On our way to see Stephen King in Bangor, Maine, we began to notice signs for moose crossing. To my disappointment we did not see a single one of these beasts. We’d mapped to The Stephen King House, a huge Victorian-style mansion with a wrought-iron gate adorned with spiders and bats, plus a huge wood sculpture in the middle of the lawn. It displayed owls, ravens, cats, and a corgi gathered around a bookcase. The grounds were well-kept, but you can’t go inside. And Stephen King doesn’t live there anymore. He has a second home in Florida and plans to turn the Bangor house into a writing retreat and museum. Plenty of people were satisfied simply standing outside his gate for a selfie. One couple we ran into made the pilgrimage annually.

The town seems to miss him, or at least Eric Furry at Pro Libris books does. His store celebrated its 40^th anniversary in 2023. Furry owns and runs the shop himself. While we browsed, he told us the story of how he came in possession of eight thousand books from another bookstore owner and friend who he’d met at a bar reading Sylvia Plath, and struck up a conversation. He paid $800 for his starter inventory. He also told us about how he’d taken some business classes in college and had to wrestle his conscience when a dean told him he’d be a business major. He responded by taking more philosophy classes and considering teaching at one point, but didn’t have the right boxes checked to pursue that path without putting in a lot more time. He was working at a B. Dalton store when he came into the aforementioned collection to start his own store. Over time, Eric has come to purchase and renovate a house across the street from the store. He was sitting down to eat his dinner of shrimp cocktail and corn on a TV tray placed in front of a plastic lawn chair in the middle of the store, the perch from which he told us some stories. At one point, his wife called him over to help with something, and he dipped out for a bit but continued where he left off when he returned. All his books were used. It’s a smart collection, well-organized. He only takes cash or checks. (Thank goodness I always keep a couple of checks in my wallet for moments like this.)

Furry has a coffin-shaped bookcase (bearing King’s signature) solely for King books that he admits is hard to keep stocked. Seemingly everyone wants to come to Bangor and buy a Stephen King book. He spoke fondly of a time he saw King at the local tavern (in his drinking days) and how he used to come in with his family to sell used books— “even after he’d gotten pretty famous.”

King writes in the morning and is a defender of routines and writing every day, whether or not the muse is around to help you. He’s not much of an outliner, preferring to put characters and situations in and see where they go. He works on several projects at once. If one stalls, he’ll give it a break for a bit and hop over to another one. He writes fast first drafts, then let’s them settle before getting to the slower task of revision.

There’s another independent bookstore in town that sells new books. and has a special King bookshelf and literally piles of King and Joe Hill (King’s son) books on the floor in front of the cash register. The store, like the rest of the town, could care less whether it’s showing up as organized and presentable, but it’s hopeful and enthusiastic about books.

I’ve been posting mostly about the writer destinations, but along the way we’ve also stopped in every independent bookstore we could. We’re immersing ourselves in the power and influence of literature in every way possible. Each independent bookstore has its own feel, and most also have themed merchandise. Symposium Books in Providence, Rhode Island, has a “feminist vibe”—Chris’s words—and sells lots of sassy stickers and vegan snacks. You will find books on the shelves that you will not find in the big chain stores. Shopping there, you will be supporting people in your community who have dedicated their lives and staked their financial independence on books. Each bookstore curates their selection so that browsing one is sort of like having a conversation about what matters. This morning I read a deeply moving Substack by Jeannette Winterson about what we can do in the age of pointless concrete pathways. I think that choosing independent bookstores is its own kind of rewilding.

I’ve made a list of the bookstores we’ve visited / will visit (last stop, Boston, today) and added Olympia’s own independent bookstores to the bottom. Most of these place will ship you a book that’s not in, just like Bezos. It’ll take a little longer, but it’s worth it. And let’s be honest—you weren’t going to get to it right away anyway, were you? If you comment on this post, include a link to your own independent bookstores and a little about what you love about them!

The Concord Bookshop (Concord, MA)

Yellow Umbrella Books (Chatham, MA)

Bellow the Brine (Harwich, MA)

Reed Books (Harwich, MA)

Symposium Books (Providence, RI)

Weird Providence (Providence, RI)

Aviary Books (New Bedford, MA)

Pro Libris (Bangor, ME)

The Briar Patch (Bangor, ME)

Print: A Bookstore (Portland, ME)

Carlson Turner Books (Portland, ME)

The Bennington Bookshop (Bennington, VT)

Amherst Books (Amherst, MA)

Wicked Good Books (Salem, MA)

The Harvard Bookshop (Boston, MA)

Grolier Poetry Bookstore (Boston, MA)

Brattle Bookshop (Boston, MA)

Browsers Bookshop (Olympia, WA)

Orca Books Cooperative (Olympia, WA)