Powell's City of Books
Category: Bookstores [Edit]
Neighborhood: Downtown1005 W Burnside St
Portland, OR 97209 (503) 228-4651
- Hours:
Mon-Sun 9:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m. - Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
347 Reviews for Powell's City of Books
I wish I could give Powell's a five star review but I have a child and that's a greater truth. My only real grip is while trying to carry a baby in sling Powell's feels like a forestries. Other than the back ache and maxed out credit cards my family loves it there. My little girl has spend more time in book stores that toy stores! And yes she's becoming quite the little reader.
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Almost two years ago I drove from LA to Whistler. I had read about it in Paste - they interviewed a certain Oregonian I happen to like. Regardless of the chance to see music celebrity, I wanted to see the largest bookstore in the world for myself. I figured I'd spend an hour - at most - there and then see the rest of the city.
I arrived just as the store opened. I parked in the parking lot across the street. I walked through the doors. I wasn't too impressed. It looked like it was from the 1950s. No way could it be the largest bookstore in the world. Then I walked past the front room into the back. I was home. Three hours later I finally pulled myself away from Powell's to see some more of Portland. I went to the museum, and even though it was a great museum, I could stop thinking about Powell's. I went back. I spent another hour there and came to a life changing decision. I was going to move to Portland.
I'm moving to Portland in four days. Really. Every place I saw on Craigslist I checked to see how far it was from Powell's. I'm moving to a place that's 2 miles away. I never thought I would pack up my life for a bookstore, and really I'm not. I figure that if Powell's can survive in a hostile world of Amazon and eBay, then Portland is something special.
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Powell's City of Books requires only a 6 word review:
1. THE
2. BEST
3. BOOKSTORE
4. IN
5. THE
6. WORLD!!!
And you can take that to the bank! If you love books and haven't made the time for this mecca, consider illiteracy. (I kid. I kid. But honestly, go there.) Six floors of sheer joy ...and growing!
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I've forbidden myself from going into Powell's, because everytime I do I walk out with a stack of books too heavy to carry home, and then I never make the time to read them.
On the other hand, they're open late-ish and if you need a restroom in this part of the west side they've got one, so sometimes I'll pass through just for that. And then I hear the call of the books, and my credit card shrieks in horror...
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How much do I love Powell's? I plan vacations around sneaking in a visit. I love it so much I do not complain overly much when I inevitably suffer through the NO TURNS misery when I forget to turn off Burnside at the first and only opportunity upon exiting 405S. I love it so much I endure the total absence of adequate traffic control on all the side streets. Sometimes I love it so much I will park in the garage which is striped only for cars the size of a Yugo. (My own car is not especially large.)
If I lived in Portland, I certainly would not go to Powell's by car.
But since I don't, I do, and it's the place of my heart.
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Can this place get any bigger? Hah!
Quite possibly my favorite bookstore anywhere. There are color coded rooms to help you navigate this humongous behomoth of a bookstore (four floors/3 city blocks methinks).
Don't miss the Rare Books/Ephemera room upstairs, really cool stuff, i almost bought an oversized book on the circus, but it was 200 clams.
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What else can be said about this place that hasn't been said? It's a definite stop for anyone visiting Portland. You can spend a few hours going from one color-coded room to another, relax in the cafe, and find so many interesting book choices.
Do yourself a favor and go there.
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Oh, Mary T. how sad I am for you that you only spent an hour at Powell's and walked out with nothing, Next time leave Cal at home!
I love Powell's in all its permutations. Online, Beaverton, etc, etc. This bookstore lives up to its reputation and more. It is unbelievable!! You have to go twice. Once just to walk in the door and get over the delightful shock and the next time to get down to business and buy all the books you can carry. And not spend next month's rent.
A word of warning, though. Do not GO to Powell's if you are looking for a specific book Order it online. This is a place to BROWSE!!! You will end up with bags of wonders you never knew existed.
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My mom told me about Powell's probably before I could even walk. As a librarian, I'm sure she was trying to subtley influence a love of books into me.
