What happens when the worlds best real-life bookstore takes on the worlds best virtual bookstore?
It’s located in the space once occupied by a hard-pressed auto dealership. The unadorned front window sports a haphazard display of dog-eared copies of such masterpieces as The Pantyhose Craft Book and Mystery of the Ductless Glands. Inside, the wooden floors creak as you walk past bookcases of new books shelved side by side with used ones. Hard to believe you’re in what is considered by many to be the world’s best bookstore. Yet Powell’s City of Books is a landmark for hard-core book lovers not only in Portland, Oreg., but throughout the United States and abroad. Even the likes of Barnes & Noble and Borders haven’t been able to make a dent in its fanatically loyal trade. Nevertheless, Powell’s faces a competitive threat that many believe casts a cloud over the prospects for any bookstore’s long-term existence. The business spearheading that threat is located up the coast, in Seattle–though it also can be said to be located everywhere and nowhere. The culprit is Amazon.com, the Web-ba
