Grandpa’s typewriter was my first writing instrument. Using it had many advantages over scribbling. There was no need to learn to hold a pen, no risk of smearing. It even held paper for me. The resulting text was usually perfectly legible, as long as the reader overlooked a few words that were X-ed out. Of course, I had to learn to read first! – at least well enough to be able to recognize characters shown on keys.

I always loved science-fiction. My favourite writer was a famous Polish author Stanisław Lem. He is not as well known in English-speaking countries, but many of his books were translated into multiple languages. One of his major novels, “Solaris,” was made into a movie on two occasions, first in the USSR by Tarkovsky (1972), and later in the USA by Sodebergh (2002). Unfortunately, their production values were much more solid than screenwriters' understanding of Lem’s writing.