Here are reflections on a Familiar Place, as experienced at Powells with headphones

I realize as i walk up to Powells, having packed my gear before driving downtown, that i never wear headphones with my phone. I just don't listen to audio when i'm out and about. This cultural illiteracy causes me some panic and makes me wonder if i will be in trouble with this activity by Powell's authorities. I see other people with cords coming out of their ears, a bit of relief.

I follow the instructions, Love the narrator's voice and am welcomed into this lovely "city of books." There's an interesting book here in the New Poetry section, "Dear John, Dear Coltrane". My sister had just told me she saw an Alice Coltrane performance and the name jumped out at me. I check the aisles as instructed, both vacant I go to the left. I take time with some old books, running my finger along spines, appreciating reptilian textures. Then back into the Shakespeare collection

I also like these little nook spaces and the Shakespeare anthologies are fantastically illustrated, indeed. I laugh at john donne's poems. And the narrator laughs. I head to coffee shop, darting into aisle of graphic novels so as to hide my listening activity which seems at odds with my tasks in a bookstore. Buying an italian soda, coconut flavor buys me some time

I can't find the fun cat things but there are some odd cat books to peruse. I try to dial in this specicically specifically section am interested to read this book but cannot locate! I am compelled by the occasional mishaps, glitches in the telling of the spatial narrative, the interruption between my experience walking through story, the narrator's memory, and the telling in this context of reading.

Bookstore, libraries too, are deeply immersive spaces, augmented reality! The final section of details into the tactile nature of the books is wonderful zoom into the experiential dimension of the book in close up, beyond the spatial narrative already augmented.

in summary: image 1: wallet and earphones image 2: freakish illustration from Shakespeare anthology image 3: john donne poems :( image 4: coconut italian soda (long line but worth wait) image 5: cat related item. seemed to be incorrect area but i improvised with available cat options image 6: sock with cat on it. actually there was another i liked more but elderly woman was in the way image 7: latin classics (wrong section?) image 8: vonnegut cover – i liked this one because it offered also an immediate opp for self-reflexive comment on the tour itself (i enjoyed it!)

To go to other reviews of Spatial Narratives!