Powell's Books

On my trip to Portland I stopped by a very well-known book store, Powell's Books. They have a few locations and I ended up going to the one in Old Town. Let me just warn you now, if you ever feel like venturing to Oregon and going to this store...you will want everything! At least I did. So be sure to bring some extra spending money. The prices aren't bad in my opinion. I know some people have different views on that (according to the lady who scribbled on the bathroom stall "This shit's expensive!") but I'll let you that decide for yourself. Prices for everything I bought will be listed down below. Anyways, let's get on with the books!

You can buy This is Portland here for $4.50! I bought it for $5.95 in store, new.

I thought it would just make sense to start off with one of the books I bought my first time to the store, This is Portland. This is one of the few I've started to read through and let me just say, it's so good! It is full of a lot humor, a little bit of information and the truth about Portland. It's written by Alexander Barrett who at the time had lived in Portland for a year and felt the need to tell people what Rip City is really all about. Though I love all my purchases, I definitely recommend this cute little book to anyone who is interested in a inside look at the city.

You can buy World War Z here for $8.00. I bought it for $14.95 in store, new.

 This next book I bought partly because of my love for the movie but mainly because of the recommendation from my sister. She's told me many times this is one of here favorite books and she has good taste in books so I figured, why not? You'll find that with a huge percentage of the books I got on my trip to Powell's, that her recommendations had a strong influence. Now this is slightly embarrassing to say but I've only recently gained a love for books. Reading used to drive me insane and bore me to no end but all it took was finding that one book that sparked a whole lifetime of great reads. I'm so grateful I found a book that did that for me because I have so much to catch up on! With all that being said, I'm still trying to find out just what genre's tickle my fancy. I am always up for anything involving zombies, so I'm sure this will go right into my pile of most loved books soon enough. "BRAINSSSSS!" *Not an actual quote from the book

You can buy If I Stay here for $7.95 and not simple here for $8.95. I bought If I Stay on sale for $6.98 and my sister purchased not simple for $8.95 in store, both used. We're sharing it!

As I said earlier, I'm still trying to find out which type's of books I like. That should explain why there are some random purchases in my haul today. Take not simple for example, I would normally never reach for anything in the realm of manga. Not because I don't like it but because I feel like I just don't connect with it on any level. Obviously, I'm trying to change that. For some reason though with this book, I did. I think it was the art that really sucked me in to be honest. Sometimes it can be good to judge a book by it's cover. My sister has read not simple and loved it. I gather it definitely isn't a book about rainbows and sunshine, but I'm okay with that. I can't wait to read it. I also snatched up If I Stay. It recently became a major motion picture as the big sticker on the front says. I find that that plays a big role in books I'm interested in. I think it's because it exposes me to the story. It puts it right in front of my face and makes it hard to ignore. By the way yes, I'm one of those people that likes young adult novel's like The Fault In Ours Stars but don't worry. I won't be buying Twilight any time soon.

You can buy The Perks of Being a Wallflower here for $8.95. I bought it in store for $9.95, used.

I've heard so many good things about this book. Once again, It's a book that was made into a movie. I personally see no harm in that though. In most cases with myself, I haven't actually seen all these movies that are made from the books. They just merely make me want to read the book because I know what the story is about. Almost every time I see a new trailer for a movie that looks interesting and realize it's based off of someone's novel, I go out and buy the book. I much prefer to read the story first. I like to create my own visions and scenarios. It's what makes reading, well...reading. You're mind gets to explore places that your eyes never could. Back to the book. It's about a boy who is socially awkward and feels like he's just watching life go by. I can relate to this book greatly in the sense that for many years of my life I was the weird awkward kid who couldn't do anything without word vomiting nonsense all over myself. I think that's why I have such an urgency to read it. Even now while typing this I'm wishing I could be reading it till I fall asleep. This one will be a keeper.

You can buy Choke here for $8.50. I bought it in store for $8.50, used.

This is another of my sister's favorite books. The first trip I made to Powell's I asked her to tell me all the books she thought I should read and this was one of them. Based on what she explained to me it's basically about a guy who's a sex addict and goes around to different pricey restaurants pretending to choke so that people will save him. That's all I know about it. I am one to like not-so-conventional stories so I'm almost certain I will really enjoy this book. It was also written by the same man who wrote Fight Club and I mean come on, this is Fight Club we're talking about. How could this book not be great?

You can buy My Age of Anxiety here for $11.87. I bought in on sale in store for $11.87, new. It's still 30% off, get it while you can!

My Age of Anxiety is exactly what it says it's about on the cover. Fear, hope, dread, and the search for piece of mind. It's a self-help book. I've never steered towards those types of books but this one sort of spoke to me. Ever since I can remember I've struggled with anxiety. Every aspect of my life has anxiety hovering right above it. I'm really hoping that reading this book will help me to not only understand more about the anxiety and worry that cloud my life but also how to overcome it. Now I'm not sure if I'm expecting too much out of this book but I'll let you know when I find out. For now, it's in the line of many books I need to read.

You can buy Men, Women & Children here for $9.95. I bought it in store for $10.95, new.

This book caught my interest for a few reasons. Not gonna lie, the main one being Ansel Elgort plays Tim Mooney in the movie that was made after it. I haven't seen it but once again, the trailers I saw for it looked pretty interesting so I bought myself a copy of the book. It would take too long to type out a huge paragraph on what this novel is about so instead I insist you Google it. Or Bing it, if you're one of those people. It's going to be hard to not watch the movie before reading the book on this one.

You can buy The Theory of Everything here for $9.98. I bought it on sale in store for $9.98, used. It's still on sale, go get it!

I picked up this book because I saw it was on one of Powell's "If you liked (fill in the blank) then you'll like..." papers. I had been eye-balling it on the sale table for about ten minutes so I decided to walk over and see what it was about. Turns out it's another young adult novel so naturally I had to buy it. This is another one that's a little hard to explain so I'd look up a summary of it if you're interested. If you liked TFIOS than you'll probably like this. At least that's what everyone keeps telling me! I'm excited to read this. I'm sure it'll be an easy read and end perfectly happy, but I'm okay with that. Also pandas are my favorite animal so that miiiight be why I kept looking at it on the table across the room.

You can buy Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging here for $4.50. I bought it in store for $7.50, used.

I remember growing up my sister owned this book. I thought it was so cool that she read books and I wanted to be just like her. Ironically she spotted this book on the shelf while we were on the search for a different one. So I decided to get it, just for fun. She picked it up and told me about how she loved reading it when she was younger, so I said okay and threw it in my basket. Now I've seen the movie that was made after this called Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. It was pretty funny from what I recall. I'll zip through this book in no time. I already have a connection to the movie so this book will for sure be added to my list of favorites. Also, how fun is the word snogging?

$7.95

It's pretty much impossible not to grab a few random journals and such on your way out of Powell's. I got two journals, a bumper sticker, a birthday card, a Cards Against Humanity Expansion pack (Yes I know, I'm a horrible human being) and some thank you sticky notes. Check out their little stationary section, there's tons of great stuff.

$9.95 here.

$4.00

Well that's it for my Powell's Books Haul. This was what I picked out to refrain from buying the whole store. I love all my little goodies and am so pleased to have a ton of new books to read. I'll make sure to do an update post on my favorite books soon! Thank you for reading. Stay brilliant world and don't forget, KEEP PORTLAND WEIRD!