IVP - Addenda & Errata - Peerless Powell’s

Peerless Powell’s

We were in Portland, Oregon, for Thanksgiving, and on the day after Thanksgiving we went down to Powell’s Books. This is a regular stop for my family. If we are in Portland for Christmas, we visit Powell’s on Christmas Day. It’s open every day of the year.

I’ve been a customer of Powell’s ever since it opened on Burnside and about 10th in 1971. (I guessed at this date, and it turned out to be correct!). In those days Powell’s was a small used bookstore with an uncertain future. The proprietor—old man Powell—used to let me have a free book when I came to the cash register with my stack. I still have some of those books. (I know my copy of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus came from Powell’s.) In 1974 my wife and I left Portland, but every return visit to Portland included a trip to Powell’s. And every visit found Powell’s bigger and better.

These days Powell's occupies an entire city block—with about three floors—and several satellite stores in the Portland area as well as a website for the rest of the world. One of the unique features of Powell’s is that new and used books are mingled on the signature wooden shelves. It doesn’t aspire to posh. Just a down-to-earth place where all sorts of readers find the books they want and didn’t know they wanted. You feel smarter and a better person just for having walked down its aisles. Visitors can pick up a map of Powell’s, with the various colored rooms identified according to their subject matter. It’s all a book lover’s dream. Years ago, when I showed the map to Mickey Maudlin (formerly of IVP, then of CT and now of Harper One), he called it “a map of heaven.”

My impression from a quick walk through the religion section is that Powell’s offerings in Christian theology and biblical studies are not all that they used to be. I could be wrong about that. Maybe my tastes have grown. But if I’m right, it wouldn’t be surprising for the post-Christian Northwest. But one thing is clear. If Powell’s is any indication, news of the demise of the book is greatly exaggerated. On the day that Kindle was being introduced by Amazon, Powell’s was busier than I’ve ever seen it. Sure, it was a huge shopping day. But from the density of the crowd you would have thought it was a Macy’s sale.

I should add that Powell’s combined coffee and books long before the current big-box B & Ns and Borders came along. Take your stack of (unpurchased) books into the coffee bar, get your cup of fair-trade, shade-grown Java, find a chair at a table (if you can—at Powell’s you share tables with others!) and enjoy yourself for hours on end! Powell’s is a cultural center in a Northwestern city that (along with Seattle) is BIG on reading.

Oh, and by the way. I didn't buy anything. I thought my stash of convention plunder (see previous post) was quite enough, at least for the moment.

Posted by Dan Reid at November 28, 2007 10:37 PM