Last week, I came across a book exchange cart near one of the gates at Orlando International Airport (MCO). None of the titles on display called to me (Nora Roberts and Outdoor Photographer magazine were heavily represented), and I hadn't yet finished any of the books I had on me, so I didn't take or leave anything.
I'm not sure who or what was behind this; there's no mention of this on the MCO website. And I don't know if there's any connection between the book cart and the National Women's History Month display behind it, featuring Oprah and J. Lo alongside Amelia Earhart. I thought for a minute that all the books on the cart might have been written by women in keeping with that theme, but I see Daniel Silva and Gordon Thomas in there, so that's not it, unless somebody else left those there.
Anyway. This is not a revolutionary concept: there's a book exchange at our office in Amsterdam, and a couple more within a few blocks of where I live. Still, this seems like something hopeful and good: an island of art and ideas and slowness and sharing and human connection (albeit anonymous), in a river of haste and commerce and transience. Like a flower on a highway median. This book cart will probably suffer the same fate as the flower, but we can appreciate it while it's there.
