There’s Something About Powell’s City of Books For my first trip to the west coast (Portland, Oregon to be exact), I made sure Powell’s City of Books was at the top of my must-see list. Powell’s is an independent bookseller, has an inventory of over two million books, and is a third-generation owned business with five locations around Portland. Its flagship location at 1005 W Burnside St. also happens to be the largest new and used bookstore in the world – and it occupies an entire city block.