An Introductory Problem

Did you know that some books are really old? Did you also know that there are still people who have not read them? There are classics out there that are very well-known and have been read time and time again over the ages. They have been discussed in every way imaginable, and many of them have been adapted into movies. So does that make it okay to spoil these stories since they are already so old?

No. Don't do that.

Now that I have you on board, hear me out. It has become a sort of tradition with the modern printing of old books to hire old professors or celebrities to write an Introduction or Forward to a book that, as written, assumes you already know everything about the blasted plot! Before you even get to the story itself, it will spend sometimes hours going over every single point the book has to offer. If you actually read this, there will not be a single aspect of the upcoming story you will be ignorant of ahead of time.

And I know what you may be thinking: why not just skip it? Well, sometimes I do. I will often read a little bit of it to see if it is one of those things or if it's just sort of a introductory explanation by the author. Either way, I have to check to see what the damn thing is, and I shouldn't have to worry about if its a spoiler or not.

Believe it or not, there are a lot of famous classics that I hard heard of that I don't actually know what the plot is. I want to be surprised. I want to experience that old story as if it was just coming out today. I don't need to read some dumb essay that covers everything I am about to read. Barnes and Noble, I am looking at you! You do this all the time. Please stop!

There is nothing wrong with essays like this as long as they are in the back of the book. Seriously, put it there. I have actually seen some publishers do this. Those guys know what they are doing.

Everything at the beginning of the book should be non-spoiler content. A Forward should express the person's love of the book without giving away the main plot points. A long-winded Introduction should either be written by the writer himself or just left out. Also, I have seen Introductions actually be a part of the story itself, so I never know if it's that or if its just an essay about the story. It's very inconsistent.

That's all. Don't spoil old books. There's no reason why you should. New people are born everyday that haven't read them.

This blog was written on March 4, 2026.

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