I love Powell's book carts. I love the books they carry from place to place and I love the stickers and sayings that cover them. One of the pleasures of shopping at the downtown store is checking out the stickers on the carts.
The City of Books has a dedicated team of people whose only job is gathering up the stray books and getting them back on the right shelf. I bet on a normal day, they probably go through hundreds of books. I enjoy checking out the books on those carts before they get sorted. You never know what you are going to find.
The other day on a cart I found a couple of books I love, books I've been meaning to read and books I'd forgotten existed. On one cart I saw The Omnivore's Dilemma, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, and Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti. This time last year I was pestering everyone to read Omnivore's Dilemma. Michael Pollan has gotten some heat for the book, but I found it compulsively readable and, yes, it changed the way I eat.
I've been meaning to read World War Z since it first came out. Zombies are not normally my bag, but The Zombie Survival Guide was so much fun that I have to read this follow-up. I've been warned that it's more "horror" than "humor" but that's OK with me. I'm thinking zombies are a perfect antidote to Christmas.
Maya Deren, the woman who wrote Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti, was an amazing experimental filmmaker in the early '50s. She went to Haiti and became fascinated by Voudoun. She made no claims as a scholar and came to the subject with her artist's eye. I read the book years ago and had forgotten how good it was.
There were a few other favorites on the cart that I have to share with you!
If I were stuck on an island and had this cart of books with me, I think I'd be OK to stay for a few months.