I just got this little idea about Callen and reading...
Disclaimer: I don't owe NCIS LA or the characters.
"Why do you think you are so good at undercover work," Nate asked him. "Because I read a lot," was the strange answer he got from Callen. Nate didn't understand, but no wonder because Nate didn't live in 37 foster homes.
Most of them were bad foster homes. He just grabbed every book he could and found a hidden place – a small and calm spot in the corner of the room or at the radiator. His hand ran down after the book cover feverishly. He opened it and began to read.
At that moment he forgot everything. He disconneted himself from this miserable presence and transported himself immediately in another world – be it Wonderland of Alice, the Western Front or Russia of the 18th century. Everywhere he felt at home.
He was fully absorbed in these worlds, was part of them, easily interjected with the characters in his own head. He didn't hear anything else than his own breaths full of exitement.
He read a lot. The black letters, words and sentences were all he got. They were his shelter, his safe place. The moments when he didn't read were only unpleasant breaks for him, he was dragged to the real world and was being beaten; sworn at, shouted at or laughed at.
Even now when he is forty-something year old he doesn't have a television, he doesn't need it. He has his books and his undercover work. The undercover work is for him something like returning to the places where he had been before, like reliving his childhood experiences. It is so natural tor him to become someone else and sometimes even easier then living a life in the real world.
AN: Western Front refers to the book All Quiet on the Western Front from E. M. Remarque.