The Biggest, Baddest Bookstore on the Planet
Written: Aug 16 '01 (Updated Aug 16 '01)
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The Bottom Line
All online booksellers are NOT the same. Powells warehouse and in-stock selection rivals amazon.com and others... worth your time to visit!
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| Full Review |
If you've never heard of Powell's City of Books, you've been missing out on one of the greatest wonders of the modern world. Or book world, anyway. Seriously.
Powell's Books could very well be the largest bookstore in the world. Situated in the Burnside district of Portland, Oregon, Powell's is HUGE. Powell's main store is a conglomeration of ten buildings or so, which were bought out and interconnected, filling up an entire city block. Every room -- except for the coffee shop -- is stacked tall with shelf after shelf of books. And if that weren't enough, they also own six subsidiary stores and various warehouses in the city, stockpiling books like they were soupcans during the apocalypse.
Powell's is bigger than most libraries you've been to. It's humbling, really, because you're struck with all those brains, all those words, all those stories you've never read and ideas you never will get to read in your lifetime. When you walk in the door, they provide you with a map. Grab one -- you'll need it. Because it's so easy to get lost among the stacks of all those great books. The first time I went to Powell's Books, I blew three hundred dollars and a whole day of my life just pouring over all the amazing finds on shelf after shelf. I'm a fast scanner, and I still didn't make it through the whole building! $300 sounds like a lot. But it was a bargain: I had three bags full of used books in my clutches. Powell's pricing for used editions is very, very good, usually ranging from 40-80% off the cover list price! Why buy it new unless you're out to collect a fine edition for your personal library? (And if that's what you want to do, I bet Powell's can serve your needs, too!)
Powell's has just about everything you could ever want or need in a book, from new releases to out-of-print titles. And more. They've got advanced review copies and autographed editions; comic books and coffee table books; paperback classics and leatherbound/slipcased/numbered rare editions. This awe-inspiring bookstore is able to do this because they buy used books back from their customers, solicit new books from their distributors and invite authors to come read, sign books, and give lectures. Their presence on the web is strong.
Visiting powells.com online doesn't have the grandeur of the real store, but it shares the same stock, so you can bet that it's an excellent source for your book needs. Indeed, if anyone can rival amazon.com, it's not Barnes and Noble...it's Powell's. Log on to their site at www.powells.com and you'll be presented with all the familiar categories and helping hints for booklovers. Type any book you're looking for in their humble search engine and, chances are, several selections will pop up -- even for out of print and rare books -- and you'll be able to choose from different editions or qualities of the same book (new or used? hard or soft? pricey "fine" or cheap "good"?). If you don't find what you're looking for right away in their generic web search, a very good advanced search engine is presented to you.
Because they actually stock books that aren't in print any longer, Powells beats Amazon.com for their warehousing ability. And when you place an order, you can trust them. They verify your identity via e-mail and give you a password that allows you to shop more easily after the first time. When you place your order, you'll get a receipt via e-mail. And the book will be shipped to you at very fast 2 day UPS for a reasonable price (unless you select otherwise) in a cardboard package of good parcel quality.
One of the things I like best about Powell's is their highly literate e-newsletter. If you visit their main front page at powells.com, scroll to the bottom and you'll find all sorts of book community links. Look for the link that says "Powellsbooks.News" and click on that for a sample of the latest issue. (If you subscribe to have this delivered to you once per month via e-mail, you'll be entered into a contest of some sort). The newsletter has a sense of humor and includes little bits of good writing by both the staff and their bevvy of authors...and it isn't all just sales pitches, but something akin to "thoughts for the day." Very progressive.
On every level, you can tell that Powells knows readers. They are readers. They love books. And if you love books, you've found a soul mate in Powell's staff. Or maybe heaven, in Powell's City of Books. Check out their bookstore online. And if you're EVER in driving distance of Portland, Oregon, be sure to hunt down Powell's. Just make sure you give yourself a full day to browse. And don't forget that map!
-- Unheimlich, 8/01
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
unheimlich
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Location: USA
Reviews written: 73
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