Fw: book indexes

[mark schilling]

Chris Howell-Little asked a question about indexes. For my book
"Contemporary Japanese Film" -- a collection of essays, interviews and 370+
reviews from The Japan Times -- I made "title finding" and "directors
finding" indexes, as well as a subject guide, with sub-heads like "comedy,
mainstream" "delinquent youth" and "yakuza." The aim was to be more
practically helpful to researchers than would be possible with a standard
index.

I'm planning on making similar indexes for my new book on yakuza movies for
Stone Bridge, but I'm having some trouble with the subheads. Best all-time
hits? Favorite sneers?

Most film books benefit from having an index. One that only contains names
and titles is better than nothing -- but there are more useful approaches, I
think.

Mark Schilling
schill at gol.com
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Chris Howell-Little" <chl at cif.rochester.edu>
> To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 3:00 AM
> Subject: book indexes
>
>
> > This is sort of a general film scholarship question, but one that
pertains
> > to Japanese film scholarship as well... anyway, as I've been digging
> > through my books for research papers at the end of the semester here,
I've
> > been wondering, why do some books use an "index of names" and an "index
of
> > films" in place of a general index?
> >
> > I can think of more than few instances of this, including some
incredibly
> > useful books (for instance, but not to single it out, Kyoko Hirano's
"Mr.
> > Smith Goes to Tokyo"). I guess ultimately, indexes are a matter of
> > convenience for readers, and perhaps not a crucial component of a work.
> > Still, it's nice to be able to scan through the indexes to quickly find
> > material on general topics like jidaigeki, not just films and people.
> >
> > Is the combination of those two indexes (of people and film) considered
as
> > good or better than a general index? Is this more common in
dissertations
> > turned into books?
> >
> > -Chris
> >
> >
>