Sherman's Maine Coast Bookshop - Bar Harbor, Maine

Sherman's doesn't stand out at first. Although its bookshop and department store take up three sizable storefronts, it is not as flashy or bauble-filled as the souvenir shops that flank it on Main Street. Bar Harbor during the warmer months is filled with tourists, and the people that tread the creaking floorboards vary widely. During my visit, there were two local authors staked out by the door, a young man with a heavy Eastern European accent asking loudly for a book that he did not know the name or author of, while several customers popped in to pick up specially ordered books. 

Sherman's has the distinction of being the oldest bookstore in Maine. Started as a printer and stationary and book shop in Bar Harbor in 1882, it has grown to a six-location chain across the Pine Tree State. 

The store doesn't quite look, but certainly suggests its age. Heavy wooden floors, white-painted decorative tin ceiling, rooms that snake into other rooms. Of their three shop fronts, about half of the space is dedicated to books. The selection is not vast, but definitely sizable, with at least a bookcase-worth of real estate given to all the genres you'd want. There is also an entire corner of the store dedicated to Maine and Acadia National Park-specific books. 

It is a bustling store with heavy foot traffic, but with narrow aisles and other customers trying to get by, it is a place for a quick browse. 

Bob found a compatriot.