As I was saying, I still prefer the dead trees variety of books. It is no wonder that many vacations include bookstore browsing. How can shopping online for an e-book version ever compete with losing yourself in stacks, especially in used-book land? It can't. This time around we did not make it to the granddaddy of bookstores, Powell's, in Portland, although it has been a go-to destination of ours on previous visits.
In Vancouver, our little guesthouse was just about 2 blocks from the amazing McLeod's Books. We kept walking by it just after it closed, but one evening we were picking up food at Gorilla Food next door, and while we were waiting for our order, we wandered into the bookstore and just started to get our feet wet. We knew we would be back. While there I saw a hardback copy of William Saroyan's My Name is Aram. I know it is out of print, but I wasn't sure I wanted to pay $15 for it. 
We never made it back, though, because that was when we had to make our quick getaway out of Vancouver.
While in Eugene, though, we remembered the equally great Smith Family Bookstore and had a prowl through there (on the morning of the wedding, no less). This is one of those TARDIS-like places (for you Dr. Who fans) where the inside is much bigger than it looks on the outside. I thought I might luck out and find the Saroyan that I missed in Vancouver. I found Saroyan, but only his The Human Comedy. For $3 I could not resist, and H said that he still needed to get me an anniversary present (I thought the whole vacation was an anniversary present), so I came home with this paperback.
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| Smith Family Bookstore Interior |
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