How to Read Literature Like a Professor (Foster)

"Mr. Lindner? That Milquetoast?

Right. Mr. Lindner the milquetoast. So what did you think the devil would look like? If he were red with a tail, horns, and cloven hooves, any fool could say no." (page xi)

When I first began reading this introduction, I wondered if I had picked up the wrong book. I was expecting an introduction that would immediately begin telling me what I could expect to find in this book. However, the introduction began with more of an example of how a literary professor reads a novel compared to how a student typically reads a novel. I thought this was a clever and interesting way to begin the introduction. I usually don't read the introduction of books because I find they are boring, and I fully intend on reading the book so is the introduction really going to state anything I won't find in the main text? The way Foster began this introduction intrigued me though to read the full introduction. The introduction on a whole has now interested me to read this book since I felt I could relate to his description of the professor's views versus the students views of a work of literature.