Fast forward 23 or 24 years. I move from Seattle to Portland. It takes me 6 whole months to make it to Powell's. OH MY GOD, WHY?! It is Valhalla for book-lovers. Best Bookstore Ever (BBE). Hands down. Books galore, on subjects you've never even thought about! Browsing to last for hours and hours and days and months and years! Late nights! New books shelved next to old books! Relevant, cheap used copies!
Now that I'm back in Seattle I yearn for the bookstore I love. It's like having love ripped from my life. Oh Powell's, I love you so....
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This was a total surprise. My friend pulled me in here while we were checking out downtown Portland and I was not expecting to step into the biggest bookstore my poor eyes had ever seen. Books. Books everywhere. The color-coded rooms were helpful. Also, this was the busiest bookstore ever. Very very cool, and I can't recommend it enough. It's almost worth going to Portland just for Powell's. I'm not kidding.
Essentially the real-life version of Amazon.com
Karen C said it best: Totally and completely overwhelming.
That can be a great thing, or it can definitely give you the deer-in-the-headlights feeling. Where to go? This floor? This room? This aisle?
I knew I had to check out Powells. Nobody goes to Portland without checking out Powells. It's just an unspoken rule. So, I went. Twice. Both times I felt completely overwhelmed by the sheer volumes of books. I hadn't any clue where to begin. And I froze. My brain couldn't come up with a single author's name. So, I just started browsing and wandering around.
That's when I saw something extremely awesome: a book for sale by a local Portland writer. I picked it up and brought it over to show my guy. "Look here," I insisted. "You gonna buy it?" he wanted to know. "Oh, no. Not for $16." But again I thought it was cool to find work here from local writers. I dig that.
For some reason, I thought Powells would be less expensive than your B&N or Borders. Perhaps I wasn't doing this right - you know, experiencing Powells for what everyone finds to be such phantasmagoric bliss.
Where's the phantasmagoric bliss? Yes, I wanted to know. To me, this appeared like any other book store (minus the comforting "sit and stay a while" feel), with entirely way too much stock.
Then again, it's a book store. And I love to read. How can one go wrong here? Plus, NO SALES TAX!
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So, it must be a rite of passage to Yelp Powells, since over 300 of us have done it.
Those 331 other people have undoubtedly said most everything there is to say.
But I'll give up my favorite Powell's secret (although not really about the Burnside location, its still a good one): If you are traveling through PDX, and want to order a book, have it sent to the airport store and pick it up on your way to the plane. I've done this several times, the book has always been there waiting for me and saves me a trip. You'll need to order several days in advance, but the service is free.
Cool, huh?!
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I'm going to join the masses and give this place 5 stars. I could spend all day walking around looking at all the books that need to be read!
If I already didn't have so many books in my abode that would satisfy any nazi's yearing for a good old fashioned book burning, I would have spent my pay check in this place. Alas, I quelched my desires and instead just enjoyed browsing. If you're a book junkie, this is your place. Shelves and shelves and shelves. The food in the cafe smelled pretty damn delicious as well.
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Wow. Even though I can't afford (money and space) to buy anymore books, I had to pay a visit to this legendary bookstore. And I was in Portland for the Law Librarian conference, after all.
Cal was not having as good a time, but he humored me. I wanted to buy so many books. So many books that I've only heard about. So many books that were heavily discounted. So many books that were just calling my name. But I walked out with nothing. Nothing but a broken heart and hope that there will be a time that I can shop to my heart's content at Powell's.
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Oh my. As good as it gets for book lovers. I picked up a copy of Vincent and Mary Price's cookbook as a gift for someone. You see we have a moratorium on ME buying any more old cookbooks for ME, I have many. How many? I think I stopped counting @ 1800 or so. But I digress. This store had three copies of this marvelous old cookbook. Simply put, this is the promised land.
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I heart books...
I like Powell's a lot, it sure beats the chain stores like Barnes and Nobles and Borders. I wish we had more privately owned book stores. With the easiness of Amazon and the shear volume and size of B & N, and Borders, private sellers don't have a chance anymore.
