TRAVEL TREASURES

Back in my working days, one of the biggest perks my job provided was the ability to travel on company business to many cities & places around the United States. I probably made business trips to 40 states -- numerous times for some locations -- on the Maybelline dime. [But never to Hawaii or Las Vegas.]

With many business trips -- if the timing was right -- I stayed in the last city I visited & spent the weekend, rather than returning home on Friday. I saved the company a ton of money in airline fees & my bosses would not mind me keeping a rental car for an extra day or two on the expense account.

I was able to spend quite a bit of time being a tourist, or in some cities -- Los Angeles & San Francisco come to mind -- visit familiar resturants & places like zoos, pet shops, plant nursery's -- and especially -- BOOK STORES.

I have always had a strong attraction for books & book stores, starting as a kid. Now days I buy from the big chain book sellers -- I was in Barnes & Noble today -- as well as one the Internet, but I always like to search out & find a large/small independent book store. Thanks to my travels, I found good book stores in cities I was sent to do company business. Those weekend stays proved fruitful.

Growing up, the first bookstore I remember, was the Clinton Bookstore in Rochester, New York. It sold new & used books & had tables & rooms full of old magazines. It was a place where I could spend hours -- & dollars -- looking, reading & enjoying the musty smell of old paper.

Years later, visiting Rochester, I went looking for the Clinton Bookstore, but sadly (for me) the location -- & the store itself -- was gone, thanks to "Urban Renewal".

I have found similar bookstores in New York City, but the book store which comes the closest to my memory of the Clinton Bookstore, is Powell's Books, in Portland, Oregon. It's huge, it has MILLIONS of books & the staff is knowledgeable & willing to help ... or just leave you alone. My last time at Powell's Books, I had to buy an extra piece of luggage to bring all the books back I had purchased.

In my travels, not all the book stores I have found have quite measured up to the "standards" I have in mind when visiting these small, independent sellers. In fact, some travels & complicated searches have led to disappointment as to results. It may be the size of the store, the kind of subjects in the books they carry, or ... maybe the bookstore was just ... WRONG.

The fun is in the HUNT; sometimes a treasure ... sometimes not. Since my "library" has THOUSANDS of books, publications & magazines, I found the RIGHT book stores quite often.