2006-11-20

A Wall of Books Part 04: Powell's


Powell's Books Image from Wikipedia.org

I'm in Portland, OR for a couple days, and that means a trip to Powell's is on the agenda. I've mentioned Powell's before. From their website:

From humble storefront beginnings in 1971 on a derelict corner of northwest Portland, Powell's Books has grown into one of the world's great bookstores, with seven locations in the Portland metropolitan area, and one of the book world's most successful dot-coms (www.powells.com), serving customers worldwide.


Powell's is significant enough to merit its own Wikipedia entry.


Powell's Books is a chain of bookstores in the Portland metropolitan area with origins in Chicago, Illinois. Powell's headquarters location, Powell's City of Books, is the largest independent new and used bookstore in the United States[verification needed].

Powell's City of Books is located on the edge of downtown and the Pearl District, occupying a full city block between NW 10th and 11th Avenues and Burnside and Couch Streets. It is open 365 days a year, and contains over 77,000 ft² of floor space.

The inventory for its retail and online sales is over four million new, used, rare, and out-of-print books.[1]; since 2005 it has also offered DVDs, with an inventory of over 40,000, available online only. At its retail stores, it follows the somewhat unusual practice of shelving new and used books side-by-side. It buys thousands of used books a day in order to keep its shelves well-stocked.
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Powell's employees even have their own union.

But enough of that. Between my GF and I, we spent more than $200. But what you are really wondering is, "What did he buy?"


  • 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus -- Charles C. Mann
  • The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime -- Jasper Fforde
  • Anansi Boys -- Neil Gaiman
  • The System of the World (Baroque Cycle)-- Neal Stephenson
  • The Best American Travel Writing -- 2006
  • A Scanner Darkly -- Philip K. Dick
  • The Millionaire Next Door -- Thomas J. Stanley
  • Count Zero -- William Gibson
  • The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker's Essential Writings on Management
  • Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip K. Dick

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