"People here adore their largest local bookstore, Powell's City of Books, which for 34 years has been a cornerstone of Southwest 10th Avenue and Burnside Street, and -- not to put too fine a point on the matter -- even Portland itself.

There is a lot to love. The attic-y smell of the stacks, the 4 million volumes, the towering shelves that close you in and make you feel like you are reading in your own private den. Its very ethos, like Portland, that hippie aunt of West Coast cities, stands out in clear defiance of corporate sterility."

Read this article.