I’m quite pos­si­bly the most ran­dom book shop­per ever. Not only am I inter­ested in just about every­thing that has ever existed, but I also have a large list of books I need to get which I main­tain in my head. This list will ran­domly spew out knowl­edge to my “action node” and force me to get said book. With that in mind, I always rel­ish a trip to Powell’s World of Books–which I try to go to once a year dur­ing the summer.

The fol­low­ing is a list of what I got, and a short explaini­a­tion on why I choose it. Keep in mind I might not have known then why I was buy­ing it, so the chances of me think­ing of a rea­son now are slim to none. :)

Listed from largest book (in length by height, not by thick­ness) to smallest.

1. Freako­nom­ics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dub­ner. This has been in my read­ing list since it first came out, and I finally remem­bered to get it when I chance encoutered it while look­ing for Black’s Law Dictionary.

2. Che Gue­vara: A Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Life by Jon Lee Ander­son. You see Che shirts, belt buck­les and posters every­where. But I basi­cally know some­thing about him. This was on a rec­om­mended book sec­tion, so I grabbed it.

3. Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel by Colfer Donkin, Rig­ano and Lamanna. Another that has been on my list since it first came out. I love all things about Artemis Fowl. He’s every­thing Harry Pot­ter isn’t–and I love the series for it. The newest one I pur­chased last week, but I’m still read­ing The Power Bro­ker. So when that’s done, I’ll start on the newest Artemis Fowl novel before begin­ning this book.

4. Amer­i­can Beyond Our Grand­est Notions by Chris Matthews. It’s Chris Matthews. The only one I cound find there. He’s always fun to read.

5. The God Delu­sion by Richard Dawkins. Dawkins is a douche, and I love it. This is a glo­ri­ous troll resource book. Not to men­tion I prob­a­bly agree with every­thing he says, and I like read­ing books that I agree with.

6. Dress Your Fam­ily in Cor­duroy and Denim by David Sedaris. I make it a point to always get a Sedaris book when I go to Powell’s. I didn’t have this one yet, so I got it!

7 Lost in Austen: Cre­ate Your Own Jane Austen Adven­ture by Emma Camp­bell Web­ster. Remem­ber those old Goose­bumps books that you were able to choose what to do next? Think of this book like that. Except with the begin­ning of Pride and Prej­u­dice. Sound amaz­ing or what.

As men­tioned before, I’m read­ing The Power Bro­ker, and even though I’m only 400 or so pages into it… I can highly rec­om­mend it to any­one look­ing at pol­i­tics, suc­cess, power, or urban plan­ning. Check it out.