BookMarc's bookstore in Bangor, Maine, is closing at the end of the month, the Bangor Daily News reported.
"I'm ready to retire," owner Marc Berlin, who founded the store 28 years ago, told the newspaper. "You suddenly realize there are a lot of things you'd like to do. I've been putting it off for a couple of years. It's been a very difficult decision, and I rethink it all the time... but it's time." He said he plans to travel, hike more and pay attention to "a woodlot that I've been ignoring for a long time." Still, he plans to sell used books from a booth at Antique Marketplace in the spring.
Berlin, who is 65, said that he hesitated about retiring because "it's just so wonderful to talk about books with people. They come up with things I haven't heard of, and when that shipment of books comes in each week, it's like Christmas. I'll miss that terribly."
He had a few offers to buy the business, but none panned out.