaffe base near Hamburg…not only had indoor baths and showers but featured a mysterious-looking porcelain basin set in the wall which was too small, too high up, and too elaborately decorated to be a urinal, and which turned out to be a flushing vomitorium for those who had drunk too much beer” (64).
Will that ever feature into my works? Probably not. Will that ever be something I’ll need to know? Again, probably not, but I’ll bet it will make for interesting conversation fodder.
Ned Wolfe 
I love footnotes too. My blog has many footnotes. I’ve not used any in fiction though… I think it’d take the right story to make footnotes work.
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Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman uses footnotes quite humorously. 🙂
I love them in history books–they add such flavor.
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Pratchett does that in all of his books and they are often the funniest parts in them – which is saying a lot considering the humour in the rest of the book
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Yes but of course the opposite is true. I hate it when books do not have footnotes. Why not? What are they trying to hide? Very frustrating.
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I never thought of it that way! Good point.
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I’m not obsessed with footnotes per se, but lists completely do it for me. And books which are compendiums of facts (do you remember those Isaac Asimov books which were stuffed with tidbits of information on all facets of life?), especially books which make me reconsider ideas and ‘facts’ which I have managed to mangle in my mind.
I really feel the need to make a list now…
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I don’t think I have ever read those Asimov books…I’ll have to rectify that!
Lists are fantastic, too. I do a lot of planning through lists. From the every day chores to the different characters and situations in my writing, there’s a list for everything! 😀
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Love it, and love them in general too. 🙂 And I love the word gobbit. 🙂
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I understand the appeal even if I don’t share in the obsession and here is what else I’ve seen books with fonts that made me return them to the shelf.
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