I used to jump straight to page one when reading non-fiction books. I treated the book like it was a story; expecting it to take me on an adventure.
However, I now spend time with the table of contents before deciding to read a non-fiction book. When I can see the core message of a book in the table of contents, I gain confidence that the author has a coherent and clear point of view to share. Conversely, when I see a confusing table of contents, I worry that either the author hasn’t done the work to package their thinking up into something easily digestible, or that they’re trying to be too clever.
The purpose of non-fiction writing is to educate and change people’s minds. There’s no need to hide the message.