Reaction to A Study of Reading Habits

By using the word 'cured' the persona suggests that during his school years, reading was his escape, where he could imagine himself as a character in a book, instead of being someone who was bullied at school. In the second stanza we see the persona going through his teenage reading, with him suggesting that he devoured books much like women. However, in the last stanza, the persona reveals that he doesnt read now, because when he was younger he wanted to be able to relate himself to the hero but now knows that he is much more like the coward, 'the chap who's yellow'.