Meara, you do need self-control at Powell's, but the good thing is they shelve used copies with the new ones, so you can often find a version in your budget.

And the Chinese Classical Garden is only a few blocks away. Very beautiful and calming.

I've lived in Portland for 15 years now, and would not live anywhere else.

I lived there from 1990 to 1994, and every time I go back I wonder why I ever left.

And then I remember: I like to eat.

Also? Clothes and housing are cool too.

meara, which used bookstore is the one you've been visiting in DC?

Second Story in Dupont is very hit or miss. Bonifant up on Georgia Avenue is much better (I think that's where it is). Book Bank in Old Town is also hit or miss.

Nutty, have you seen the film recently?

Not in probably 3 years, but one does not forget That Voice and That Accent saying "I am in my prime." I don't think I entirely appreciated what a role that is when I saw the movie for the first time.

The really confusing part is that the movie and the book have different plots, in some ways, but at least on the surface have the same point. But I'm not sure that the point stays the same once you get below the surface. I never felt particularly sorry for movie-Brodie, but I pitied her terribly in the book.

It's "Pages from a Young Girl's Journal." I think the easiest place to find it (still in print, also likely to be in libraries) is Alan Ryan's Penguin Book of Vampire Stories. Oh! Which also has the Fritz Leiber, one of the novellas that makes up The Vampire Tapestry, and C.L. Moore's "Shambleau," which I love with a mad passion. And really lovely romantic vampire story called "Bite Me Not; or Fleur-de-Feu" by Tanith Lee.

I have that! I love, love, love it! I've had it for years, and I regularly re-read it.

Jilli, if you don't have it, you must own it. It's a great anthology. It's got Wellman's "School for the Unspeakable" and excerpts from "Varney the Vampire" and Byron's vampire novella.

I read "Sunshine" and it was...fine. Nothing amazng, to me, but certainly good enough for an afternoon's reading. It's not up to par with "Hero and the Crown" or "The Blue Sword."

Edited for idiot-speak

Bonifant up on Georgia Avenue is much better (I think that's where it is)

Ooh, I'll have to look that one up...

The one I've been going to is up in Gaithersburg, but it's quite fabulous--it's a total semi-underground warren of bookshelves, and the first few times you go, you keep discovering new rooms you didn't know were there. Cramped, but packed. It's near the Nordstrom Rack, too. Shady Grove Road. I used to work right near it, but now it's a hassle to get to. There's a Second Story books about a block from work, but I'm very not impressed by their selection of mystery/scifi, even though they're HUGE.

I just remembered another vampire book: "Children of the Night" by Dan Simmons. There's a lot of present-day stuff about hematology science and AIDS, but everything he wrote about the country of Romania under Ceaucescu was more horrifying than the monster, and that is saying something.

meara,

The Book Alcove? I live real close to that store, and it is way cool. (Reminder to self: next available Saturday, see what books you can sell there from the chair o' culled books)

Yay! I've just been to my happy place... the library. Ahhh, twelve bucks a year for all the books you can read, seriously doesn't get any better than this. Items I picked up: Lord of the Isles by David Drake as per someone's suggestion on this thread; Shopaholic Ties the Knot by Sophie Kinsella- Bridget Jones with money issues; Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce- a fan since jr. high; Sunshine by Robin McKinley- has gotten less-than-rave reviews by readers here; and The Bone Woman by Clea Koff- non-fic tale of a forensic anthropologist who works with the UN in Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo (a real cheerful tale).

Hmmm... think I might be addicted to my library. I guess the post-school non-textbook freedom has gotten to my head. Oh well, off to watch Corner Gas.

Meara, you can always drive out to Reston and go to Reston's Used Bookstore--founded by MY WAY COOL MOM and her best friend 25 years ago. They sold the store to two long-time employees a couple of years ago, but it's still a really good bookstore.