Powells actually with opened in the mid 1960s in chicago. Michael powell was going to college in chicago and opened up his first bookstore there. His dad, Walter Powell they were portland natives came out to run the store for two or three weeks while michael and his wife went on vacation. When walter returned to portland, he decided that what this city needed was a used bookstore. So in 1971 he opened up the first powells books here in portland, oregon. But it was actually the second powells books. Im standing in front of a column of books x this is sort of symbolic of all the things we have here at powells books. The base of it says four things in latin. It starts off with [speaking in native tongue] sell the book. And then on this side it says [speaking in native tongue] seize the book. And over here it says read the book and finally, our favorite,. [speaking in native tongue] buy the book. Well, what makes us unique is a combination of several things, and one of the most important ones is we actually started out as a used bookstore. So we shelf used and new right next to each other. To us, its the content that is king. It really doesnt matter where the book came from. So out of our million books, half of them are used. Half of them, approximately, new. And that makes us unique. Because you can be pulling a book off the shelf and youre looking at it, and youre thinking thats going to to be a 20 book, and you pleasantly surprised to find out its 7. 95 instead. I think thats unique. So welcome. Here we are in the orange room at the entrance. One of our two entrances into the bookstore. We have seven different colorcoded rooms. We have over a million books, and in this room we have our cooking, and over here we have our used bookbuying counter. Well, when you come into our store, were glad to do a couple of things, and we have in almost every room an information counterrer. And then we have a store map. And powells is pretty famous for its store map. This gives you an example of how extensive our location is. And our store map also doubles as a poster, so you can take it home with you and constantly be reminded of the riches that are in portland, oregon. So im going to take you to probably the most popular, one of the most popular sections in the store, and thats our literature section. But first, were going to go past our second entrance to the bookstore. This is the green room. Its another Cash Register area and also a promotional display. I think the other unique thing about us is our breadth of inventory. So we have a million books, but we have about 450,000 titles at any one time which means we have one or two of most of the books in our store. Which means we have a river that is miles and miles wide but about an inch deep. And so its all about selection and variety. To give you an example of the breadth of inventory that powells books carries, this is our dickens section. And it starts down here on the bottom shelf here, and it goes this entire case and then up to this section here. So if youre looking for a copy of hard times or Great Expectations, you have about eight or ten different types of Great Expectations you can buy. You can buy the hardback, the paperback, the book club edition, the large print edition, a very fancy new edition or a nice older edition. Its a very encyclopedic collection of everything that dickens ever wrote. We have over 500 events at three of our stores, and we also do a offsite events at a large auditorium in portland. And of those 500 events, they range from 810 people showing up for a debut author or poet to 5001,000 people showing up for jimmy carter, Bruce Springsteen. And so weve spent about a decade convincing publishers that this was a great venue for authors. And the incredible thing about portland which i think is one of the small town feelings it has even though its turned into a big city, is people here are avid performancegoers. Finish so we would bring somebody in, and wed think, oh, 10 or 15 people would show up, and 40 or 50 people would show up. So the citizens of portland have been incredibly supportive of the authors who come and visit here. And that just reflects back to new york and to the publishers, and they see that. And so we are now one of the top ten places to send an author. So when Bruce Springsteen announces hes going on on a bok tour and hes going to ten bookstores, we are very proud to say we are one of those ten bookstores. First of all, i want to say what a thrill it is to be speaking at powells. In the life of an author, there are various milestonings. Usually milestones are not particularly happy ones; rejection, being ignored. Theres a young man in the back there who helped rescue the book early on. Anyway, once you do find, get a little bit of momentum, the thought that you would one day be speaking at powells is amazing, so im thrilled to be here. This is one of the things on my bucket list, and thank you so much for coming out. Well, you know, we keep doing what weve always done which is, you know, were passionate about the books that we sell, were passionate about the ability to hold a book in your hand and look at that book. And the serendipity that comes with having this incredible assortment of books. So when youre walking down an aisle of this bookstore, you have a hundred opportunities every minute for your eye to catch on a different title, a different author, a different picture. And that certain tipty opens up a world serendipity opens up a world to any shopper that is not replicable on any internet site, including our own which is, you know, that serendipity happens when youre in a physical location. The importance of powells to literary life in portland, i think, goes back to 1971 when we started. 971 there was a flourishing used book and some new bookstores in portland. That has really changed dramatically over the years. But powells has not only remained, but weve expanded. When we first moved into this building, we were 15,000 square feet of books x now were 75,000 retail square feet of books. It, i think, is a reason some authors move to portland. We hear that quite often from authors, that this is a resource for them. And its a place where they can meet kindred souls. And that includes authors who are coming through on tour. So when an author comes through on tour, there will often be many authors in the audience as well listening to that person. So i think its been a nurturing relationship. Authors have nurtured us, and weve nurtured authors. Heres a look at some of the current best selling nonfiction books according to the Washington Post many of these authors have or will be appearing on booktv. You can watch them on our web site, booktv. Org. [inaudible conversations] in good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to barnes noble tribeca. Tonight i have the pleasure of introducing Heather Cabot and a. M. That wall raven as they join us to discuss their new book, geek girl rising. Heather is a former angel investor, adjunct professor at Columbia University grad school of journalan