Powell's is an endangered species, and a large one of that. I urge anyone who visits Portland and loves books to check it out. It's open to 11pm for books sake! You have no excuses not to go.
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Um, everytime I come to Portland, I fall in love again with Powell's. It's one of those things: if Seattle had one, it wouldn't matter much - but it's just so unique - that it's worth the trip alone.
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Friends: "Oh, we have to go in here."
Me: "What? No way, I can't buy anything, I already have like four unread books in my queue."
Friends: "Okay, well then just browse with us."
Me, hesitantly: "Well, alright."
(45 minutes later)
Cashier: "That'll be $74.98 please."
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Hello Powell's, my old friend,
Ive come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of POWELLS.
I think of you often, so often in fact I've ruined a perfectly good song for you. I'm wondering If I might persuade you to come and organize strand books in NYC? You can bring whomever you please, just please please bring the Dewey Decimal Classification or whatever system you geniuses used to make powells the lovely well organized bookstore that haunts me (in a good way)
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Going to Powell's for the first time is like driving a Honda civic and being hit by a Mack truck.
You're a goner- be it for the afternoon, the day, or from your 'former' favorite literary establishment.
The stacks of books in the rows upon rows of shelves organized by color and spread throughout levels and levels and levels of a whole city block is daunting at first. Where do you even begin? How do you find your way out? What if you have to go to the loo? Do you look like an obvious tourist with your mouth hanging open and Portlanders strolling around you?
And before you even think of answering these questions, something catches your eye, and then something else, and then a tag to look in the rare books room way upstairs... suddenly any hesitation is gone, replaced by intrigue and maybe a hint of that childhood joy you've gone so long without.
It's too late to swerve or apply the breaks, you've just been hit my friend.
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This is one of the biggest and best stores for books ever. I think its a city block and 3 stories high. This store is more organized than Strand in NY. The organization is pretty amazing with rooms color coded and directories everywhere.
Would have loved to stay all day, but my time was short. Lots of cool nick nacks too.
Would I go back? You bet your pastrami I would!
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"I Got Lost in The City of Books!"
Before I stepped foot inside Powell's City of Books, I thought to myself, "What's the big deal about Powell's? There are Barnes & Nobles and Borders bookstores a stone's throw away in any direction of me in New York. I doubt there's anything about Powell's that will impress me." Boy was I DEAD WRONG!
The color coded rooms inside Powell's make searching for titles easy, but it's even easier getting lost aisles of books while browsing titles and reading through previously unknown of books. My hours inside the store fly by as I find myself delightfully sucked into reading, reading, and some more reading.
This is hands down my favorite bookstore. Hailing from New York, I must admit that although NYC has plenty of bookstores, none compare to Powell's, the world's largest independent bookstore chain.
My only complaints are that they need more areas to sit and that the cafe (Coffee Room) was not that impressive.
Powell's is the reason why one should NOT solely rely on Amazon.com or BN.com in browsing titles. WIth uber-convenient store hours of 9am-11pm, there's no excuse not to check out the Mount Hood-sized selection of new & used (also rare) titles! Did I mention their book prices are on the cheap too? There's plenty of bike racks up front too.
You can check inventory and shop online with them at powells.com.
It sounds silly, but Powell's is my favorite tourist site in Stumptown.
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Totally and completely overwhelming. I loved it! I wish we had a place like this in the Bay Area. I will be back.
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It's a big book store! Me and my fellow stopped by on our weekend trip to Portland. I wasn't too impressed, but, maybe I would be if books were my thing :)
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Oh Powell's, how I love you...
Before I'd moved to Portland, I heard of Powell's and just couldn't wait to explore its shelves and shelves full of books. When I first arrived there I was slightly overwhelmed, but that feeling was overpowered by a feeling of joy, the feeling of being surrounded by probably more than a ton of literature, literally. Whenever I get a craving to buy a book, or three, I always make Powell's my first stop. The only time I can remember not being able to find the book I wanted was when I was looking for Alan Moore's Watchmen right after the preview for the movie came out. But them being out of stock of that was an understandable happening because we all know how well books sell when people find out a movie is being made of it.
