Prologue: A Most Intriguing Book

My name is not important. What is important is that I had stumbled upon a most intriguing book, a book titled "MYST". It is there my adventures began...

Earth, 20th century

"Fifty bucks!" came my exclamation. "No way! No way in HELL am I paying that much! Even for a new muffler!"

I love books. I love to read them. I love to collect them. Boy, do I love to collect them! You should see my house. My friends say that it's more of a library than a home, stacked to the ceiling with boxes of those oh-so-wonderful bound pages of dried and flattened wood pulp, scribed with those the delicate curves of letters and symbols. Settling down with a good book in my lap to read the night away is more engaging than any silly TV show!

Still, I don't like paying too much for one. Thus, my haggling...

"Look, you," said the book seller in his infinitely calm voice, "the book is fifty bucks. No more. No less. Well, except for the tax, of course. But you know what I mean. If you don't like the price, you don't have to buy it, but I ain't budging."

The bookseller looked into my eyes with that steely gaze he gives me every time I try to negotiate a better price. Too often, I relent.

"Okay."

Like now.

The sale was rung up. Fifty bucks came out of my pocket and into his -- figuratively speaking, of course -- plus that percentage that went to Unca Sam came out of my pocket and into... wherever it goes. But the book was mine.

The title?

MYST.

... You German people can stop laughing now.

I didn't even wait to put down my stationary to open this new book that I had just aquired. The book wasn't brand new; it looked rather weathered, but I'm no book aging expert, so I couldn't tell how old it was from that. So I started skimming it as I slowly navagated the piles of books in my house with practiced ease.

Although I didn't bother to put the shopping bag down, I was pretty hungry. In my kitchen, I opened a package of a pair of Ding-Dongs. I munched happily on the Ding-Dong with one hand, holding the stationary bag with the other and using the free thumb to flip through the massive tome.

I noted idly that the bulk of the book was written in a strange, flowing, mysterious language. I would later learn this language was D'ni, but I'm getting ahead of myself. As it happens, I don't read D'ni. However, there were English translations on the opposing pages. How convenient.

Finally, I flipped to the last page. I was, at this point, well into the second Ding-Dong, and I was so surprised at what I found, I stopped chewing.

There on the last page, was a panel with a picture on it.

A moving picture. Of the island I had just read about.

A moving picture with a dollup of crumbly cake and white filling from my Ding-Dong on it, freshly dropped.

Absently, I wiped the crumb from the moving picture. That was a mistake, because it sent my stomach in a tumble and the world faded to black around me...

Author's Notes (or Post-Chapter Analysis)

Myst had problems in Germany because 'Mist' in German means something like animal manure.

Finally, the Linking Books are written in D'ni usually, so there's no an Earthling would be able to understand it. However, the MYST blurb in the manual says that you could read it. This seemed the perfect compromise.