Literary queer erotica, political theory, and affirming romance paperbacks share space with Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad early reader series of picture books at newish shop dedicated entirely to LGBTQ+ books of all stripes and styles, age brackets, demographics, and tastes. 

4555 N Williams Ave

Nestled in the heart of Multnomah Village, this all-purpose neighborhood bookstore has offered a wide range of new books, cards, and more since 1978. It’s also one of the main non-Powell’s sites of author events around town.

7834 SW Capitol Hwy

The yarns aren’t only in the pages: trading books for yarn, or yarn for books, is the game here. Crafts books star, but the shop also specializes in nautical books and African American literature, in addition to a broader selection of general-interest used and new books. And yarn, of course.

3129 SE Hawthorne Blvd

Owner Joe Witt started his shop as a used book cart inside Mississippi Records and landed a storefront in 2018. A seemingly endless run of titles are assembled with personal vision and pack every inch of the endearingly cobbled together shop, emphasizing literature and books on art.

3415 SE Belmont St

On the ground floor of the Tin House publishing offices, this shop stocks a wide range of titles but aims to spotlight queer and LGBTQ+ authors (see: the “Does Reading Make You Gay?” T-shirts), especially local ones, creating one of the most dedicated queer literary space in town.

2601 NW Thurman St

The tagline is “comics for everyone” at this comic book shop (most books here sport spines rather than staples), which was once named the best comic book store in the world by the Eisner Awards. It also hosts a monthly graphic novel book club as well as “office hours” with acclaimed comics artists.

1401 SE Division St

Now co-owned by long-term employees, Broadway Books opened in 1992, selling new books across all genres (and a few used ones), as well as local and national journals and magazines. Keep an eye on its calendar for regular author events.

1714 NE Broadway

Owner John Thomas’s enduring fascination with American history—particularly Native American and Western Americana—steers his rambling South Portland shop. But it’s otherwise well-stocked across genres, including an extended selection of art books and biographies, and a robust children’s section.

5210 S Corbett Ave

Though it’s changed hands and addresses a few times over the past half century, A Children’s Place is the city’s longest-running kids’ bookshop. The midsize storefront it’s inhabited for the past two decades is loaded with titles across age groups. 

1423 NE Fremont St

Reflecting its mythological namesake, this medium-size, mostly used bookstore tucked behind Ken’s Artisan Bakery covers a breadth of subjects. Books on art, music, and philosophy get the most space on its shelves.

2074 NW Flanders St

Katherine Morgan curates much of the romance section at Powell’s, and she opened her own bookshop at the end of 2024, Portland’s first devoted entirely to the genre. Bodice rippers to romantasy novels, the shelves at Grand Gesture are packed with meet-cutes and enemies-to-lovers plots, many centering people of color and queer and differently abled protagonists. 

814 SW 10th Ave

Booksellers at this devoted children’s shop are famously adept at finding the right books for young readers. It also hosts regular author events, both inside the cozy converted house and on the vine-tangled patio in warmer months.

1600 NE Alberta St

Just across the South Park Blocks from the Portland Art Museum, this shop, opened in 2022 and focused on photography books and art-world ephemera, is a perfect post-museum stop (though note its limited hours).

1211 SW Broadway

Piles of new and used books make a breadcrumb trail down a courtyard gravel path to this one-car-garage-size bookshop. Novels and literary nonfiction make up the bulk of the selection, which leans somewhat modern when contrasted with its piles-of-books-style-shop peers around town.

2827 NE Alberta St

This tiny shop covers a massive scope of new and used art books—the only local shop of its kind we know. Find monographs of architects, painters, sculptors, and photographers, but also a selection of biographies and theory books, vintage local art catalogs and music posters, as well as original artworks and curios.

5005 NE 27th Ave

Owner Craig Florence landed in Portland via Paris’s Shakespeare & Company and opened his shop somewhat in its romantic image. The name winks to the philosopher, whose books you’ll find, probably in several languages, among endless stacks of mostly twentieth-century literature, philosophy, and theory that spill onto the patchwork of Persian rugs.

715 SE Grand Ave

The front room of this art gallery has grown into its own bookstore, offering a selection of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction in addition to the expected monographs and photography books. It also stocks hard-to-find magazines, such as back issues of Lapham’s Quarterly, Mother Tongue, and a range of Apartamento publications.

15 SE 22nd Ave

The only local bookshop we know of that’s dedicated exclusively to science fiction and fantasy, Sarah J. Maas to Ursula K. Le Guin, opened its snug, aqua blue storefront in 2022.

2639 NE Alberta St

This appointment-only shop emphasizes out-of-print books on modern art and rare literature editions, like the run of signed firsts Patti Smith donated to the shop following a much-publicized break-in in 2020.

1801 NW Upshur St, #660

With a tiny footprint and humongous scope, Postcard Bookshop squeezes the world (via a delightfully curated selection of travel books, broadly defined) into a compact stall inside the warehouse emporium Cargo. 

81 SE YAMHILL ST (INSIDE CARGO)

Powell’s “City of Books,” the original, half-century-old Pearl District location, is packed with new, used, and rare books (apparently over a million). All three stores are staggeringly well stocked across genres, but the storied OG thrums with heavy foot traffic, a devoted cast of booksellers, and almost daily author events. It’s a tourist attraction that most Portlanders visit regularly.

1005 W Burnside St, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd

Portland’s only bookstore focused on African-centered books stocks titles across the Black diaspora for all age groups. Despite its small footprint, couple Michelle Lewis and Charles Hannah’s shop, which opened in 2019, has a big community. It regularly organizes off-site author events and coordinates with schools.

2518 SE 33rd Ave

This cookbook store doubles as a home for cooking classes and recently moved into an airy Alberta Street storefront. Graze the new and historical cookbooks and food-focused magazines, like Cherry Bombe and Eaten, and keep an eye out for events with local and national cookbook authors.

2724 NE Alberta St

Arty literature and poetry is the message, or virus, this little new and used bookshop is spreading. But this is the cool, gritty kind of intellectualism: New York School poets, books about women and surrealism, Italian novels and chapbooks from the past century. 

203 SW ninth AVE