How to read this work

How to read this electronic monograph

One of the ambitions of my e-monograph is to explore the potentials of hypermedia writing in an archaeological context (mostly using the freeware AOLPress). My work is written in HTML and takes the form of standard World Wide Web pages. The recommended web-browser is Netscape Navigator 3.0 (or higher).

Here are a few notes and hints that may help you appreciating my work.

Settings

My pages are conceived with standard font settings in mind (e.g. Times New Roman 12).
The underlining of links has been disabled.
I recommend that you adopt my colour choices for both visited and unvisited links, which try to avoid giving the impression that the links are particularly important 'key words' in the text.

Page design

I believe in the integrity of each individual (web-)page. Each page works as an independent entity, while offering a number of possible links to other pages. The use of frames or buttons distracts from experiencing the true power of making connections and are thus not used in my work.

Reading strategies

start at the start, then click on any link you want... Get used to the different format by trying it out and becoming familiar with the way this work can be read:
move back (or forward) using the appropriate buttons of your web-brower...
go back to previously visited pages, as they listed by your web-brower (in Netscape: use the Go menue)...
use bookmarks for pages you may want to return to later...
open another page in a new window; especially if you have a large screen, this may stimulate your reading experience and also save time, as you can read one page while the other one is loading...

Reading the work in its entirety

...is not an easy task, as there is no table of content. There was one in a previous life of this work, when it was a Doctoral dissertation. It was meant as a compromise, for the benefit of my examiners. One of them found it rather too compromising, and so I am glad about being able to dispose of it now. Given my argument about making sense by making connections, I would not find it at all helpful to maintain the illusion that either my work or my subject matter could, or should, be grasped in its entirety. I am deeply suspicious of readers who want to have the sense that they have seen 'everything' I wrote. So, you will never know for sure when you have seen my entire work. In printed books I own and have read many times I occasionally still find new thoughts and even entirely new paragraphs. I hope that many such surprising discoveries will be made by readers of this work too, especially since, in the future, some pages will actually be rewritten or edited by myself. My argument is never finished, the meanings of megaliths are never complete... I admire the spirit of Richard Reece's book My Roman Britain which was written in a form, although in paper, similar to my own ambitions:
"Sections have their own page numbers - there is no running page number. This is so that I can rewrite sections as I feel like it, and substitute them for the originals, without upsetting other sections. I shall probably not signal such rewritings. This means that there is no guarantee that 'Pot 3' in one copy is the same as 'Pot 3' in another..." (Reece 1988: iii)

A living text

This work is never completed and finished. It will keep changing as long as I am around (and motivated) to do it, and as long the technology will let me... I will rewrite sections as I rethink them or as additional literature comes my way and changes or adds to my views. I will also incorporate comments and criticism from readers, initally in the feed-back section. Older version might be available on the Internet Archive, although you have to keep in mind that the URLs to this work have been changing several times.

Printing

You may print out individual pages as you wish...
However, to print out the entire work is not only a very major task and will cost you many hours, a lot of paper, and too many paper jams in your printer, but it also destroys much of what this work is actually about. I therefore discourage you strongly from any such attempt.

Copyright

This work is copyright protected in all the usual ways and in that respect no different from any other form of publication. All HTML design, text and image is © 2000- Cornelius Holtorf, with the exception of literal quotations or images attributed in writing or by electronic links to their original sources (some electronic sources may have expired in the meantime).

Literature

Reece, Richard (1988) My Roman Britain. Cotswold Studies, vol. 3. Cirencester