Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Powell's Books

That first evening we went to Powell's Books, the largest bookstore I have ever seen and, apparently, a reward for some kind act I committed in a previous life. There are something like 3/4ths of a million books at Powell's, new and used, and a majority of them are inexpensive. By a superhuman act of willfullness, I only bought eight books that first day. But, we spent a few hours browsing, and I covered the key areas thoroughly. Toronto has a bookstore that calls itself The World's Largest Bookstore, but it is owned by Chapters, known liars. The Strand in New York City is also impressive, but by my estimation, is only about a third the size of Powell's. Every reader should come to Powell's once in their lifetime, like Muslims to Mecca.

4 comments:

Becky said...

So. Jealous.

Rufus said...

But, it's only a 300 mile drive for you. Go on! You can do it!

Becky said...

It's on my list. I've already hit The Strand and The Tattered Cover.

Rufus said...

You'll enjoy it. It's got a bit of a bulk store feel to it at first because it's so big and spacious. But, then you realize that instead of 2,000 copies of Harry Potter and the Very Bad Day they have a few copied of that and many old, used and esoteric books. Have you ever heard of the book store in Baltimore that sells their best finds on Ebay and gives the rest away for free?