Powell's City of Books

Powell's City of Books occupies an entire city block in Portland's Pearl District, distinguished by a white and scarlet storefront sign that operates as a marquee for upcoming author events. Inside the roughly sixty-eight thousand square feet of space, over one million volumes of new, used, and rare books are organized into nine color-coded rooms. On the sidewalk by the Northwest Couch Street entrance stands a nine-foot-tall Pillar of Books carved from Tenino sandstone. It features eight stacked classics with a Latin inscription at the base that translates to: Buy the book, read the book, enjoy the book, sell the book.