One of the Nation’s Best – Powell’s in Portland, OR

A couple of weeks ago, my girlfriend Leslie visited Portland and headed directly to Powell’s, the mother-of-great-bookstores.  I was stuck in Los Angeles, mentally following her through the day.  I e-mailed her a message to have fun just as she was entering the store.  Hours later after I paid bills, picked up tired teenagers, and cleaned up the house for dinner guests, she e-mailed me that she was just leaving the store.  One guess as to who had the better day.  Here is Leslie’s wonderful afternoon:

Powell’s Books in Portland has long been one of my favorite bookstores. However, it’s been years since I’ve been there and I caught myself wondering if it was truly as special as I recalled or if my memory had turned it into something far better than it really is.

I recently returned from Portland to see a good friend who, when we were talking about what to do during my visit, immediately asked “You want to go to Powell’s, right”? We made sure that there was enough time to spend a couple of hours perusing the shelves. I’m very pleased that my memory was correct – it is a fabulous independent bookstore. And, a few hours really, for me, was not enough time to spend there.  (My mother-in-law, who lives outside of Brunswick, Georgia doesn’t have a lot of good department stores in her immediate area and is always on the hunt for clothes. She was in Portland a few years ago and passed up two free afternoons shopping in Nordstroms so that she could spend more time at Powell’s. It’s that kind of place).

My girlfriend in Portland, Laura, visits Powell’s fairly often. She brought me up to speed on several of the changes that they’ve made over the years. The best change is that the store just simply keeps getting bigger. It now takes up an entire city block. If you don’t want to look through every single section like I wanted to, the sections are all color coded with very easy to understand colored signs. Looking for fiction? Look for the blue and gold signs. Philosophy? You’ll find it under the purple sign. There’s a very clever Map and Guide that you can pick up as soon as you walk in the door that will easily guide you to all nine sections.

Another change is that they accept gently used books. (Maybe they always did this and I don’t remember). My girlfriend’s  daughter, Sarah, is a voracious twelve year old reader. To offset her book habit, Sarah visits Powell’s and turns in her books for store credit. Powell’s, in turn, displays the gently used books in the same section, on the same shelf as the new book. How easy is that? No digging through a separate section of the store to see if they have it used. It’s right in front of you. And, if you look at their website, you can offer Powell’s your gently used books. If Powell’s is interested, they’ll make you a cash offer, you box up your books and they send you the money. Looking for used books online? There’s a pull down menu where they announce all the new used books that have come in if you want to order them online. Their shipping rates are very reasonable.

Powell’s also has both online, and in the store, a rare book section. If you are looking for leather bound books or first editions, this is a great place to start.

Of course, the staff at Powell’s is terrific. As Kim has pointed out in many earlier posts, I always have trouble finding books for my preteens to read. They are also, like Laura’s daughter Sarah, huge readers and it’s hard to find an appropriate book for their age that they haven’t yet read. I immediately headed to the Young Adult section, where we found a terrific gal who spent at least 45 minutes with me sharing the many of the books herself which always makes a huge difference to me, rather than a recommendation from a book review.

I walked out, as I could have predicted, with 10 books in my Powell’s shopping bag. I was actually surprised that it cost less than I thought it would. I had bought several very gently used books and there’s no sales tax in Oregon, which is an added bonus. I stopped, looked at Laura for a moment and thought to myself “hmmm, should I go back for even more?”. But, alas, dinner at one of Portland’s fantastic restaurants was waiting, so off we went.

Powell’s Books

1005 West Burnside

Portland, Oregon 97209

T:  800 878 7323