This is really sad, but it's at least kind of encouraging that he's still trying

Absolutely. The spirit of learning should be nurtured at any age. Read on, info warrior!

Hey, this is exactly how you expand your vocabulary - stumbling across new words, looking them up, and then remembering that. And they're still having fun reading the book, so they're probably going to remember the words they pick up. This is good!

I see y'all in the notes making fun of this, don't fucking shame people for learning stuff late. It's not like this guy can go back in time and do more reading as a kid/teenager, do you want people to learn new things, or do you expect everyone to just wallow in ignorance if they weren't lucky enough to be taught things as a kid/teenager? And they don't need an easier book either, if they're engaged with this one and understanding it, they're fine.