Heavy Luggage

I just got back from a trip to the Pacific Northwest. More than half of my immediate family now live in Washington and Oregon, and it was great to see them -- we hung out, went boating and tubing on the Columbia River, laughed a lot and stayed up late drinking good bourbon.

Also, I got out to Powell's Books in Portland. When I lived out there, I went to Powell's at least twice a week. This time, I only got to spend an hour there, but it was enough time to check out a bunch of stuff I've been wanting to see for a long time, including (but not limited to) Mark Millar and Tommy Lee Edwards' graphic novel 1985, Jim Harrison's new poetry collection In Search of Small Gods, Elwood Reid's second novel Midnight Sun, a New Directions paperback of Fitzgerald's The Crack Up and a first edition 1931 hardcover edition of veteran screenwriter Ben Hecht's short story collection The Champion from Far Away for -- wait for it -- six bucks.

I would be remiss also if I didn't mention a little used bookstore in Richland, Washington, called The Bookworm, where I found Joe Haldeman's classic The Forever War for seventy-five cents...as well as replacing a long-lost mass market of Harlan Ellison's collection Strange Wine for just under a buck.



So yeah, I came home from the West Coast with a stack of books -- not counting the ones I brought with me to read on the plane. I know that I had a great time while I was out there, but just in case I forget how great it was, I've got some terrific souvenirs.