This story will remind you of Matilda.

A man shared a childhood story of how he was granted access to the grown up/main collection area of his municipal library after taking on the head librarian’s challenge…

…And reading over a thousand children’s books in four weeks.

Let’s read the story!

You want me to finish the kid’s section first? Alright…

When I was young, I really enjoyed reading (still do).

The municipal library had a section for “underage” readers (books for children and young readers up to 16) and a separate one for adults (meaning, everything not specially written for children).

The usual division was you’d get a yellow library pass for the children’s section or a grey one for the adult section (which included access to the children’s section), with separate entrances for the sections.

My biggest problem was I was rather “grown up” at an early age, so I started reading at 4, read books intended for ages 10-13 at age 8 and so on.

That’s impressive. But not everyone was prepared to accommodate him.

I was only allowed to take six books from the library at any one time, so I had to return to get new ones several times a week, reading only an hour in the evening just before going to bed.

I really hated this situation because I knew the “grown up” section had bigger books, more pages, fewer pictures (imagine S.A.I.N.T. number 5 from “Short Circuit” – need input…) which I wasn’t allowed to take yet.

When I asked about access to the adult section at age 12, the head librarian told me I’d have to wait until I was 16 – four long years…

That’s a long time for an avid reader!

And when I whined about children’s books being boring and too short she said I could only have access to the adult section once I’d read all the books in the children’s section, which she didn’t believe anybody had ever done.

She said she couldn’t make any exceptions as all the librarians were so busy (understaffed).

Cue malicious compliance…

A few days later, on the first day of our six weeks of summer holidays from school, I started reading.

Not for fun but with a goal in mind.

Leaving aside all the books I’d read already (everything even remotely interesting, maybe 3-4,000 books), there were only about 1,500 books in the children’s section I hadn’t read yet.

*Ahem*. “Only” 1,500??

At an average of maybe 50 pages, they were easy to finish within a few minutes each (for comparison: the last Harry Potter book took me approx. 5 hours to read).

So my days were structured like “go to the library, get 6 books, go outside to a bench in the park, read 6 books, return 6 books, repeat until closing time”.

My turnaround time after leaving the library was between 5 and 60 minutes, depending on the books (obviously, baby books were like 30 seconds each).

That’s speed and dedication. The head librarian didn’t even see it coming.

What came from this: I discovered science fiction, which I still love, and learned to detest shallow romance novels.

I read lots of books… and the librarians got to know me quite well because they had to register the books to my account.

Back then it was done with a numbered paper slip ripped off the back of my library card – one block of those with 100 slips had to be replaced at least every second day.

They would register them again as returned, sort them into the racks again… so I caused quite a lot of work for them, to the extent of basically occupying one of them exclusively.

But they were happy to help.

Still, they were really helpful, given we shared the love of books and reading, and some of them actively assisted by keeping a pile of books ready at the counter to make my turn-around even quicker (maybe they wanted to stick it to the head librarian).

It took me nearly four weeks of reading, honing my skills and then “the day” came.

They head librarian wasn’t expecting him to actually read all the books.

I returned the last books (some teenager romance novel with lots of horses, absolutely not what I wanted to read) and asked for my “adult” library card.

The head librarian couldn’t believe it, went to check my file and was met by absolute outrage by the children’s library librarians who had witnessed what I had done…

She nearly choked when she filled in my grey card with her typewriter… but had the good grace to wish me fun with the new exciting world of the adult library.

To be honest, I did not repeat that with the adult library, so when I left my home town for university, there were still thousands of volumes left unread there.

Today, I make do with an “unlimited” ebook reading package from a big company, as I simply can’t afford to buy as many books as I read.

As another fellow reader, I found his solution to the issue fantastic!

Let’s read what Redditors have to say about this.

Good one.

Don’t mess with nerds!

A reader shares their thoughts.

Another reader chimes in.

This reader shares a personal anecdote.

Another reader shares their personal experience.

That’s a good question.

This was a reading marathon and he won.

Impressive stuff.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.