Today I reached a life-long dream of visiting Powell's City of Books in downtown Portland, Oregon. It was raining and then HAILING, I had no umbrella and had 10 blocks to walk from the MAX station, but I was not going to be deterred from this destination under any circumstances.
There were maps of the store. Yes, maps so that when you circled the 8 aisles of cookbooks and couldn't find your way back to travel, you might be able to find your way back to the front of the store. Of course under the armload of books I was toting and lacking a compass, I was forced to use my cell phone to locate Emily and call for assistance. I might still be there otherwise.
I was so impressed with this (independent!) bookstore. They had two entires shelves about pirates. Here is the evidence:
I don't actually read books about pirates, but the fact that there was a two-shelf section devoted to them was impressive to me (Dad, they had 10 shelves about sailing and nautical navigation!).
Here is a photo of most of the books I came home with--a bunch were on sale too! I have wanted the Diary of Frida Kahlo for awhile and they had a nice used copy. I am excited about the John Berger book. It looks to be about art and the way we see things--a favorite topic of mine. And the Making Color Sing book was a difficult decision. It is written for painters, but seemed to have such great suggestions for color use that ultimately it came with me too. It didn't seem quite like your average color book that just goes over color theory. She has examples of how to make certain areas of a painting pop out using color and other tricks that I haven't seen anywhere else. I just hope I can translate paint to dye pot.
Throw in a climbing book, a Portland guide and a book about Crater Lake which I hope to see later in the week (the lake that is as I already have the book)... and you have a nice little load to put my suitcase over the weight limit on the way home.
And for those of you New Mexicans who have never seen a jackalope, I saw one who had visited a taxidermist and now lives in the Old Curiosity shop in downtown Seattle.
