When we lived in Idaho, our Conference Office was located in Portland, Oregon. It is a 430 mile drive one way between Boise, ID and Portland, OR. I made the trip several times each year for a decade. Occasionally I’d travel by airline, but most of the time I made the trip in the car. In those years my sister lived in Portland, so when I could work it out, I would visit her when I was in town. Sometimes I intentionally planned a little extra time in Portland. Other times I ended up with some extra time simply because it takes most of day to make the drive so I would arrive the day before a planned meeting. When I had extra time in Portland, I knew exactly where to go. The Portland city buses were free in the downtown corridor, so I learned to get around by bus and I’d head to Burnside Avenue and duck into Powell’s City of Books. For decades the store has claimed to be the world’s largest independent book store. It occupies an entire city block and claims to have a million books, both new and used, for sale. I don’t know if it still works that way, but it used to be that you could stop by the front desk with a bag or a box of used books and while you shopped they would evaluate them and when you were ready to check out you would have credit for your purchase.

I never spent a lot of money at Powells, but I got a lot of entertainment from the store. I got a lot of delight from walking around and searching out obscure titles. In those days, I’d make sure to check out the used Oxford English Dictionaries just to see if they had a set in my price range. They never did, at least I never owned a hard copy of the OED, but I looked longingly and admiringly at the sets on the shelves in Powells.

My world has changed a lot since those days. These days when I have the urge to simply browse through a lot of books in search of a new read, I’m likely to go to a library. I still enjoy walking among the shelves, pulling out a volume based on the appearance of the cover or the wording of the title, and seeing what is on hand. However, I’ve found that I also spend a fair amount of time looking at books online. I try to avoid making online purchases when I am able to find what I need at a local business, but often I do a bit of shopping online just to see what is available.

Our local independent bookseller is a wonderful bookstore called Village Books. Their store has three floors of books and I can often find what I want there. Still, it is common for me to check out their inventory on their website before heading to the store. I can order any title I want from them and I don’t have to make a trip to the store to order a book. The website works well for that. When I can’t find what I want at Village Books, I find myself checking out the Powells website. I have bought books from Amazon, but they don’t have the selection of used books that Powells have and the company is so big and expansive that they don’t need my business.

As much as I love books, however, I’m trying to limit the number of books in our house. Our bookshelves are full and I don’t need to own any more. We did a major downsizing of books when we moved from South Dakota. Boxes and boxes of books were given to friends and colleagues and more books were donated. I estimate that we moved less than half of the books we owned at the time. Acquiring more books isn’t a goal of mine. Still, I really enjoy a trip to a bookstore.

I usually am not entertained by shopping. I find the process to be exhausting and I avoid it when possible. There are a few exceptions, however. I don’t mind grocery shopping. I have my list. I get in and try to be efficient in finding what we need. I don’t linger and I am not influenced by impulse bins or aisle end displays. I can occasionally enjoy spending a little time in a hardware store looking at tools and other things. Bellingham has a wonderful hardware store that makes me think of Powells City of Books. Hardware sales is a large sprawl of building with aisle after aisle of hardware and tools. Sometimes I like to just see what they have for sale. And, of course, I don’t complain about shopping in a bookstore. I can be well entertained by just browsing in a bookstore without making a purchase.

I was thinking of Powell’s bookstore this morning as I stared at my computer trying to come up with a topic for today’s journal entry. Some days I have a topic in mind when I sit down to write. Some days one of the notes I keep on future journal entries inspires me. Today wasn’t one of those days. I went browsing on the Internet for a while, looking for inspiration, but nothing struck me. I was in no mood to write about toxic train wrecks or shrinking glaciers. I tried another old trick, which is to read the titles from my bookshelves. That often provides the inspiration I need to come up with a topic. As I looked at my familiar books, with their familiar titles, I kept hoping for a surprise. Sometimes I find a book that I’ve forgotten. Sometimes there is something on my shelves that I’ve been meaning to get around to reading. Sometimes a familiar poem calls to me. Today, however, I was uninspired and I still hadn’t written a word. It was then that I thought of Powells. I bet an hour in that store would net me a half dozen topics for my Journal.

Just thinking about it has gotten me through today’s entry.