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| FLAGSHIP STORE |
According to their website, "Powell’s City of Books is
the largest used and new bookstore in the world, occupying an entire city block
and housing approximately one million books. Located in downtown Portland’s
Pearl District, the City of Books has nine color-coded rooms and over 3,500
different sections, offering something for every interest, including an
incredible selection of out-of-print and hard-to-find titles. Dozens of
acclaimed writers, artists, and thinkers visit each month to read in the Basil Hallward
Gallery (located upstairs in the Pearl Room), and a one-of-a-kind Rare Book
Room draws bibliophiles from near and far to browse an impressive collection of
autographed first editions and other collectible volumes."
They even offer guided tours on Sundays!
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| POWELL'S AT CEDAR HILLS CROSSING |
8 Things We Love About Powell’s
1. Headquarters in Portland, OR, as is Romancing the Genres, so we have more than one location!
2. Live events with authors.
3. Friendly, knowledgeable staff who let readers know their favorite reads
4. Buy back our books so we purchase more
5. Places to sit and peruse selections
6. More than just books. You can find Tarot Cards, games, magazines, t-shirts, and quirky gifts.
7. If they don’t have it in stock, they order it for us.
8. SELECTION – books on just about every subject imaginable can be found on the shelves
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| POWELL'S BOOKS FOR HOME AND GARDEN |
Guess what Oregonians say is the one thing not to miss?
"The ONE Thing You Must Do in Each U.S. State" (Huffington Post)
"The ONE Thing You Must Do in Each U.S. State" (Huffington Post)
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| POWELL'S ON HAWTHORNE |
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| POWELL'S AT PDX (PORTLAND AIRPORT) |
7 comments:
Now anxious to get well so I can get over to Powell's City of Books. Love the selection. Always something new to see. My favorite location is Cedar Hills even though I'm closest to Powell's at PDX and drive by Powell's Flagship Store on Burnside.
That's my favorite, too, Judith. But I like to make a yearly trip to the City of Books on Burnside.
Powell's is on my bucket list!
Back when the Burnside location was the only one, I used to go there regularly. I was also doing research in the Multnomah County Library downtown too. In those days there was no book database, so you had no idea what they had in stock or where it was located. It was like a treasure hunt. All the best books were on the shelves, not squirreled away in warehouses for the online trade. The building was originally a car dealership. And Powell's kept adding on additional rooms and expanding their holdings.
I don't get downtown much anymore. I'm marginally closer to the Cedar Hills location, so go there occasionally. Sometimes I go online and find something I want, and have them deliver it to the Cedar Hills store for pickup.
I've been to Powell's a couple of times and love the store. Interesting blog post!
It's not to be missed, Lynn!
Nice to learn a little more about the history of the stores, Barb. Thanks for commenting.
Glad you enjoyed the post, Diana.
It is definitely an experience. And one anyone visiting Portland should undertake. I think that the downtown Powell's is still considered the largest brick and mortar bookstore in the world. One can get lost there for sure. Like Disneyland, one day is not enough to explore it thoroughly. :)
My favorite memory of Powell's Books downtown was being there as a guest of NPR's "Philosophy Talk." At that time I was president of the local RWA chapter and the show was being presented in February 2008. The hosts were doing a live taping of the show in Powell's downtown location and asked me to bring examples of the different kinds of love in romance stories: Eros, Philia, Agape, and Storge. I wanted them to understand that romance novels weren't all about eros. After I did my brief readings and talked about writing relationship-based stories, the two hosts went on to discuss those four different kinds of love in philosophy and they had a featured guest who had written a bestselling book on philosophy about Shakespeare in Love.
As for going there to get books these days--it's quite far from me now and I have a hard time being in really large places to shop. I also prefer the Cedar Hills location because it is large enough to have a good selection, but small enough that I'm not going on a ten mile hike to find a book. :)
Thanks for sharing about this amazing place and bringing back that memory for me. Everyone who visits Portland should go there at least once.
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