Friday 10 December 2010

Powell's

 I've visited some pretty big bookstores in, for example, London. Foyle's (in Charing Cross), Dillon's (near the U of L) and Waterstone's (near Picadilly) are three that come to mind.
Bookstores I've visited that appear on various 'top ten' lists are Borders in Glasgow (lots of space) and City Lights In S.F (very cramped). 
The list of great bookstores that crops up over and over on the net mostly includes bookstores in cities, Lisbon, Buenos Aires, etc. that I haven't visited.
Good luck figuring out which is the 'largest bookstore in the world' through Google. Not that I think bigger is better or biggest is best. But for selection and the pleasure of spending time there Powell's is one of my favourites.
The so-called World's Largest Bookstore, in Toronto, probably isn't. I've been there lots of times. It has nothing on any of the stores mentioned above. 
Questions of size aside, some of my favourite bookstores are Book Soup in LA,, Eliott Bay Books in Seattle, Nicholas Hoare in Toronto and Munroe's in Victoria.
Got a favourite bookshop? Amazon doesn't count.

8 comments :

lewi14@gmail.com said...

I also like bookshops. I remember a "borders"-shop in London. In Stuttgart there is a new "Hugendubel" shop in the city centre with some lovely lounges and a coffee shop for browsing in your favourite books.

Jackie said...

Sorry to tell you that Borders has now gone out of business in Glasgow. I'm trying to remember if it was 1 or 2 years ago - it was at Christmas time anyway. The ground floor is now a trendy fashion shop, I think the upper floors are still to let.

Virginia said...

Oh you haven't fooled me for one minute. You like Powell's because they have an industrial ladder on every single aisle.

Shakespeare &Co, Paris.
V

Paul in Powell River said...

You've listed my top 3 on the coast - Munroe's, Elliott Bay Books and yes, Powell's. All 3 are a book-lovers' delight.

TheChieftess said...

Is there a Powell's Bookstore in Portland??? When I visited there a few years ago, my sister and I visited it...looked just like this one...and HUGE!!! A fun store!

V...LOL!!!

Mo said...

oh yes I have several. London is full of small independent specialist bookshops which I favour over the giants. Although I do still spend hours in Foyles and waterstones.

Wayne said...

Thanks Jackie, I'm not a Borders fan but that was an impressive bookstore. Too bad it couldn't hang on.

Thanks for the comments one and all.

Leeds daily photo said...

Jackie is right, Borders here in the UK went bust just before Christmas last year. I featured it on my Leeds daily photo and even now I still get people on my blog looking for the Leeds branch.
Any bookstore closing is I think a pity, here in Yorkshire the city of Bradford now only has one bookshop, Waterstones in the city.