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    Rose City Reads

    4.9 (13 reviews)
    Closed 11:00 am - 5:00 pm
    Updated 3 weeks ago

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    Rose City Reads in solidarity.
    Pearce P.

    Rose City Reads is a quaint, friendly bookstore with an amazing selection of books at an incredible price! The staff are friendly and super helpful. I loved observing kiddos find treasures and excitedly move from one shelf to the next. The store is small and intimate, so you don't feel overwhelmed or have to hunt someone down for help, and it's right in the neighborhood, so it's great for biking or walking over.

    Mythology section
    Madeline F.

    This was my first time checking out Rose City Reads and I found a ton of great books! I found some non-fiction, graphic novels, and fiction books and given the low prices was able to get 13 books for around $50 many of which retailed far greater than that. The gender studies/women's studies in particular had some great books to choose from. They even had zines for sale which I thought was pretty neat. The main thing I wish had been a bit better was the selection of both graphic novels and horror books. Both of these sections were in other sections - the horror section was simply blended into the mystery/sci-fi/fantasy sections and graphic novels were mostly in YA and in displays. For ease of use having those separate could be helpful and graphic novels could even pretty easily be paired with zines too. Horror books I found very few of though some were on displays but the blended section I mention above mostly had Star Wars books and sci-fi books which was not what I was searching for. That being said I'd definitely stop in again to see what new finds end up here and I love that it all goes to a great cause - the Multnomah county libraries

    A stack of nine used books purchased at Rose City Reads.

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    6 months ago

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    Jackie S.

    Thanks so much for the kind review.

    Helpful 2
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    2 months ago

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    Jackie S.

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    4 months ago

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    Jackie S.

    We appreciate you referring our store to your reading group friends.

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    3 months ago

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    Jackie S.

    Thanks for the kind review Chelsea!

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    2 years ago

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    Jackie S.

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    2 years ago

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    Jackie S.

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    2 years ago

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    Jackie S.

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    2 years ago

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    Jackie S.

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    2 years ago

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    Jackie S.

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    2 years ago

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    Jackie S.

    We appreciate you visiting our store.

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    2 years ago

    The vibe is welcoming. The shelves are stocked with books and media of all types. And all money raised goes back to the public library.

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    Jackie S.

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    3 years ago

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    Jackie S.

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    2 years ago

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    Jackie S.

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    Ask the Community - Rose City Reads

    Review Highlights - Rose City Reads

    It is warm, bright, welcoming, and the staff are always so happy to really talk.

    Mentioned in 2 reviews

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    Powell's City of Books - Book purchased (9/3/24)

    Powell's City of Books

    4.8(5k reviews)
    6.9 miDowntown
    $$

    Hard to say anything that hasn't been said. This place is way bigger than most libraries and the…read morelargest independent bookstore in US. Maps are key to finding anything, sadly no used board games. The kids section is great for how to draw books, love used books stocked next to new. The catalogue computers (just like a library) were helpful - told you both what section, shelf to find your both, and number of both new and used copies available which is fantastic (just make sure to write down more then section number if that exists, it still took a while to find a specific book - a obtuse and somewhat arbitrary categorization (ie a book we wanted was under mental games) Their summer reading program was amazing for $5 coupon to be used on purchase of anything.

    Powell's City of Books is HUGE. I knew it was supposed to be one of the biggest independent…read morebookstores in the world, but I don't think I really understood what that meant until I walked inside. The Burnside location takes up an entire city block and has SO many different sections. There are new and used books, gifts, and basically every genre and random little category you can think of. The different rooms even have their own names, and the whole place feels like a giant book maze. You could easily spend hours just wandering around. I loved browsing through everything. Even when I wasn't looking for anything specific, I kept finding things that caught my attention. The color-coded sections and maps definitely helped because otherwise I probably would have just gotten lost somewhere in the shelves and never been seen again. Definitely one of those Portland places I'd recommend even if you're not a huge book person. It's just really fun to walk around and explore, and I can totally see why Powell's is such an iconic part of Portland.

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    Powell's City of Books - True

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    Powell's City of Books - Rare book room

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    Rare book room

    Mother Foucault's Bookshop - Is this heaven, no, it's Mother Foucault's Bookshop!

    Mother Foucault's Bookshop

    4.3(50 reviews)
    5.9 miIndustrial District, Central Eastside, Buckman, Southeast Portland
    $

    I love recommending this spot for people who visit Portland because it's got its own style. It's a…read morevery academic layout, books are stacked beside full bookshelves, older worn out copies of books have hand-written annotations on the side. The owners are very friendly and clearly love to talk about local events and their book selection. Couple things to note: - Hours shift a little bit than what is listed on Google, always worth calling in advance if unsure. - Phones are not encouraged on the shop floor (which I think is great). - The new location is a lot larger and has plenty of seating to promote spending a nice quiet afternoon surrounded by books. If you're looking for newer copies of books, Portland has plenty of other options. This selection is obscure and eccentric, it likely won't have the new titles in fiction. If you want to find a book or author you've never heard of, this is your spot.

    I can't give it one star because I love books, and the place was...interesting enough. There's a…read morebizarre little staircase that leads to nowhere but a little loft, which I honestly love, but it's just more messy books. I worked at a bookstore for years, so seeing the random leaning and stacked books hurt a little and I yearned to dive in and start straightening. The vibe was so off-putting and stale, it's hard to explain. Looking around, I could see some quirky things like a cool old cash register, a random typewriter on a cafe-ish table, and a sign that said "the use of mobile phones is prohibited." The only distinguishable sections were fiction, poetry, and Shakespeare. My kid love books and we can spend hours in bookstores. He walked in looking to find some Tolkien, but before we could figure out where it might be, he said let's get out of here. And after a few more minutes of struggling to make heads or tails of the jumble, I couldn't argue.

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    Mother Foucault's Bookshop - Is this heaven, no, it's Mother Foucault's Bookshop!

    Is this heaven, no, it's Mother Foucault's Bookshop!

    Mother Foucault's Bookshop
    Mother Foucault's Bookshop - New address!

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    New address!

    Rose City Reads - bookstores - Updated September 2026

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