>> booktv is in portland, oregon. right behind me is powell's bookstore, one of the largest independent new and used bookstores in the world. come inside with us as we tour this city's landmark. >> we are located in what's now known as the pearl district. when powell's first moved into this location in 1980, this was an abandoned used car dealership, and it was approximately 40,000 square feet all on one floor, and over the past 30 years we have built and expanded, and the neighborhood around us has changed dramatically. so it used to be a light industrial district. it's now a light retail district, and we're surrounded by wonderful places like anthropolly and starbucks where we used to be surrounded by auto repair shops and ball bearing manufacturers: well, the first

powell's actually with opened in the mid 1960s in chicago. michael powell was going to college in chicago and opened up his first bookstore there. his dad, walter powell -- they were portland natives -- came out to run the store for two or three weeks while michael and his wife went on vacation. when walter returned to portland, he decided that what this city needed was a used bookstore. so in 1971 he opened up the first powell's books here in portland, oregon. but it was actually the second powell's books. >> i'm standing in front of a column of books x this is sort of symbolic of all the things we have here at powell's books. the base of it says four things in latin. it starts off with -- [speaking in native tongue] sell the book. and then on this side it says -- [speaking in native tongue] seize the book. and over here it says read the book and finally, our favorite,. [speaking in native tongue] buy the book.

well, what makes us unique is a combination of several things, and one of the most important ones is we actually started out as a used bookstore. so we shelf used and new right next to each other. to us, it's the content that is king. it really doesn't matter where the book came from. so out of our million books, half of them are used. half of them, approximately, new. and that makes us unique. because you can be pulling a book off the shelf and you're looking at it, and you're thinking that's going to to be a $20 book, and you pleasantly surprised to find out it's $7.95 instead. i think that's unique. so welcome. here we are in the orange room at the entrance. one of our two entrances into the bookstore. we have seven different color-coded rooms. we have over a million books, and in this room we have our

cooking, and over here we have our used book-buying counter. well, when you come into our store, we're glad to do a couple of things, and we have in almost every room an information counterrer. and then we have a store map. and powell's is pretty famous for its store map. this gives you an example of how extensive our location is. and our store map also doubles as a poster, so you can take it home with you and constantly be reminded of the riches that are in portland, oregon. so i'm going to take you to probably the most popular, one of the most popular sections in the store, and that's our literature section. but first, we're going to go past our second entrance to the bookstore. this is the green room. it's another cash register area

and also a promotional display. i think the other unique thing about us is our breadth of inventory. so we have a million books, but we have about 450,000 titles at any one time which means we have one or two of most of the books in our store. which means we have a river that is miles and miles wide but about an inch deep. and so it's all about selection and variety. to give you an example of the breadth of inventory that powell's books carries, this is our dickens section. and it starts down here on the bottom shelf here, and it goes this entire case and then up to this section here. so if you're looking for a copy of "hard times" or "great expectations," you have about eight or ten different types of "great expectations" you can buy. you can buy the hardback, the paperback, the book club edition, the large print

edition, a very fancy new edition or a nice older edition. it's a very encyclopedic collection of everything that dickens ever wrote. we have over 500 events at three of our stores, and we also do a off-site events at a large auditorium in portland. and of those 500 events, they range from 8-10 people showing up for a debut author or poet to 500-1,000 people showing up for jimmy carter, bruce springsteen. and so we've spent about a decade convincing publishers that this was a great venue for authors. and the incredible thing about portland which i think is one of the small town feelings it has even though it's turned into a big city, is people here are avid performance-goers. finish so we would bring somebody in, and we'd think, oh, 10 or 15 people would show up,

and 40 or 50 people would show up. so the citizens of portland have been incredibly supportive of the authors who come and visit here. and that just reflects back to new york and to the publishers, and they see that. and so we are now one of the top ten places to send an author. so when bruce springsteen announces he's going on on a bok tour and he's going to ten bookstores, we are very proud to say we are one of those ten bookstores. >> first of all, i want to say what a thrill it is to be speaking at powell's. in the life of an author, there are various milestonings. usually milestones are not particularly happy ones; rejection, being ignored. there's a young man in the back there who helped rescue the book early on. anyway, once you do find, get a little bit of momentum, the thought that you would one day be speaking at powell's is amazing, so i'm thrilled to be here. this is one of the things on my bucket list, and thank you so much for coming out.

>> well, you know, we keep doing what we've always done which is, you know, we're passionate about the books that we sell, we're passionate about the ability to hold a book in your hand and look at that book. and the serendipity that comes with having this incredible assortment of books. so when you're walking down an aisle of this bookstore, you have a hundred opportunities every minute for your eye to catch on a different title, a different author, a different picture. and that certain tipty opens up a world -- serendipity opens up a world to any shopper that is not replicable on any internet site, including our own which is, you know, that serendipity happens when you're in a physical location. the importance of powell's to literary life in portland, i think, goes back to 1971 when we started. 971 there was a flourishing used book and some new bookstores in portland. that has really changed

dramatically over the years. but powell's has not only remained, but we've expanded. when we first moved into this building, we were 15,000 square feet of books x now we're 75,000 retail square feet of books. it, i think, is a reason some authors move to portland. we hear that quite often from authors, that this is a resource for them. and it's a place where they can meet kindred souls. and that includes authors who are coming through on tour. so when an author comes through on tour, there will often be many authors in the audience as well listening to that person. so i think it's been a nurturing relationship. authors have nurtured us, and we've nurtured authors. >> here's a look at some of the current best selling nonfiction books according to "the washington post":

>> many of these authors have or will be appearing on booktv. you can watch them on our web site, booktv.org. [inaudible conversations] in good evening, ladies and gentlemen. welcome to barnes & noble tribeca. tonight i have the pleasure of introducing heather cabot and a.m. that wall raven as they join us to discuss their new book, "geek girl rising." heather is a former angel investor, adjunct professor at columbia university grad school of journalan