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Todd Drake, a Summerfield artist, is into all kinds of history. Particularly when it comes to books and his own back yard.

He lives on the same watershed his family first settled on when they moved here into central North Carolina before the Revolutionary War. That's right, before the Revolutionary War.

And with his right-brain talent, Drake likes to dig into the personal histories of people who are often stereotyped, maligned and often misunderstood.

So, over the years, he has taken portraits of all kinds of disenfranchised communities far away from our mainstream radar screen -- from Alzheimer patients and undocumented immigrants to long-distance truckers and employees of an exotic night club.

And now, he's exploring another unknown: Muslim Americans.

As he worked on his two-year project, he fielded the same question from Muslim Americans he interviewed across North Carolina, "Have you read the Qur'an?''

He now can say he has.

"The first impression I have is how connected it is to the Old Testament in the Bible,'' says the 48-year-old married father of two who calls himself a "progressive Christian.'' "I mean, mostly what I'm getting from it is that it's a retelling of the experience of Moses.

"I knew there was a lot within the Muslim faith that had respect for Christian and Judeo history, but I was surprised to see it in the Qur'an, and when I did, I realized how unschooled I am.

"I didn't know that it was that interconnected. They see a connectedness to me as a Christian, and I had never heard or seen it taught anywhere of our connectedness to the Muslim world.''

Drake will hold a public reception to his exhibit, "Muslim Self Portraits'' at Faith Action International House at 6-9 p.m. Friday.

Now to Drake's book shelf.

Like many of us, Drake read several books at once as he read the Qur'an. Here's what turned his pages ...

-- "The Mole People'' by Jennifer Toth. A non-fiction book about the life of the homeless living in the tunnels of New York City.

-- "The Road'' by Cormac McCarthy. A father-son tale about their journey through the post-apacolyptic South.

-- "Local Breads'' by Daniel Leader. A how-to book about baking bread. Drake started reading it because he worked that his job as an art instructor at Rockingham Community College would be cut. It wasn't. Still, Drake bakes 30 loaves in a week and sells them at a farmer's market near his home in Summerfield. His take-home pay: $100.

And Drake's most favorite books?

"House of Rain'' by Craig Childs.  Says Drake: "I really like to read adventure non-fiction, and this is one of my favorites. He wanders around the Southwest looking at Native American sites and pieces together their history so you can really understand what happens.''

"One Hundred Years of Solitude'' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Says Drake: "I'm an artist, so I am comfortable with surrealism. And when you look at the definition of the prefix 'sur,' you find out that the root means 'moreso.' So, this book is more real. Plus, surrealistic painting combines the dream world with the waking world, and I love the way (Marquez) did that with this book. Oh gosh, the images stay with you.''