Acknowledgments

I was just starting a book and noticed myself skipping over the acknowledgments. This is the section (usually in the begining) in which the author thanks others who contributed to the work in some way (sometimes by merely being encouraging) and I wondered if and when people would read this section. I am asking, more specifically, about people other than those being thanked or people researching the life of the author or researching how to write an acknowledgment of their own or any reason other than to be present at the actual thanking.

I assume that the author has (most often) already thanked these people in real life and is mentioning their help in the book itself in order to be public about it. It is a ceremony, akin to a wedding, in which a relationship is announced to the world officially. Reading acknowledgments would be like being a wedding guest, though without having to be invited or to buy a gift, but only to the actual vows and not to the after party.

I'm not the sort of person to attend the wedding of strangers so my behavior may be understandable. I also skipped the copyright page, because I am not a lawyer. and the note about the typeface, because I am not a fontophile. I'm just looking for actual content and I assume many other readers are like me. I do read the credits of movies sometimes, wondering who played some character or sung some song, for example, both not part of the movie content. There can be some thanking in movie credits as well, though I can't at the moment remember an example.

I'm also not the kind of person who watches award shows, another occasion where thanking is an important activity. Also, I suppose that winning an award is sort of like being thanked. When Bob Dylan received the Nobel Prize, he was subsequently called "rude" for not acknowledging the receipt publicly, like not saying "You're welcome" to their thank you. Or is it like saying "I love you" and not getting an "I love you too" in return?

I understand that award shows are quite popular and by not being a fan, I may be disqualifying myself as a discussant of the phenomenon. I'm not sure I have anything more to say about acknowledgments than I already have. I'm going to return to my book now, thank you.