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Comment by starkparker | Hacker News Reader

Powell's in Portland also did this for a moment.

Some point in the early-2010s they rented a retail space across from the main store and moved their engineering and computer-related books into a technical annex, and topped all the shelves with vintage equipment and old computers.

It got folded back into the main store around 2014, and the selection is still good, but I really liked it having its own cozy, dedicated space.

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Before that there was Powell's Techinical Bookstore on the North park blocks. That store had a cat named Fup that was really old. Every year, they would print birthday stickers for the cat and give them away. I still have one that I use as a bookstore from when the cat turned 18.

It made the front page of Reddit when Fup the cat died at the age of 19. In those days, Reddit was for Hackernews types and not... what it is now.

You’ll enjoy this thread on Reddit from last year: https://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/13ft7q0/who_else_...

Awesome to see soo many remembering that cat. Also,

> I was a programmer for Powell's for 22 years. One thing I programmed into the lookup stations at the main store was a search for fup got you a picture of him.

Powell's technical books was amazing!

Sadly there's very few technical book stores left in the US. The only two I can think of are:

- Ada books in Seattle, WA

- MIT Press bookstore in Cambridge, MA

Are there any others that still exit?

Yes! I got my copy of SICP there.

I did too as well as Programming Pearls.

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