This reading was very interesting. Manguel's recount of his experience as a young boy with the color-coded books and those that were off limits saddened me. The fact that this type of gender discrimination begins at such a young age (no matter how subtle) makes it easy to see why some men and, and even some women, buy into the idea that one gender (usually male) is stronger, more intelligent, and all around better than the other. It pleased me to see that Manguel managed to see past these social constructs to have a more open world view.
Manguel's division of the types of segregated readers rang true. Some readers were looking for a reflection of themselves and others decided that in order to get representation, they would have to create a literary work themselves. I don't feel that the segregated literature served to further seperate the groups but rather to show that there was, in fact, a difference between the the majority and the minority and to give proper representation of the latter.
The chapters title "Reading Within Walls," does not, to me at least, represent a literary prison in which women were confined, but rather a safe space for a woman to read about herself and her culture in a manner and a space that is not skewed by someone who may not properly understand and represent her.
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