Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[azz]

I read his books when I was young.

Can't this sentence have two meanings:
a. I used to read his books when I was young. (I haven't necessarily read them all, but I was in the habit of reading them.)

b. I read all of them when I was young. (I am talking about the act of reading all of his books, not about a habit).

[toe]

it seems to me you would use this sentence just as a way of
saying you are familiar with the author's work.

"i read his books when i was young" could certainly mean
that you read all of the books by that author or only read
some of them. if the author still has a writing career now
that you are grown up, you probably might use this sentence
to mean that you read the books that were written in that
era but now that you are an adult, you haven't read any
of that author's new work.

toe