The bookstores around here that I used to know turned into coffee shops where you can read....sadly I hate coffee shops and reading in my own language so I'll stick to English translation of light novels for my reading fix.
Though the idea of grabbing a drink while reading sounds good in theory I'd rather be in the comfort of my own house reading something I picked instead of the weird collection of stuff bookstores sometimes keep.
Doesn't help that it's all pretentious advice books written by ex politicians who want to make it look like they don't deserve to get shot in the head for stealing money.
I just want some fantasy or sci-fi adventure but that was too much to ask from a bookstore the last time I went to one.... admittedly quite some time ago
There is a bookstore in Portland called Powell's. It's got a large selection of very little. There may be 3-4 books on any given subject, but they cover a lot of subjects. It's 5 floors high, and a city block wide. The bottom floor has 2-3 coffee shops, and the rest is books. The prices are way too high, and I have never found a comfortable chair. I think it represents Portland perfectly.
Did I mention the elevator has doors for each floor, so you never know which one will open up?
Gonna have to disagree--I love Powell's! Last time I was there I got an out of print Russian cookbook, a handful of oldschool Caldecott and Newberry Award winners from before the 1980s/90s when awards actually meant something (today these awards are basically a participation trophy for being on the progressive stack), and some foreign language books that are very hard to get in the US.
It's a great pace for general searching, but specifics can get annoying. I went looking for videogame history and found 3 books. Car design had a book. The comics selection was nice though.
The bookstores around here that I used to know turned into coffee shops where you can read....sadly I hate coffee shops and reading in my own language so I'll stick to English translation of light novels for my reading fix.
Though the idea of grabbing a drink while reading sounds good in theory I'd rather be in the comfort of my own house reading something I picked instead of the weird collection of stuff bookstores sometimes keep.
Doesn't help that it's all pretentious advice books written by ex politicians who want to make it look like they don't deserve to get shot in the head for stealing money.
I just want some fantasy or sci-fi adventure but that was too much to ask from a bookstore the last time I went to one.... admittedly quite some time ago
There is a bookstore in Portland called Powell's. It's got a large selection of very little. There may be 3-4 books on any given subject, but they cover a lot of subjects. It's 5 floors high, and a city block wide. The bottom floor has 2-3 coffee shops, and the rest is books. The prices are way too high, and I have never found a comfortable chair. I think it represents Portland perfectly.
Did I mention the elevator has doors for each floor, so you never know which one will open up?
Gonna have to disagree--I love Powell's! Last time I was there I got an out of print Russian cookbook, a handful of oldschool Caldecott and Newberry Award winners from before the 1980s/90s when awards actually meant something (today these awards are basically a participation trophy for being on the progressive stack), and some foreign language books that are very hard to get in the US.
This was probably 7-8 years ago.
It's a great pace for general searching, but specifics can get annoying. I went looking for videogame history and found 3 books. Car design had a book. The comics selection was nice though.