"I love being surrounded by my books."

The reason I put the title in quotes is that someone else said it yesterday at lunch.  For some reason that simple phrase struck me powerfully and explained a great deal of my thought patterns and behavior.  I aimed my camera more or less at random at one of my many bookshelves, then cropped a bit to make the photo a bit more pleasing.  The most often used book in this short section of shelf is John Muir Laws' Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada.  It's possible that all you can read is "Sierra Nevada" on the light blue spine.  The two that tied for most influence on me, from this group, are the one by Richard Dawkins with the rainbow-colored jacket, Unweaving the Rainbow, and Darwin's Origin of Species.  The latter title is one of the most influential books of the past several centuries, even influencing people who are unaware of it and or haven't read it.  That brief comment at lunch set me on a train of thought that just won't quit, so I expect to be returning to the subject soon.