I am not a very strong reader. In fact I read extremely slowly so that and having kids I don’t read to many books that aren’t written by Dr. Seuss or Robert Munsch. That being said about a year ago I decided to take on the challenge of reading a book. I decided to read Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I had purchased it a few years early on a recommendation from Rob and had never gotten the time or interest to actually read it. So one day I sat down to read it wondering how far into it I would actually get before I lost interest or got to busy to get through it. Well I opened the book and began reading. I was always told the intro was written for a reason so it’s meant to be read. So I came to the Introduction and began reading it and it said “….and if you skip this intro and go straight to the story, I not only won’t stand in your way, I’ll even agree with you!”. This stopped me. I thought for a minute. It went against what I had been taught. But this was the author. He wrote it and he was giving me FULL permission to not read it before reading the book. After a minute or two thinking this over I very happily turned ahead 16 pages and began to read the book.
I know to most this may sound foolish. Not only that I am that set in my ways that I am taken a back by not reading the intro to a book, but also by the fact that this is what stands out to me as my favorite beginning to a book. I mean really I know, it isn’t even part of the story. I realize that. What it is to me though is a glimpse into who the author might be. He isn’t completely vein and wrapped up in himself. He didn’t just write an intro to brag about himself and how genius his book is. Instead he wrote to the audience. He shared a piece of himself. He also gave some one who is set into their habits a chance to re-evaluate those habits and tho break out of their mold.
Oh and just in case your wondering I did read the entire book…except for the intro, maybe some day I’ll go back and read it too.
