This morning I pulled out another of these books and... looked at the pictures.  I will read it properly sometime, but today it was enough to study the photos of famous climbers doing their stuff in nailed boots, and later plimsolls, and enjoy awe-inspiring scenery from around the world.  I'm lucky to have these books at all, donated to the charity shop where I volunteer by a woman in her eighties and saved for me by the manager.  I'm lucky to feel that the world is an open book and that consequently I can go anywhere and do anything I like.  I know it's not really true, we're nearly all constrained by circumstances, but the feeling remains.