1. A computer program product for a flash memory controller to manage old physical addresses in a solid state memory device, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions readable by flash memory controller to cause the flash memory controller to: track in a read status table pending reads from the solid state memory device and track in the read status table physical addresses within the solid state memory device associated with the pending reads; assign a first logical address to a particular physical address within the solid state memory device; delay a release of the particular physical address for reassignment to a second logical address when the read status table indicates that there is a pending read from the particular physical address; and release the particular physical address for reassignment to the second logical address when the read status table indicates that there is no pending read from the particular physical address.