I was very surprised to find that Powell's had an rather large section dedicated to comics/graphic novels as well as a good sized role-playing game section. In fact, after visiting a game store in Southeast I came to find that I liked Powell's selection even better than the store that specialized in those sort of books.
The sheer number of books in itself is a reason to visit Powell's, even if you're not into books. It's an amazing sight.
When I was a little kid, my parents liked to censor what my little brother and I watched on the TV. But, they wouldn't censor what we read. (I didn't read harlequin novels at 8, people, come on now).
I remember walking through the different colored rooms, holding my mommy or daddy's hand. The smell of paper and dust intoxicate your nostrils. There is something about this place that absolutely captivates the soul. I haven't been in in quite a while, perhaps years (admits shamefully). But, I can't go in without spending at least 1/2 a day here (as Connie C. mentioned).
It brings back a lot of memories for me as my grandparents used to come up from California and my grandmother would say, "OK kiddos, 2 things I'm buying each of you: a pair of pants and a book."
I bought THE GIVING TREE from here. I love that book.
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I heard so much about Powell's that I kind of expected it to be some sort of castle made of books rising out of the city. Instead, its unassuming outside hides the wonders found inside. Inside, all the rooms are sorted into colors, making this ridiculously huge place relatively easy to browse. I was only there for an hour because of a time constraint, but I'm definitely dedicating a day to it the next time I go. I loved the fact that they had used books, making my reading habit a little easier to afford. All in all, its a booklovers paradise.
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If you don't have a huge block of time to spend in the isles you'll hate this place - it's the kind of place you need to get lost in and only resurface with a year's worth of reading material....
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Bookstores are a great way to observe hipsters in their natural habitat!
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I've never been to the physical location, but when I want to buy a book, I always check http://www.Powells.com before Amazon. They have an impressive selection of books, often at a discount to retail, and you can buy their used books online as well.
If you're in the Portland area, their inventory system actually tells you which of their stores the book you're interested in is located. How cool is that?
Their customer service is top-notch too. I received a damaged book and they sent out a replacement immediately. I didn't even have to send back the first book so they could verify the problem before they fixed the issue. Anyone need a copy of Angels and Demons with a broken spine?
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Bats! It must be bat country again, and I was a man without a swatter... Maybe it wasn't the bats...could it be the rag soaked with ether that found its way to my mouth? Actually, it must be the mescaline, it was kicking in and kicking in strong...my God, man, there is nothing more terrifying as a crazed man in the midst of a drug binge tumbling down the aisles of bound paper in this disfigured store with no end.
They were watching me, all of them, with their quasi educated stares, down their nose they looked at this boundless individual, whose face was melting with the terror of trying to keep his act together. I managed to mumble something slightly coherent to the information flunky, who despite my obvious mindset, was more then happy to assist. For all I knew she was fingering a big red security button, and within 30 seconds, twenty muscled bound robo cops, filled with testosterone and steroids, would come busting out of a secret door, looking for nothing more then a reason to dismantle my head from the rest of my flailing body.
Moving with a swerve that only echoed the sentiment in my head, I directed my twisted inertia to the Journalism section...what the hell color room was I in? The signs and walls constantly changed...purple, rose, orange...good God! Make up your mind man! I was looking for a book, not questing for the holy fuckin grail. Yet I kept finding more sections, additional rooms where who knows what type of strange intellectual orgies of ideas were occurring. By the time I located the gonzo stylings I desired, I was out of breath, sweating profusely and in desperate need of a smoke. Something to keep my mind focused, something to get me out the door without causing the terror alert to go from amber to red. My attorney was not present, so I would have to deal with any pigs on my own.
