St Johns Booksellers

Specialties

We are North Portland’s full-​service independent bookstore, offering new, used, and bargain books in a wide range of subject areas. Our strengths include literature, mysteries, progressive politics, children’s books, and Northwestern Americana.

Since we don’t have room for every book, we gladly place special orders. We also host author and community events, produce commercialism-​free school book fairs, and are dog friendly.

We welcome gently used books in trade! Nena is available Tuesday through Saturday to look at your books. We’ll take anything we think we can sell. We do not generally offer cash for books.

History

Established in 2005.

Our building has been a bookstore since about 1985, when Ray Crowe opened Paperbacks, Etc. Used Books. Ray hosted meetings of the Western Bigfoot Society in his shop – and we found a plaster cast of a Sasquatch track in the basement when we moved in! Ray sold his shop to Mark & Janet Belgrave, who had it for 8 years before closing in May 2005. At that time, an old bookselling colleague and I had been thinking of opening a new-​books shop nearby – so we talked to Mark. He sold us their shelves, and hooked us up with their landlord. Less than a month after Paperbacks, Etc. closed its doors, St. Johns Booksellers opened up in its place, on a very slender budget. Since then, we’ve increased our selection from barely 2000 new books to over 18,000 new, used, and remaindered titles. We’ve hosted dozens of book signings and community meetings – with more happening every month.

Meet the Business Owner

Nena R.

Business Owner

I’m a St. Johns resident, along with my husband Adam and our school-​age twins. I have owned St. Johns Booksellers since 2005. I fell into the book trade when Powell’s was hiring data entry clerks in 1995. I landed a permanent position there, and found it to be rather like grad school for booksellers – a great education! I moved on to become a department buyer for a bookstore in Texas, a publicist for one in Portland, and an editorial assistant for a small publisher in Tigard. Then came the twins, and a couple of years off work, and a struggle to figure out what work I could do that would give me the kind of flexibility and security a mama needs. An old book trade friend joined me here in Portland to open St. Johns Booksellers. She moved on in 2008, and Adam stepped in as my business partner as well as personal booster. You’ll often find our whole family here in the evenings or on weekends – the kids doing homework while I help customers and Adam changes light bulbs.

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