That's really beautiful writing, Alex - it reminds me of Ray Bradbury at his best when he writes about his love of books. I used to write exclusively with pen and paper. I wrote all my poems and my first novel, A Familiar Rain, that way. I recall reading a Time magazine article called, "Scribble, Scribble, eh, Mr. Toad" about the dawning digital age and the rise of word processing and it got me wondering. I taught the essay in my pre-university class and listened to the response of my students. Their responses were mixed and I began to think that I was in danger of becoming a Luddite, spending hours like a mediaeval monk producing my own version of an illuminated manuscript writing in peacock blue ink on vellum.

My wife was working for a publisher at that time and she was learning to use a word processor. She spent the summer typing and formatting my book and then suddenly lost the whole manuscript because of some technical glitch. But strangely enough, I wasn't dissuaded and began typing my manuscripts myself. Now, I rarely read print material - everything is on-line including papers, magazines and books. I don't think it makes any difference.My handwriting has degenerated and I have several notebooks that are beautiful but I don't write in them. I have a study office I rarely use preferring to write on my laptop in my front room, often with he fireplace on and my animal pack beside me or at my feet. I still love the nutmeg scent of books and have several print books I cherish, but I'm also aware of friends who owned a used book store becoming seriously ill from mould and newspaper reports of bed bugs between covers - Ugh! And now with Covid....

The world has changed, my friend, One of my friends is an on-line rare books dealer in Montreal - I know he'd be appalled by my transformation, but life demands something of us the more we go on. I tend to live too much of my life by backward glances anyway so this is one area , namely technology, where I choose to move forward.