They’re my quiet refuge, a place where I can disappear from the noise and live dozens of different lives. The smell of paper pages still feels like calm to me. It’s funny because my job belongs to a completely different world — I design games. Every day I create mechanics, characters, and little universes where someone will spend their evening. Sometimes I realize I’m doing almost the same thing writers do: building stories, just not with words alone, but with interaction. Books feed my imagination, and my work gives it shape. That’s why I cherish both so much.