5 Commercial St., Boothbay Harbor, ME

Sometimes you walk into a bookshop and you are taken aback, eyebrows raised, surprised by the unexpected delight of finding a much bigger bookshop than you were expecting, a shop that you want to spend the rest of the afternoon browsing around the stacks, slowly parsing the deals, gifts, and merch until you find just the right book. This is the feeling that Sherman’s Maine Coast Bookshop in Boothbay Harbor gives off. Located in the heart of one of Maine’s exemplary coastal villages—a bustling tangle of hilly streets full of gift shops, restaurants, and all the tourist ephemera you can imagine—this shop is far more than I expected.