Clean,Non Religious-Reads discussion
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Hey, how would you like to go here?
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If I lived there, I'm sure it would be a favorite point of interest, but when I'm looking for something specific, nothing beats buying online. Particularly in the States, with low shipping for books. I'd buy loads from ebay sellers, for great prices and next-to-nothing for shipping. I miss that here in Canada.
Christine wrote: "http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/ori...Powell's City of Books.Powell's City of Books is a book lover's paradise, the largest used and new bookstor..."
This is a dream! I hated to discover that Once Told Tales had closed! Portland must be one of the used book capitals of the US.
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Yeah,I really love Amazon for being able to get used books[and DVDS] in "used like new" condition,from 3rd.-party sellers for low cost,and their A-Z guarantee!I could still go wild in Powells though,with no shipping charges and Oregon has no sales tax,so it would be like shopping in a brick and mortar Amazons,haha!
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Was Once Told Tales in Portland? What a wonderful name for a used book store! :]
I LOVE bookstores. The digital world we live in is great except I'm not happy about the deaths of so many brick and mortar stores. Bookstores especially. I like to browse and it's so hard to do that online. Even reviews aren't helpful especially if they don't review for content, which is why this group is so helpful. I just like looking at all the books and shopping online just isn't satisfying that way. Sigh.
I used to live in Portland, and didn't dare go to Powell's because I knew I would come home with a carload of books. I did go once, and barely scratched the surface of everything there is to see. I think one could easily spend an entire week's vacation --and a paycheck or two -- just in the bookstore.
Downtown Portland is pretty cool, too. I worked near Pioneer Courthouse Square, and they'd have live concerts in the summer, and there was a bakery I used to stop at to buy artisan breads like peach bread. It's all very walkable, and the city bus/train service is useful.
I moved in 1996, because the city was getting too big, though. And it has possibly doubled in size since then. Waaay too many people for this small-town girl.
Every June there's the Rose Festival, when "the fleet" comes in - navy ships from all over come up the river and moor 2-3 deep along the waterfront. When I was a kid, if you happened to be on the bridge when it raised for one of the ships, you could get out of your car and lean over the side to watch. By the time I left, you'd be smarter to lock your car doors and just wait.
I love Oregon, though. Being in the Temperate Zone our weather is pretty mild. Everything is green -- although we're headed into a bit of a drought -- and we only get a couple weeks of sub-zero temps in winter, and maybe a month of temps above 90s in the summer. Mid-westerners laugh when we say it's humid.
If you're in the Willamette Valley, you can conceivably go skiing or mountain climbing in the morning, then have a bonfire on the beach that same night. BUT, the air quality in the Valley is often horrible. It captures allergens, and there are frequent inversions when the air is trapped and stagnates, and if you're sensitve, your best bet is to just stay indoors. The Native Americans apparently called it The Valley of Sickness, and had the sense not to settle here. :-/
There is no sales tax, true, but it gets made up in property taxes which are pretty high, plus I think the state income tax is one of the highest in the nation - which is why voters refuse to vote in a sales tax.
We had a governor -- Tom McCall -- back in the 70s, who was famous for saying "Oregon. It's a nice place to visit, but be sure to go back home." (Mostly aimed at Californians who keep invading and driving the population up.) I still kind of feel that way. My little town is growing so much, I fear I may have to move yet again, but I don't really want to, since I'm quite happy in my home.
Wow, I didn't mean to go all travelogue on you. I'm actually procrastinating getting some work done. LOL
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I want to move from Ohio's humid summers, and cold/snowy winters.
My grown son says San Diego, CA is the only place to consider, but I Iove green scenery, plus the COL there is insane!
I had checked the info about Portland, but I also love sunny days, and the constant overcast and drizzle, plus some scary mudslide videos, scared me into thinking Boise, ID might be more for me.
We're in a cycle for the last decade or so where there is actually plenty of sunny days and blue skies, but it used to be the old joke that Oregonians didn't tan, they rust. I suspect that--barring climate change--the worm will turn, though, and the gray will come back. Used to be rain and drizzle from September through June, with the best chance for sun and blue sky being July through August.
The last few years, we've been getting actual rain storms instead of just drizzle, what we used to call "the rain that doesn't get you wet" when we first moved to Oregon from Missouri (when I was 7) and blue sky days in between. But still plenty of rain. I think we actually had fewer mudslides when it rained all the time, because the hillsides were always saturated, and didn't have the downpours on drier, loose soil.
My husband was always grousing because we'd come off the truck for a week, and it would rain the whole time, so that we couldn't get any of the work done around the house. Now we're home full time, we're getting things done!
If you don't need to live in a huge city, you might consider a town like Roseburg or Ashland. It's further south, out of the valley, and while it is still green much of the year, the rainfall is less. And you're still close to bigger cities. Roseburg is probably the direction we'll head if we decide to move.
Ashland is probably a little more expensive, due to the artsy nature - home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and more - and they're that much further from the cities. (You'd almost be better off heading to Sacramento or San Francisco than Portland.)
Roseburg is about an hour south of Eugene, and three hours south of Portland. Still small enough with nothing much going for it except timber, so it should be cheap enough to live there.
But these are secrets! I joke about it being in the category "I can't tell you any more or I'll have to kill you." LOL
Powell's City of Books.Powell's City of Books is a book lover's paradise, the largest used and new bookstore "in the world"! Located in downtown Portland, Oregon, and occupying an entire city block, the City stocks more than a million new and used books. Nine color coded rooms house over 3,500 different sections, offering something for every interest, including an incredible selection of out-of-print and hard-to-find titles.
I'm thinking of moving to Portland,Oregon to escape the Ohio climate of severe winters and 'slime-ball-feeling' hot-humid summers,that I have always hated.Wonder how long I will be inside Powells when I go to visit,lol!