Postcard Bookshop, a bookstore dedicated to travel and tourism, opened recently in the Cargo Inc. marketplace at 81 S.E. Yamhill St., Portland, Ore. Owner Patrick Leonard told the Portland Business Journal he wanted to create an educational space for people to access travel guides, international literature, cookbooks and more when learning about a new region and planning trips.
"As a kid, I never did any international traveling so the way I traveled a lot was through reading about other places," he said. "But when I do travel, I love to pick up a book from that place to hear more first-hand experiences and I feel like I have a newfound interest in this destination."
Leonard, who had worked for a cookbook publisher in New York City, moved back to Portland in 2016 with the goal of starting a bookstore. His bookstore's selection of guides, phrase books, cookbooks and other materials is organized by geographical region.
"People are really hungry for those experiences to get back out in the world," he noted. "People are now wanting to go on food tours, see heritage sites and have the once-in-a-lifetime experiences where they can feel like a local."