Such Disappointment

I recently read the opening chapter of a science fiction novel in high spirits. It was all about a crazy fictional author, and I couldn’t wait to read about his wild adventures. Only I realized by the end of the “chapter” that it was actually an introduction written by somebody else, and the “crazy fictional author” was actually the real author of the rest of the book. I didn’t even want to read the rest of the book after that, but I forced myself to give the first few paragraphs a try. They were awful by comparison. Such disappointment I have not felt in a long time, and I returned the book to the library unread. On the bright side, the guy who wrote the introduction is also an author, so I can add his name to my list of authors to read someday.