I'm pleasantly surprised when a book character is actually smoking --unless half the plotline revolves around said character trying to quit and/or being told to quit by various caring friends and family.
Lots of people smoke. Not everyone who smokes wants to quit. Some people actually *enjoy* smoking (gasp!). For this reason, the current pc trend to have all non-smoking characters is a bit ridiculous. It's not realistic.
Besides, my reading life would be bland without Holmes and his three pipe problems.
