A study of reading habits

When getting my nose in a book                           
Cured most things short of school,               ........was a medicine, made things seem better.
It was worth ruining my eyes
To know I could still keep cool,
And deal out the old right hook              ..........fantasy, he could stand up to others.
To dirty dogs twice my size.                ........... school bullies, tougher than him.

Later, with inch-thick specs,               .......mocking his own appearance
 Evil was just my lark:                       ..........wanted to be evil, but cool (bad-boy?)
Me and my coat and fangs
Had ripping times in the dark.
The women I clubbed with sex!      ....reading offers him fantasies, makes him out to be someone else.
I broke them up like meringues.

Don't read much now: the dude            .......reading doesn't feel the same
Who lets the girl down before               .......realised they aren't true hero's.
The hero arrives, the chap
Who's yellow and keeps the store         ....the colour 'yellow' could symbolise cowardly.
Seem far too familiar. Get stewed:        ... he's read all his life, the characters are all familiar. Books are a load of crap.                ....books don't provide reality and truth they only offer an escape

Each stanza represents a time in Larkin's life- the first being his childhood and how being able to read took his mind of school and made him day dream about heroism and being tougher. The second stanza resembles his adolescents and him making out to be someone else, being cooler and evil so he can get girls. The final stanza is pessimistic and that for so long books have offered him an escape from problems in reality yet he's now realised they haven't helped him as he's lost hope and cant understand the true meaning of being a hero as they aren't true.