The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A must-have for anyone with a passion for shopping carts and a love of the great outdoors.

In The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America author Julian Montague has created an elaborate classification system of abandoned shopping carts, accompanied by photographic documentation of actual stray cart sightings. These sightings include bucolically littered locations such as the Niagara River Gorge (where many a cart has been pushed to its untimely death) and mundane settings that look suspiciously like a suburb near you.

Working in the naturalist's tradition, the photographs depict the diversity of the phenomenon and carry a surprising emotional charge; readers inevitably begin to see these carts as human, at times poignant in their abandoned, decrepit state, hilariously incapacitated, or ingeniously co-opted. The result is at once rigorous and absurd, enabling the layperson to identify and classify their own cart spottings based on the situation in which they were found.

About the Author

Julian Montague is an artist and graphic designer whose various art projects address issues of scientific classification as they relate to our perceptions of the natural and man-made worlds. A graduate of Hampshire College, he lives in Buffalo, New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Abrams Image (May 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810955202
• ISBN-13: 978-0810955202
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #175,770 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'Shoppers...we're gonna get you for doing this to us' UBSC local 501*, April 9, 2006

By	Robin Benson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Flick through this book and many of you might think Julian Montague needs to get a life, roaming round the North Eastern states snapping the death throes of shopping carts, indeed. The book is a bit of fun though and quite cleverly thought out, but maybe the joke wears a bit thin by page 176.

The five sections explain all you'll need to know to about classifying carts, section two lists Class A: False Strays, Types 1-11 and section three Class B: True Strays, Types 1-22. Each type gets a page with a cool photo and details about what to look for. The longest section is four, titled Selected Specimens, with more than three hundred photos of battered and dead carts in the environment, I think the ones in snow look best and they are categorized according to either Class A or B. It won't surprise you to know that the author toiled for six years creating all this.

The design and printing of the book is fine and the author takes a pretty good cart photo. The only thing missing, I thought, was some reference to their manufactures, there can't be too many and they most likely all have unique features. This would certainly have added to the thrill of spotting a Class B, Type 11 (train damaged cart) made by A N Other Inc.

*United Brotherhood of Shopping Carts. Affiliated to AFL/CIO.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the top four shopping cart reference guides, December 28, 2007

By	Mitch - See all my reviews

This book is easily one of the top four reference guides for shopping carts available on the market today. It does an excellent job of covering the following topics:

* Shopping carts

Overall, I heartily endorse this product.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully arcane, April 5, 2007

By	Rosemary Evetts (denver, colorado) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There's no bio for the author, but I hope it helped him get tenure! Designed like a birding guide, it is funny beyond belief. Library of Congress classifies it as an "artistic photography" book, but it has a very droll social anthropology feel about it.