Powell's Books: To be or not to be, that is the question

I guess I still have a bit of the "book business" in me. I can't help but offer my two cents about my favorite book store. Or, here's another theory for you: The rain has begun in Oregon and so has the writing season.

A few years back, I learned you scrapbook in hot Southern summers. But, in the rainy West, we write during the fall, winter, and spring as it pours all around us. Here's to hoping it pours books and coffee this fall.

 

  Photo courtesy of the Powell's website

Awake during early hours, books were on the brain. Powell's Books, birthed by Michael Powell in 1971, is the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world. Forty one years old and still going strong. I love Powell's, but unfortunately, I don't get there often enough. When I visit, I'm chronically low on time and yet I still manage to spend a bundle. The point? I was dreaming of how I would change Powell's if I was at the helm. Arrogant or inventive? You decide.

Let's begin in children's books, because all good things begin with children. They are our future and our future readers. Powell's has an amazing book collection for children and I work their stacks. I go in drooling like an infant and leave my finger prints like a toddler over all the books. I write down titles I hope and expect my library will have, and many times they do! And then I dig for really old stories you just can't find anymore. These are the books I bring home. Books that will last forever in our hands and in our hearts.

Today's technology will change in a few years. However, paper will last. Think papyrus. At least for a little while. Then there's the fact that paper is in my blood. Mother. Woman. Paper preserver. My books balance my stacks.

So let's begin in the children's book arena. All the children's bookcases should be in a circle. Children move in circles. They circle themselves, they circle each other, and they dance circles around the room. Children like mazes, but parents don't. Children get lost in a maze, amazingly fast. Please put all the children's bookcases facing a carpeted area in a circular pattern. Let the stacks hold hands with just enough space between them for children to jump in and join the circle.

The inner circle ought to have very large block like toys anchored into the floor. Keeping even the busiest children busy with a book “station”. Each side of the book station should tell a story or have a theme. Introduce a new author each month through images. Interact with an author, with or without a screen. Let the authors read them the story right there, and also during interactive author visits and book signings for kids. In person would be awesome, but what if author clips and interactives were talking to the kids. Showing them around their space? Explaining how to use the library? A variety of amazing information could flow in the circle of stacks. Powell's has plenty of staff around and they all look relaxed, staff should pick up a children's story and read at the top of each hour. Read a masterpiece in five minutes, or five minutes of a masterpiece to little ears.

At Powell's little people should have the opportunity to create masterpieces, as well as hear them. Art books and art classes go together well. Hold an art class in the mall once a month. Pass out paper, crayons, and pencils and teach kids to not only read about drawing, but try it. Artfully open minds.

Invite preschools to come for field trips. Let them experience living books. Books breathe as children open pages. Open pages, open minds. Call it early child literacy if you wish, but teach children to help books breathe. In winter, put an electric fireplace in the circle. Read around the fire. Read with a cocoa. Read to me and I'll read to you.

Powell's should keep paying it forward to the littlest people. (Is that a new slogan?) I love what I've read of Powell's It's for Kids program, but until I went searching on Powell's and charity, I wasn't aware they did anything at all in the community. I would love to see Powell's donate books to local foster children or Head Start, our littlest readers (If they don't already.). Keep paying it forward, in new and creative ways, and not just in the Portland metro. Reach beyond your home town with more than online orders. Reading levels the playing field of life. Reading is a boost out of the booster chair and into the driver's seat of life. It's a hot air balloon ride that lets you see the valley below. Reading is perspective. Reading is living.

For more sophisticated readers, the tween and teen books should be separate from the little people books. Place them on the backside of our tall brown circular sententials guarding the inner circle of the littles. Teens like anonymity and don't often want to be seen with their younger siblings. Sure, they'd love their own cool lounge, but placing their books on the outside of the inner circle would work just fine with a few big chairs here and there. Us fossilized readers (that is, parents) can disappear inside the circle with younger children and the teens can exit the circle to find themselves. Powell's, an African village, where teens are sent out to find their way in the world. In time, they will find their way back into the village circle.

On their journey, introduce today's teens to the classics. Present a wide variety of opinions, not just the liberal ones or the super conservative ones. Let them be heard. Expect respect. A mini School of Athens at Powell's once a week. Great minds discuss ideas (Eleanor Roosevelt). Give them a chance to breathe and to think about what it is they think about. Offer teens a safe place to expand their horizons. Offer teens a better world. At a time when it's tempting to focus on me, myself and I, offer them a greater world. The classics were written for you and I, for us. Help teenagers find themselves in the classics.

Now let's talk about the home schooler. You know they exist, and in fact, they are little gnomes of the forest having their own adventures in places less travelled. Well Powell's, you would have more of them in your store if you stocked a better selection of home schooling books and curricula. But, that's all I'll say about that, because I love the east side store that has leaps and bounds more material than you. I don't want you to compete against them. Let's keep some niches. Independent book stores should help each other out, don't you think?

And now my “brothers and sisters, (authors) whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8 Dear author, your books will endure, they will pass the test of time, when you write what is worthy. What is worthy is timeless. Be worthy of what is timeless.

Coffee, books and culture may they keep connecting us in the future. May the best books win, and see you in the circle!