Couple of days ago my son asked me why people would drink or smoke. I told him some of them do this so they can relax and forget about their problems. Well he answered why do not they just read a book?

For me too books are great source of relaxation. I can relax while reading, looking at the undread books at the book shelf, shopping on Amazon or well best visiting local book store.    I like paper books as they seem real. I like good made hardcover books though a lot of technical books never come out as such.    I buy more books when I  have time to read.  I like to have a choice of books on the book shelf to pick up and browse through when I have a spare time.  I also never throw away books which just feels like a crime to me.

I have been growing up with a lot of books. My grand father has thousands of me with book cases and shelfs from floor to celling in virtually every room. I always threated him as a library when I lived in Russia – there was no book he would not have. Of course this is different now when my interest have shifted to a lot of advanced stuff.

Leaving Russia we took number of books with us and each time we go there we bring some.  We mainly bring old books as it is easy to buy new prints online.   Moving from US to UK and back probably half of our shipment was books. I think we shipped some 20 boxes of books from Seattle and around 30 or 40 back from UK.