Back in Portland. Visited 5 bookstores along the way, Lucy's and Godfather's in Astoria; Grammi's and St.Helens Bookstore in St. Helens; and Trillum Books in Cathlemet.

Trillium's was very small, one room, but nice. Same with St. Helens and Lucy's. Small. Grammi's and Godfather's served coffee; Godfather looked like a nice little hangout. They were having a heated argument about the Kennedy assasination, of all things, when we were there.

One thing that kind of kills me is how cluttered all these stores are. A store on a scale of 7 out of 10, would be an 8 or 9 if they would just go over and, I don't know, prop a book back up that has fallen over. Maybe because my store is packed to the gills, I make a real effort to straighten things up on a constant basis. So I know that it really isn't that hard; it takes a few minutes a day which you can easily do as you're chatting with people or whatever. Just do it automatically, everytime you walk by.

So I don't really get the messiness factor. Comic stores are famous for being junky, but you'd think new book stores, whose image really depends on a sense of class would never let books become sodisordered. I have to resist going around and straightening.

Back home tomorrow.