My fiance and I were just in Oregon for a long weekend, and since we flew into Portland, couldn't help but pay a visit to the Mecca of all bookstores - Powell's. The place is enormous - covering several floors, with large rooms coded by color to let you know what's in them. My two favorites were the "Orange Room" where you could find such things as cooking, gardening and interior design... the Blue Room, home to literature, poetry and the classics... and the Pearl Room, where you can find art and architecture. Brian went off to hunt for an out-of-print book on trains in America, while I indulged my newfound interest in permaculture gardening.
Portland gets big points in my mind for being such a book-loving city. The place was filled (on a Thursday afternoon) with lots of folks climbing ladders to get to their book of choice, or browsing graphic novels while sipping on their espresso in the "World Cup Coffee and Tea" shop. Not long after I started browsing the permaculture gardening books, a young man pointed to one in particular that he recommended. "I worked for this gardener for a few years, and he really knows what he's talking about." Impressive!
My only complaint with Powell's is the lack of really comfortable seating and ambience. Because it is so large, it feels more like a Sam's Club or Costco than your neighborhood independent bookstore. And while it might be heaven for somebody on a quest for a particular out-of-print or used book, it doesn't encourage one to stay and meander at leisure.
Still we both left satisfied customers. I ended up with Wendell Berry's "The unsettling of America" about the industrial farming industry and what it's done to our family farm culture.
Anybody else been to Powell's? What's your favorite independent bookstore? I'd love to hear from you!
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Comments: 6
They have live music there on tuesdays and thursdays with open mic on tuesdays.
Before that it was "Half Price Books".
Did he find his train book??
Bound to be Read (in St. Paul) was another one I used to like a lot that, unfortunately went out of business.
My favorite place for book hunting in general is London. I always find the neatest thing I'm not looking for there! But it's true that big, comfy chairs are hard to come by in many used bookshops.
For anyone who might be interested, I did a post last week on the bookshops and open-air book markets in Paris, with a video piece from CBS Sunday Morning; it's supposedly the best place to buy books in the world.
Paris Is For Book-Lovers
I visited a bookstore in Portland during an Amtrac train stop-over a few years ago; I don't think it was Powell's, at least not the Powell's in your description.
"I am a lonely painter / I live in a box of paints" wrote Joni Mitchell in one of her songs; I sing a variation of it to myself sometimes, with a melancholy tone of loneliness shifting into a serene, equanimous tone and the words "I live in a box of books".
Again, heart-felt congratulations.
My own favorite book stores are Elliott Bay Books and Third Place Books--both in the Seattle/Puget Sound region. Both have very impressive programs for hosting author readings and other literary events. (However, one competitive advantage Powell's does have is the absence of sales tax in the state of Oregon.)
"BRINGING YOGA TO LIFE: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living," Donna Farhi, HarperCollins
"So what is to be done?
I'm suggesting a return to a primordial language.
One that exists as the deepest knowledge and expression that humanity knows.
It predates spoken language, it has its roots in the emergence of awe.
It is present in everyone, as an elemental music and reflection of molecular and stellar movement.
It is a genetic design built into leaf patterns and the bobbing of sea horses.
It is eminently present to children, we have educated it out of them.
But it is the story of our place in the universe and we must begin to tell that story again.
What we are losing is our ability to speak to the whole.
The songs of celebration, the poetry of praise."
Author unknown
found in "BRINGING YOGA TO LIFE: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living"