A Study of Reading Habits: Reflection

I found this to be a very interesting poem.  As always, the title is very important because it states out right that this poem is going to be about a person whose genre preference changes as time passes, whether it be fantasy books where there is a happy ending to the story or a darker form of fiction with evil characters.  In the first stanza we know the speaker uses books as a way to escape from reality to a world where he would beat down bullies and pretend to be the hero of the book.  The books also instilled a form of imaginary confidence, whether he would use it in the outside world or just in the books he reads.  By the second stanza the speaker turns his interest towards books about evil vampires and pornography “clubbing women with sex.”  His eyes seemed to have become ruined by reading too many books too close to his eyes, whether that is possible or not as he has to where “inch thick specks.”  In the books the speaker likes to think of himself as a ladies-man, however that is most likely not true as escaping reality seems to be a trend in this character’s life.  In the last stanza the speaker has denounced books.  Now being a failure in life, he only sees books as a reflection of his own incompetence, rather he prefers to get drunk as a way to escape his own failure as a person.  He now feels betrayed by books and is just a bitter person.  It seems throughout the whole poem that he lived a less than fulfilling life when compared to the heroes in his books.