This drawing is damn cool. I live here and I entered because it's just that cool. All you have to do is sign up for their newsletter and you get entered into the contest.

The contest prize includes:

• round trip airfare for two to Portland from any major city in the world, courtesy of American Airlines
• 3 nights in downtown Portland at the luxurious Heathman Hotel
• $250 spending money at Django Music (Powell's downtown neighbor)
• $250 spending money at Powell's Books
• dinner for two at Jake's Famous Crawfish (another neighbor, established in 1892)
• a guided tour of Powell's City of Books
• a copy of Portland's Best Places by Kim Carlson
• and a Powell's Books umbrella

And, if you win, I'll take you out for some good beer when you're here. Of course, I'm really hoping that I win because I could spend $250 on books in about three minutes.

Their newsletter is really pretty good. There's funny stuff in there and they do author interviews and let you know when there's some brand-new signed copies of books. There is, of course, announcements of sales and deals and — one of the coolest new things they're doing — staff picks. I'm one of those suckers who loves to check out Barnes & Noble's staff picks when I go into their store but you know Powell's is good because they hire their employees for their smarts and passion for books. And, lastly, the swear all over the place that they won't sell your email address. I wouldn't have done any of this if that was the case.

So... what are you waiting for?

[ back to the library ]