“It's a nonsense because, as we all know, there are brilliant 15-year-old readers and hopeless 50-year-old readers. All that categorisation is a matter of bookshop shelves rather than literary categories, I think.”

Meaning

The line pushes back against rigid age labels, arguing that reading ability does not map neatly onto birthday categories. It can be taken to mean that books are better understood by interest, experience, and taste than by the aisle they are placed on. It lands whenever someone is judged too young or too old for a story they clearly understand.

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Original Language & Translation

Originally said in English.

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