Portland Bookstore of Bookstores

by John MichaelMay 20, 2014

I love books!
Ok, you can go in…

Powell’s City of Books tl;dr

After our failed attempt to see roses, we decided to salvage the day by swinging by the largest used book store that I have ever had the pleasure of perusing. I had heard a lot about this place before our trip here; Powell’s is huge, Powell’s sells used books, Powell’s sells new books, Powell’s is just a great place to go. Yes, yes it was. Upon entering this gigantic book store I was immediately lost in what was the entry way.

There were people everywhere, books everywhere, and more books everywhere. After slowly taking it all in, processing the sheer amount of stuff before me I finally made my way to what seemed to be an information center. Perhaps it was the sign for Information Desk that gave it away. I then, with great trepidation like a child experiences when released in a toy store, asked where I may find the science fiction section.

People Shopping Near the Info Desk at Powell's Bookstore

Yes, I enjoy a good yarn about science gone awry or some other far flung notion of flights of fancy and dare I say I was not disappointed by their selection. There were aisles and aisles of science fiction. Enough books to spend several lifetimes reading. However there was a slight consternation since I initially couldn’t figure out where they kept the used books. I love books, but I’d prefer cheaper gently preread books if I can find them.

The tricky part is that they keep the used books next to the new books which can be overwhelming since the used books may not be as prominently displayed due to the lack of them.

On the flipside, there may be only used books available due to the lack of reprinting of said novels. Which in my case I lucked out and found books that I’ve never seen before. After hefting my column of rare finds I hobbled over to the end of the line which surprisingly moved rather quickly.