Portland, Maine, "is ready to be a two-bookstore city again, and national trends suggest that Sherman's expansion into Portland is local evidence of a resurgence that independent bookstores are having around the country," the Press Herald noted in its report on yesterday's opening of the newest Sherman's Books and Stationery location. Sherman's joins Longfellow Books as the second bookstore on the Portland peninsula selling new books.
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Chris Bowe at Longfellow Books (photo: mpbn.net) |
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Chris Bowe, co-owner of Longfellow Books, said he welcomes another indie, which keeps people downtown and "adds to the cultural vibrancy of the town.... It's one of those businesses where more can be better--not too much more, but just the sense that Portland is a book town and the business is alive and thriving and books are still relevant in people's lives. It ratchets up the conversation."
Sherman's owner Jeff Curtis agreed: "This is a big town to have only one bookstore. Different people walk around the Old Port and don't necessarily make it to Monument Square, and people leaving their offices (around Monument Square) to get books don't often walk to the Old Port."