"We strongly advise you to enjoy this book before turning to the Introduction"

This was part of General Introduction (it's right before the Introduction) of some Wordsworth Classics series,

We strongly advise you to enjoy this book before turning to the Introduction.

What does that mean? I'm little confused.

  1. Since the Introduction is before the actual text, how should I "enjoy" the book? Maybe I didn't get it.

  2. Enjoyment is a rather personal feeling: how could I be advised to enjoy the book?


People sometimes use "enjoy' as an imperative (command) meaning to use or consume the thing. "Enjoy your lunch" means "go ahead and eat". "Enjoy the movie" means "you may now go in the theater and watch the movie". Etc. (It's always seemed a little presumptuous to me. How do you know that I will enjoy it? Maybe I will do it, but hate every minute of it.)

In this case, "enjoy the book" simply means to read the book. So they are saying that you should read the main text of the book before you read the introduction.