August 7, Friday afternoon -- Reading the newspaper

At San Francisco Soup Company in the Financial District, where I overheard, between patron and counter-person, that the soup and sandwich deal is the best bang for your buck
Reading a Kindle, one of four which he purchased for his family -- for himself, his wife, son and daughter. Because they were all purchased on his credit card, when one of them buys a book, they ALL get it, for the price of one. (The max number you can buy and get this deal is five.)

Over the past thirty-years he and his wife have moved four times between the East Bay and San Francisco. Before the last move, they got rid of a lot of books. Now, he has just one bookshelf and intends on keeping it that way. If given a choice between art and books, he'd rather cover his walls with art. Among the books on his Kindle, which will keep the art on his walls: A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Kahled Hosseini; a book about American Sign Language; and Toobin's book about the Supreme Court, which he said was too big to carry on the airplane, but, with a Kindle....

He is an author as well as a reader. Last September he published a book which he coauthored with the Dalai Lama called Emotional Awareness: Overcoming the Obstacles to Psychological Balance and Compassion. He has written several other books as well, including Telling Lies, was on my family's bookshelf while I was growing up.

His family is a writing family. His wife writes, too. They even write together -- his wife and daughter have coauthored a book.