As your brother, I have a totally different approach. I ignore dedications, bios, prefaces, whatever. I pay no attention to the author. You know that from recommending books: you'll mention the author and I'll have no recognition until we get to the title and then, yes, I have read that.

I don't skip ahead. Page one to the end.. well, assuming the book keeps my attention. If not, I'll discard it even when close to the end.

And, I won't read fiction any more. I used to like it, probably still would, but I have too much history and science to read and too few years ahead of me.