by wanderer 2005 on July 22, 2010
If you’re in downtown Portland and have a couple hours to spare, you have to visit this behemoth of a bookstore. This location of Powell’s refers to it as, City Of Books. And I’ll tell you why.This massive store has 3 levels and there is every kind of book you can imagine in this place! They sell both new and used books, so you always have a choice if you want to pay $30 for a new book, or as little as $5 for a used one. Choice is a wonderful thing!It’s the largest bookstore in the world.Here are some statistics: • 68,000 square feet packed with books. • They buy 3,000 used books over the counter every day. • Approximately 3,000 people walk in and buy something every day. • Another 3,000 people just browse and drink coffee. • They stock 122 major subject areas and more than 3,500 subsections. • You'll find more than 1,000,000 volumes on our shelves. • Approximately 80,000 book lovers browse the City's shelves every day in Portland and via the Internet.Now I say a couple of hours and I mean it! My friend and I went in looking for a particular book, only to spend 2 hours roaming the aisles, just browsing.I have never seen a bookstore lke this before. This store has a map at every counter, and 9 color-coded rooms to help guide you to the correct section. Everything is filed by subject. I was thrilled to see a section devoted to rock-n-roll biographies, which is right up my alley! Filled with rows and rows of books written by rockstars, telling their sordid life details. I love it!There are sections for travel (by country), religion, fitness, cooking, fiction, mechanics, child care, EVERYTHING! They even have a room dedicated to childrens books and activites! They offer an incredible selection of out of print books, hard to find titles and a ‘rare book room’ that has autographed copies.They also purchase books, (hence, the used books) if you have a stack that you want to get rid of.There is an art gallery upstairs in the Pearl room and they also host author events all year-round.The restrooms are on the second level.powells.com/locations/powells-city-of-books/
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