Favorite Places is a weekly feature of this blog in which I share some of the places we visit as we roam around North America. We are currently visiting family in Portland, Oregon. No self-respecting book lover could possibly visit this town without a visit to the famous Powell’s Books.
The store takes up an entire city block in the downtown area.
The entrance above is from 10th and Burnside.
I shamelessly borrowed the above photo from Wikipedia but the rest are all mine.
This is what you see when you walk in
the front door. Well, one of the front doors.
There are so many places to go, a first-time visitor
can be overwhelmed. But they have very knowledge staff
manning the Information areas as well as working all over the store.
The books literally run from floor to ceiling. New and used books are shelved together.
I’m particularly fond of Powell’s childrens books section.
It takes up a nice section in a corner of the first floor.
I was rather restrained on this trip. It’s easy to fill up large
baskets of books and other goodies here. Powell’s also has lots
of events and book groups. I counted 56 for the month of November.
The pictures I’ve shown here were taken at the downtown store. There are four more branches around Portland plus three stores at the airport (just in case you didn’t get enough). Portland is a reading-crazy town. You see people reading everywhere. Portland is the number one American city in library usage. There are plenty of other bookstores too – chains and independents. But, you cannot visit Portland, Oregon without a trip to Powell’s Books. We don’t. It’s definitely one of our Favorite Places.
I hope you’ll join me again next Sunday for more Favorite Places. If you’d like to join in, just grab the button at the top of this post, put it on your blog along with info about one of your Favorite Places. Come back and leave a link in the comment section and we’ll all come and visit you.
NORTHERN CALLIFORNIA
[...] at Joyfully Retired does a weekly feature called Favorite Places and I thought today I’d post some photographs of one of my favourite places: Linlithgow [...]
I love your favourite places. Have a look at one of mine – Linlithgow see here.
You have to love a bookstore that has its own parking garage… and shopping carts that you can hustle onto the elevator from floor to mouthwatering floor of gorgeous books! I loved the day I spent there.
Lucky you — I haven’t been to Portland in years, but I hope to be there this coming summer.
We went to Portland last year just to go to Powell’s (but ended up loving Portland as well). And we loved that giant Whole Foods across the street from Powell’s too. What a great city!
I’m sure this would be one of my favorite places, too, if I ever get there! I tried to enlarge the photo of your purchases and couldn’t – what’d you buy?
Sounds like my kind of place. Now I just have to figure out a reason for making a trip there beside book shopping.
I could get lost in there for a very long time!!!!
When I visited Portland I spent a good deal of time at Powell’s. I was so taken with the selection as well as the overall enthusiasm of the booksellers that I camped out there daily during my seven day stay.
Well if I needed a reason to visit Portland, I have one now! And to live a town where everyone reads? Heaven!
Margot, did you say “a” visit? You mean “one” visit? I wouldn’t be able to restrain myself to just one if we were in Portland. (Maybe that’s the reason we’re parked 120 miles south ;>). Seriously, your pictures are great and Powell’s is definitely an experience not to be missed. We used to go to a convention in Portland every November and spending time there was one of the cool side benefits. I wonder if the rainy weather helps to make Portland the great reading town that it is?
The only time we were in Portland was during a point in time when I wasn’t reading. *gasp* We were on a road trip from SF to Seattle. I had not heard of Powells at that point in time and we just stopped long enough to stay overnight before moving on. If we were on that trip now I would make Powells a scheduled visit. An online book club I belong to just had their annual conference this year in Portland – where they arranged for a private tour of Powells. I was jealous I couldn’t go – but now that you’ve given me a virtual tour I feel better. Thanks for the photos!
And to think I went to college in Eugene and not Portland!!! ARGH! I was so close for so long but didn’t have a car during college to get to Powells!!!!