I grabbed my prize, struggling to make my eyes focus long enough to comprehend that what I had grabbed was correct. Hell, just about anything at this moment was correct, at least as correct as the day and age my mindset resided in. Struggling to keep it together, I managed to take my plunder to the cashier...trembling while pulling out green and silver, not able to count let alone recognize the value, finally throwing what seemed like enough at the poor, pimpled face purveyor of books. I had my book...it was now time to leave and once again face the bats that waited for my departure.
So concluded my trip to Powells to pick up the biography for Hunter S Thompson.
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Awesome! A book-lover's dream come true. For the map-inclined, there is even a free guide of the store at the register you can pick up, and postcards so you can tell you friends all about it once you've been.
If I ever drive down to Portland again, I might just try to camp out here overnight..it is just possible I could barricade myself in with the entire collection on camping..I haven't seen that section (spent most of my time in sci-fi, fiction, and travel) but I'm sure it's big enough..
Also, they keep their used books right next to the new ones, so you have even more choice on pricing and variety.
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Best.
Bookstore.
EVAR.
(I even got a shirt from here. Yes, a shirt from and about a bookstore).
And as an elitist New Yorker, I can say that Powell's does it better than in New York City. Even The Strand.
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Coming to Powell's was a pilgrimage for me. Is that the appropriate metaphor? Probably. "Powell's is a cathedral of books"? Perhaps "Powell's is a Roman orgy of books"? Or "Powell's is a rapturous Apocalypse of books"? Anyway, I came to Portland for four days and visited Powell's three times. I selected my hotel due in part to its three-block proximity to the bookstore.
I rank The Strand in New York and Powell's in Portland as 1 and 1a atop my list of favorite bookstores. The Strand may SLIGHTLY edge it out. It is cheaper but more disorganized; they have more and better used books and consequently you are more likely to encounter a great "find." Powell's is more expensive but neat and clean, and if you want new-ish, recently published books you will probably find plenty from which to choose.
Of course, the sheer size is also a delight. It took me a while to get the hang of the color-coding. How many floors were there? I can't quite remember. There were staircases and mezzanines and false basements everywhere. I spent a total of about eight hours in this store and purchased twelve books (and I only had a carry-on bag with me...thank you, USPS flat-rate box). I could have bought more but even *I* have some shame when it comes to book-gluttony.
I've been to The Strand twice now, so I'll have to come back to Powell's to even it out. I would consider flying to Portland just for the bookstore. Seriously.
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You like?
They got books!
They also buy used books! No crap, though!
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one floor of this place is about the size of a Barnes and Noble or Borders, but with SUCH a better selection! they even have totally random fun little things to buy as gifts, or little travel accessories. my first time here i didn't know where to start so i went to the travel section. 3 hours later my friend called me to see where i had disappeared to!
you can buy anything in the store online as well. LOVE it here!!!
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"Wassup With the Demographics of Book Lovers and Yelpers?"
It's interesting how I am #303 of the reviews for Powell's. What's up with Yelpers and Powell's? Does the anecdotal evidence suggest Yelpers have a higher than average literacy rate i.e. Powell's Books aficionados? Or is it that we drink a lot of beer and pinots because we're always in Portland attending one of the many festivals dedicated to those fine beverages?
Agreed that you had better pack snacks for a visit to Powell's because much like the web, you can easily find yourself diving into interesting text that you had no intention of reading when you had started. If you can't find it here, then forget looking for it on the web (a bit of hyperbole, but not too far off)
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Ladies and gentlemen, kids of all ages...
Set aside, ooh-at least 3 hours, to start browsing through the THOUSANDS of volumes at this full city block- gigantic reading mecca of 4+ floors of books, new & used. You will get LOST in its lovely but endless shelves of books of all kinds, from biographies to crafts to rare to travel. Topics are categorized by color (Orange for crafts & sustainability, green for biographies & new books, etc.) For the bulk of my time, I happily became glazed in the Orange room.
For us out of towners, my niece and I loved this place so much, we went back...twice for a total of 3 hours of reading bliss.
Bibliophiles unite!
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