I bought an inexpensive electronic chess game. I could not beat it at the easiest level. Just not my game.
I bought an AI chess game, too. The first time I played it, it was at the maximum difficulty level and I beat it. But I never beat it on the easy level. There was so much time between responses at the hardest setting, I was forced to study the board. On the easy level, the responses came so quickly, I sped up playing, too, and make mistakes.
Chess is a very interesting game. But as you noted, it can be frustrating for a beginner. What you need is an electronic game that allows you to handicap the computer opponent.
I had one like that (forget the name). You could set up the game so that the computer had, say, no queen. And if you still got beat (as I did at first), maybe take away the computer’s knights too.
I found that to be a fun way to learn. Reading a bunch of books, that’s for players who are more serious than I.
No need to buy any game now. lichess.org let’s you play pre-made puzzles and games against computer (different levels) and other human players. I play it every day but I’m no good at it.
I have a 7 or 8 percent success rate against the version in Windows 7.
My rate of going to a draw is about 45 percent.