I got my christmas wish and was able to nip up to Portland Maine to do a little bookshopping. Actually it wasn’t my FIRST christmas wish, that’s for Sarah Palin to choke on a pretzel..but this was second. My buddies from Coelacanth Books whisked me away up to the land of the downeast, where we got high on book dust ate some incredibly good food.

On the way to Portland, one must stop in Alfred and visit Dewolfe and Wood . A classic New England bookstore..with the cat to prove it.

I always come away with SOMETHING I wasn’t looking for. This time it was a little illustrated book from 1910 which i just figured out that I can’t afford not to sell. 8(

Alfred is even more of a destination point than it ever was, because now there is a damn fine eatery next door to the bookshop. The Oak Street Bistro has a yummy black ham and bean soup and a salad with strawberries, feta and dried cranberries that was absolutely to die for.

In Portland proper we hit Cunningham Books, where I picked up Stephen Fry’s Paperweight, and a 1946 book by Earl Wilson..the ‘Saloon editor’ of the New York Post…I don’t know what a Saloon editor is…all i know is that I want to be one when I grow up.

At Emerson Books and Maps retirement sale I found the Buried Book about the Epic of Gilgamesh Come to think of it I think I am the only one who bought a book in every store..Well not every store we couldn’t even squeeze inside of YES Books this time…the aisles were more stuffed with books than ever and the customers had to get extra friendly; book shopping is no fun when you can’t bend over.

Amidst all the turmoil and strife the Green Hand bookshop
dares to swim against the tide. Focusing on the weird and wonderful, and the only bookshop I know to have a cryptozoology museum right on the premises. Of course I bought a beat up copy of Dardi’s Thirsty Muse about how embracing alcoholism may make me a better writer…or at least make me not care about how untalented I actually am – sounds like a win/win. BTW big foot says hi.