Photo of West Louisville teen walking down street reading goes viral | News from WDRB

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WDRB) — A photo of a teenager walking in west Louisville has garnered widespread attention on social media.

If you look closely, you'll see that he's not holding a phone. He's holding a book.

A Louisville man took the photo on his way home from work near 39th Street. What he saw impressed him: a boy reading a book while walking down the street. The post has since gone viral.

“I like reading manga crime novels,” said Thaddeus Mason, a Louisville native and Jefferson County Public Schools student. “I came to the library here and then someone told me I was on Facebook and reading a book.”

The 13-year-old's photo went viral on Facebook.

“I didn't know who took the picture of me. I was walking down the street… I was just walking down the street reading a book,” Mason said.

When people saw him in an orange outfit, they initially jumped to conclusions. But the caption read: “This is definitely not something you see every day. A very rare sighting of a young man just walking and reading a book.”

He is currently reading a manga chapter.

“I love the animation of how she looks and how she speaks,” Mason said. “I can imagine myself being the main character in the book.”

A day later, his photo had more than 782 comments and more than 4,000 interactions.

So many families were impressed with the eighth-grader, they complimented him in the comments and surprised him with gift cards to various local restaurants.

“I want to thank everyone. I also thank you for the comments because you have given me more courage to do better things in life,” said Mason.

Mason smiled and told WDRB that he was an aspiring engineer.

“I want to be a technical engineer because I really just love technology. I just love how it works,” Mason said.

Until then, he plans to continue his adventures to and from the Shawnee Public Library.

“You can achieve your dreams,” Mason said. “One way or another, you're going to do something to get where you want to be.”

Mason believes his second-grade teacher, Mrs. Pearson, taught him to read. He hopes his reading skills will one day earn him a scholarship to college.

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