Should the preface of a book come before or after the table of contents?

Okay, this is not a burning issue of our time, but it irks me when I can’t get immediately to the table of contents. I have seen books and papers that use both approaches. A google search shows that those who talk about such matters seem to be in agreement that the preface should come first, because it should talk about things related to how the book came to be written rather than the contents of the book.

I take a much more pragmatic view. The first things I want to know about a book are its title, author and copyright or publication date, which all can be conveniently found at the beginning. Then I want to know how the rest of the book is laid out, which should be in the table of contents. I want to see listed in the contents if there is a preface, or perhaps several for the different editions, or a foreword or a list of acknowledgements or a list of illustrations. Mostly this stuff is useful to know so I can skip over them and start reading the actual book.