Article By Anna Brones, Intercrossings
New York has the Statue of Liberty, Chicago has the Sears Tower, Orlando has Disney World and Portland has Powell?s Books. This impressive bookstore’s 68,000 square feet of retail space has given the Portland Mecca for intellects its full name: Powell’s City of Books. Like any good city, one can spend hours perusing the vast wealth of books that fill the shelves throughout the store.
The store’s nine rooms, all designated by color, are like friendly neighborhoods, each catering to different personalities. Into knitting, gardening or vegetarian cooking? Go to the Orange Room. Need to brush up on your French language skills and plan your next trip to Paris? Make your way immediately to the Red Room. Yes, the more time one spends engrossed in the hundreds of passageways of bookshelves the more one feels that this truly is a city within a city. When visiting Powell’s with friends, I myself even set up meeting points in order not to lose each other.
Don’t think that you need to come to Powell’s on a specific book mission. Come for exactly the opposite – browse and be surprisingly delighted at what you find, be it new or used. And certainly don’t let indecision get in the way of your book buying. Not sure if you really need that new book on Pacific Northwest hikes or the latest New York Times bestseller? Then take it to the coffee room, where leafing through possibly books to add to your personal library is recommended and respected.
Powel’?s is so popular that they have five total locations over the Portland metro area, and an online store, giving us absolutely no reason to ever again complain about not having anything good to read.
Main Location:
1005 W Burnside
Portland, OR 97209
Hours:
Open Daily 9am-11pm
