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Top: Books at Catbird Seat Bookstore —Women's Studies section. Above: Catbird Seat Bookstore's pets, Thurber and Ross. Bookstores galore for PSU students Portland is a book-lover's paradise- not only are there local authors who are national best-sellers, but the city is rich in a variety of bookstores. For PSU students, as the saying goes, the city is our campus, and so the city's bookstores must be our bookstores. Four of the most diverse and conve­ nient bookstores to the campus loca­ tion are; The Catbird Seat on Broad­ way, Powell's on Burnside, Conant & Conant on Tenth, and The Looking Glass Bookstore on Third and Taylor. "The saying, 'I'm sitting in the cat­ bird seat' which is an expression down south because there are actual catbirds there, comes from the catbird sitting high in the trees where they have great vantage points. . .that's where the name of the store comes from. Also, it's the name of a short story by James Thurber, and the owner of this store, Deborah Robboy, likes Thurber," says Catbird Seat store employee Sarah Koehl. "We have books for the om­ nivorous reader — we've got books about everything," Koehl adds. "We specialize in recovery books." The Catbird Seat also has two pets, birds, Thurber and Ross, named after James Thurber and a character in one of his stories. Powell's is a simply amazing book- store.Covering an entire city block, it is composed of eight enormous rooms which have bookshelves that average ten feet in height, and twenty-five feet in length. Most of the rooms are named for colors, e.g. The Blue Room. Some say that Powell's is the world's largest bookstore, and it may well be, since no-one has yet been able fo offer evidence to the contrary. Visitors frorn out of town are sure to be impressed if they are brought to this ti­ tanic "city of books," as Powell's is re­ ferred to on the map of the store, avail­ able at the cashiers's counters. There are books on every conceiv­ able topic at Powell's. The store buys used books regularly from students and others who want to sell their books. Therefore, anything from a 50 cent used science fiction novel to a rare book valued in the hundreds of dollars | may be found at Powell's. The store | also has new books and a wide variety of magazines. Also noteworthy is the Anne Hughes Coffee Room, where one can sit and read not-yet-purchased books while sipping an espresso. "It's comforting to be around all the books," says a Coffee Room customer, Rebecca Shine. "I like to come in here and just pick up books that 1 normally wouldn't have a chance to read, and just sit here and read through a bunch of different things; and I have good conversations, too, I talk with other readers." Conant & Conant is located on the highly-traveled Tenth Street, near PSU housing. There is a cafe in the same building, which hosts literary recep­ tions and readings. Roy and Rebecca Conant, the own­ ers, personally select each of the titles that come into the bookstore. "We started the bookstore four years ago in Northeast Portland," says Roy Conant. "I had lost two jobs in­ side a year, and Rebecca and I went camping in the Redwoods for two | weeks and thought about what to do next. We finally decided we didn't want to work for big companies or bu­ reaucracies that wouldn't allow us to bring our values with us. " Conant & Conant deals only with publishers the Conants feel they can trust to publish the best books with lasting values. Conant & Conant gives customers a 10 percent discount if they are wearing an anti-OCA button. Roy Conant says that the 10 percent discount will cause : more people to wear the button and i think about and discuss the issue than would otherwise be the case. "We've always been known as the offbeat, iconoclastic bookstore in Port­ land," says Bill Kloster, who owns The Looking Glass with his wife, Katie Rad- ditz. Kloster says the store has been ordering texts for PSU professors for about 15 years. "We used to be known as Portland's alternative book­ store — we even have ZAP comics." —Suzanne Levinson 48