[He gives Shuichi a knowing sort of smile, like quiet shy bookworms look the same across all generations and nationalities. He can sniff a nerd out easy.]

Not really. I never was good at it. Words just don’t really sit right with me when they’re on a page. [It certainly doesn’t help that by now he’s got a lot of baggage loaded up into it, years of red marks on papers and Chief kicking his paperwork back and being near old enough to buy liquor legally at graduation, all of it chewing at him all day, every day.] But I read comics, so I guess those count as books.

[I mean, he’s not going to fight Shuichi if he disagrees about the literary value of Robot Comics, honestly. He draws another card.]

I can grab you some of the books in there if you want to just sit here and read. Probably better than sitting and staring into space.