'He would say he bought books to read, not to stare at their backs on a shelf while they collected dust over the years. He liked books to be well bound but it was their contents that mattered and he never kept a book of which he did not approve — there was no room for "bosh" in his bookcases. He was a fast reader, not a skimmer reading bits here and there, but a perspicacious reader who obtained the greatest satisfaction from a good story well written.'