Looking back, I'm pretty sure a little bird whispered the word 'Perl' into my ear. I had just gotten my first PC having not touched a computer since my Commodore VIC20 was retired so many years before. With BASIC interpreters being my only exposure to computing, I was still operating under the assumption that to own a computer was to program a computer, and I was going to need to get a book on a more modern language than BASIC. At this time, I didn't know about UNIX, or Linux, or really much of anything.

The Camel was my first book from O'Reilly. I simply strolled into a nearby bookstore - and by 'nearby', I mean the nearest which was 2 hours away - and was immediately struck by an irresistable gravitational pull to that large, blue book.

Several years later, I use Perl for fun and for profit, and I am fortunate to be able to slip into Camel-inspired reverie as often as I please for both personal and professional satisfaction.