Tika Viteri, I Haven't Read Books by Cis-Het White Men for Years: I don't Miss Anything. BookRiot.com July 9, 2021. https://bookriot.com/not-reading-cis-het-white-men/?fbclid=IwAR0D9yjnahMHdbJzZMZCdzyZrVQiP73IJ466wMthgZfzxExbflYwl25BUEo
I’m one of those annoying people who taught themselves to read at age 3 (word up to Matilda Wormwood) and attempted to hide books under my pillow at night. The summer I was 5, my brother was born and I was bored, so I toddled my pre-K self half a mile down to the local library and tried to convince the librarian that she could, in fact, give me my own library card without my mom’s signature. She wasn’t having it, so I walked all the way back home, then back to the library with the completed application in hand. Someone from the local bar called my mother to let her know I was just walking around downtown by myself, and my mom said, “It’s ok, she’s going to the library.” It was a different time.
COMMENT
I had a similar experience. When I was 5 I wanted to get a library card for the school library, but the librarian refused to believe that a 5 year old could read. She made me come in with my mother and read aloud from a book. The book included the word "orphan" which I did not know and pronounced as three syllables: "or-pa-han". The librarian did not tell me I was pronouncing the word wrong until I had read the whole book and I nursed a grudge against her until I went to a different school.
