As the son of two high school English teachers, Nathan Fillion learned early on that books possess magical qualities. For one thing, they can stop a clock. “Whatever our bedtime was as kids, we could stay up an extra half hour if we were reading. My parents didn’t care as long as I was under the spell of a Stephen King or a Douglas Adams,” recalls Fillion, who now plays a writer himself—mystery novelist–turned–crime solver Richard Castle—on ABC’s comedy-drama Castle. Those late nights growing up in Edmonton, Canada, got Fillion addicted. “Now I read in bed. I read at work. I read standing in line,” he says. “It’s like, ‘Hello, my name is Nathan and I am a reader.’”

To maintain his habit, the 41-year-old actor keeps digital books on his smartphone and tablet, and the old-fashioned kind everywhere else. “I still buy actual books,” he says, holding up a worn paperback of Jaws and bringing it to his face with a deep inhale. “The smell, having it in your hands—there’s really no substitute.”

What’s remarkable is that Fillion finds time to read anything other than scripts. Castle wrapped its fourth season with a steamy cliff-hanger in which his character finally hooked up with Kate Beckett (played by Stana Katic), the detective he’s flirted with for years. Fillion’s not sure what romance will do for the couple’s chemistry next season. “I imagine there’s going to be a honeymoon phase, and then a honeymoon’s-over phase, where it’s like, ‘Can you pass me the remote?’?” He laughs. “And then they’ll be fighting: ‘You watch too much TV.’ ‘You’re always cleaning your gun.’ Typical relationship stuff.” [Read the rest here]