"Well, you are a doctor and you seemed to want it to look professional and official.  I think it is a good look for you."  He shrugged.  He liked more casual and relaxed settings, but this was to be a portrait.   Then he looked at the books again. 

"I think, for the artistic eye, I think picking two or three books on the desk.  I know you are more interested in what is in the books, but for this, the color is what I am thinking of.  I think a red, a brighter blue, and maybe a green one on the front corner most away from you but the binding clear to be in view.  Perhaps two closed and the third one open and propped over the other two so you could see it if you were to be writing notes."

He went closer to the bookshelves and looked at the titles for the first time, really looking at them.  "So, you are more into the mental state of the mind.  Interesting."  He gave the doctor a look.  He had been a patient to one or two of the military mental doctors when he got so ill.  A raised brow went up.  "I thought the doctors that do that were born old men and had bushy eyebrows and glasses that made you feel like you were an insect."  He said with the tone of someone that had not a good experience with such doctors.

"Maybe you haven't been in that area of study long enough to look that way."  He joked then looked at the shelf.  He was curious.  "This is an interesting addition to a bookshelf."  He indicated that closed off area.