This is an appreciation blog for small bookstores. I love giving a local bookstore love.
Yesterday I took a trip to a small local bookstore in downtown Portland, Maine. And I absolutely fell in love with it.
It is called Yes Books.
I had wanted to go to this store for over a year but because of my anxiety about city driving I never made it out. It was a beautiful day and I decided I just wanted to go, and I don’t regret it at all. (Also, I didn’t die while driving there which is good.)
Walking up the street I was about 10 feet from the door and the smell of books was all around me. If there was a perfume that smelled exactly like that book store, I would be wearing it all the time.
It is a used, rare, and out of print book store so it had that old, musty smell that comes along with old books and it makes me so happy! Anyway, just trust me that the store smelled good.
I am a person who appreciates new, inventive and modern objects but I always find myself wanting old and vintage things. Books are no exception to that.
You probably noticed from my first post as I wrote about my favorite books and authors I aspired to be like that many of them (if not all) were dead. So this bookstore was full of old editions of Charles Dickens and Jules Verne books.
I was impressed by how many great books there were but what impressed me the most was the pure quantity of books.
There were so many books!
It is one door and a small window and it looks like a couple of shelves and a case of books from the outside. Then you walk in and it is like WOW. There are books everywhere and the store just keeps going. These shelves were taller than I could reach and there were stacks in front of the bookshelves. I was in book heaven.
I feel the need to own every book I read (a small quirk of mine), but I also love a bargain.
Frequently I shop at big book stores that are conveniently located near my house and I don’t find shopping in those stores as fun. There is just something about walking into a local book store that is there for the purpose of giving people the resources to read whatever books they want. Any business is looking to make money, but many times owners of small bookstores find more enjoyment when someone is excited about a book that they find.
In Conclusion.
I encourage people to seek out local bookstores to shop at rather than big name stores because without people shopping there then they will cease to exist and it will be a sad world when major cities no longer have small book stores that really connect and resonate with their customers.
Each place I live/visit a lot, I make it a need to find a bookstore nearby that has a good selection of books and that is genuinely interested in selling books and not just making money.
I love local book stores and I recommend everyone go to one at least once.