A Washington Read
Also known as an Index Scan, this is the process whereby a person scans the Table of Contents, Credits, and/or Index to see if they or their organization was mentioned by name. Then they proceed to read only those relevant parts rather than the book in its entire.
Walter Shapiro of USA Today wrote One-Car Caravan: on the Road With the 2004 Democrats Before America Tunes In without an index—on purpose. He explained his reason thus: ''All of us on the fringes of the political game have stood in book stores riffling through the alphabetized final pages of a new book to see if we are mentioned. This egoistic ritual inspires either the transient joys of relevance or the lasting agonies of rejection. To spare everyone further emotional turmoil, I have dispensed with the editorial feature that has caused more heartbreak than the senior prom.''*
ABC News decided it would create an index for it and even posted it on the web.
Although it is generally known, few admit out loud that they don’t actually read the entirety of the popular political books.
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*Jennifer Lee NYTimes “Washington Books Bring Out Index Fingers” 5/2/2004