I like to write in books and hence am a late adopter of the electronic book.  Old habits die hard but I like to be able to write a lot of notes in the margins of books.  The electronic equivalent of this does not cut it for me, though for pure reading pleasure of, say, a fiction book, the ipad is great.

It’s important to me when I read a physical book that there’s a pencil nearby, or more often inside the book.  Recently, I had put down some thick tome where I disagreed with every major point. When I picked it up again, I noticed the pencil was missing and in its place was a dollar bill.  After asking the family about this, my daughter finally confessed that she needed a pencil but left me the dollar as a bookmark.  Anticipating my displeasure, she re-assured me by saying, “It’s OK, Dad.  You can keep the dollar.”  I guess every man does have his price.  Mine is just much lower than you’d think.