"If you are going to the library

will you get me another couple of books to read? I've run out."
Thus came the wail from the Senior Cat.
Run out? No, of course he had not run out of reading matter. The pile in his bedroom is threatening to topple over - again. He has books by his chair, books piled in other places, books in the shed.
But, I knew what he meant. 
What he wanted was what he refers to as "a couple of crime yarns".  I always get at least two at a time - just in case he decides one is not something for him. 
He will be reading something else too. Recently he reread JB Priestley's "The Good Companions" because someone his age was reading it for the first time - at the Senior Cat's suggestion - and they were going to discuss it. I hunted down a copy of "Angel Pavement" - something he had somehow missed out on - and he read that too. He has finished that now and I am not sure what is next on the "serious" list.
At the same time he was reading a Margaret Murphy he had found in a pile somewhere.  
So yesterday I returned some books. Then I prowled along the shelves and found a Gary Disher he had not read and, even better, an Aline Templeton he had not read. I need to look at the print these days. He doesn't need large print but he does want good clear print. (I am with him there. There is no excuse for tiny fuzzy print. Reading should be a pleasure not a squint-squint process.)
     "I thought you would have read those long ago" someone told me as I was checking them out.
     "Getting them for my father," I explained.
     "Does he still read then?" they asked.
I explained that he still reads - a lot. We don't have time to watch television. We are too busy reading when other people are watching television. I would like to be able to do both things at once but....
I think the person who spoke to me had difficulty understanding that a 95yr old with an inquiring mind still needs to read if it is physically possible for them to do so. 
      "I gave him theology, psychology and philosophy for his birthday and he is halfway through the third one now," I said.
There was a shaking of the head. My questioner went off with some DVDs, a couple of magazines and one book. I have no doubt they are happy with what they chose and they will enjoy their choices. 
It's just that the Senior Cat is different. He wishes Ian Rankin would write another Rebus novel.