Click here for the Guardian UK’s list of the best bookshops in the world. These were chosen mostly for their architectural magnificence, it seems, and do, of course, exhibit British perspective. But if they aren’t enough to make a book lover slaver, I don’t know what is.
If you are ever in the Portland, Oregon area and at a loss for what to do, I highly recommend Cameron’s Books. I stumbled on the store a few years back while killing time before meeting a client in the SW district near the river. It was a cold day (my usual experience in Portland) and the shop was pleasantly warm, stacked floor to ceiling with used books and magazines, all in order.
Just a week ago when I visited the city (another cold day, and visiting the same client), I dropped in. I looked for a copy of Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. Not only did I find a handsome hardcover copy with a painting of a bleak New England scene on the cover but the book was only three dollars. Each time I have visited Cameron’s I have come out with something I had wanted or something serendipitous.
Cameron’s is on the same block as a Western outfitter and the storefront of a strip club. I don’t remember the strip club being there before. Perhaps it has crept in in the downturn. At any rate, I’d be willing to bet that Cameron’s, which has been in business since 1938, will outlast it. The proprietor looks the same way he always does. Perhaps he looked that way in 1938 as well.
If you are ever in the area, do pay them a visit. Kids, this is the way used bookstores used to be.
TRH
