For the Love of Bibliographies

Writing non-fiction has made me a lover of bibliographies. Sometimes, I'll pick up a book, skip directly to the bibliography. And it's not just to verify the bone fidis of the author, although a threadbare bibliography is something of a red flag. From them I learn about primary sources I never knew existed. The best bibliographies are also repositories of unique stories, ones apart from formal manuscript, ones that couldn't be shoehorned yet compelling enough so that the author couldn't bear not to share it.