More Maine Book Shopping

Last year, my longtime partner Denise and I were in the Blue Hill area of Maine. Between lobster shack crawls and boat trips we stumbled into a couple quirky book experiences: The World’s Smallest Book store near Sedgwick and Big Chicken Barn of Books and Antiques near Ellsworth (revisit the 11/5/25 post here).

This year Denise planned our trip to the Boothbay Harbor area, which included visiting a couple of more conventional bookshops in nearby Rockland and Bath.

Arctic Tern Books – Downtown Rockland

When I go into a bookstore I enter with two personalities— as book shopper and bookseller. The book shopper me looks for books of personal interest or NEED and the latter looks for books that I might be good for my Destination: Books inventory.

The Arctic Tern had plenty of both. Since we are heading  to Japan later this year, I asked if they could make a recommendation. I was lucky because the owner Alison directed me to her sidekick Marty (Marty’s words) who had so many suggestions I didn’t know which to choose.

Even though I had spent more of my vacation allowance at L.L. Bean in Freeport (I couldn’t say no to the portable tick remover),  I purchased a novel by Yoko Ogawa, and a detective novel Tokyo Express written in 1958 by Seicho Matsumoto. This short noir gives you a whole new appreciation of how train schedules can drive a plot (just like my “novel” Down and Outbound: A Mass Transit Satire).

And with the adventurous readers of Destination: Books in mind,I picked up a copy of The Sakura Obsession by Naoko Abe. This nonfiction books is about a plant hunter who saved  Japan’s cherry blossoms.

Mockingbird Bookshop – Downtown Bath

This is another quaint bookshop in this historic coastal, ship building town.  Mockingbird has a wide selection of books including gardening, nature and environmental topics.  Denise picked up a couple mysteries set in Maine, which included Georgia O’Keefe as a detective.

Since the vibe was right, I chatted with a little book biz with the owner Terri.  She started her store during the Pandemic, which is a tough environment start a business. Destination: Books is only a popup and a retirement gig, I know my challenges are peanuts compared to what a full-scale bookstore is up against. (BTW. our next pop-up is Saturday morning September 26th at the Carter Center ‘s Freedom Farmer’s Market.)

I especially like sharing with other booksellers what garden and nature and sustainability books they like.

Quirkiest Moment

What would a trip to Maine be without one? This comes from one of my travel obsessions – ice cream experiences (but I know never mix a drippy cone with book shopping.) 

Denise had heard that Blanchard Ice Cream in Edgecomb which is near BoothHarbor is worth a visit. It is.

I ordered two scoops so I could experiment. I went with my traditional — salty caramel, but I also saw a unique flavor of Grape Nuts embedded in vanilla.  My favorite breakfast cereal is Grape Nuts. Although the texture of this cereal is something you’d spread on an icy sidewalk, in this dairy blend the Grape Nuts softened and their flavor burst into the ice cream.

It provided just the energy this vacationer always needs.