Joshua Glasgow’s Reviews > Story of O > Status Update

As someone who never reads the intros or forewords, that would have annoyed me. I like to experience the story/text myself before considering someone else's interpretation or views about it. Don't tell me how to read it or what to think about it, just let me read the dang thing! Were they at least chapters that you could skip?

Actually, yes, although it didn’t even occur to me that that was a possibility when I was listening. 😑 Like you, I don’t prefer having intros like this which discuss the plot of the book but I don’t typically skip them or return to them after the fact when they do exist. I do think it’s kind of interesting when a book begins with a bunch of preface sort of defending the book’s literary value, though, which was definitely the case here.

It's rare that I will return to them - usually I skip and never look back.

I agree that sometimes those prefaces are useful context for a text, especially a controversial one, but I just vastly prefer to experience a book on its own merits, and let it be. Still, in this crazy world of book banning and such, it's probably not a bad idea to justify a book's existence and value.