589 Congress St., Portland, ME
While other nearby bookshops were closed on a blustery Tuesday afternoon, Yes Books was there for us when we trudged through the snow and sleet to push through the doors and enter a world or precarious stacks, narrow aisles, and floor-to-ceiling books that kept going and going, a literary pack-rat’s dream shop.
This is the type of store where you let fate and the stacks guide you, rather than trying to scurry your way through the warren of rows and shelves to find one specific title. Some aisles are brightly lit with funky lamps, and others are dim and shadowy, giving one the feeling you’re digging for buried treasure, and yes, my cell phone flashlight came in handy. Books are piled on tables and on the floor, and they’re jammed into shelves every which way to make them fit, but mind the signs asking you to keep the books in order, a request I can see being both a plea and tongue-in-cheek considering the delightful state of clutter I found in some rows.
It’s also the kind of store I can either breeze through and admire or I stay for four hours and leave with fifteen new additions to my shelves at home. They had a little of everything, and a lot of it was great. Right by the front door there were plenty of vintage and rare titles, a Beat Lit section, tarot and New Age, and loads of books about literary rock and roll legends, Hollywood stars, and all manner of biography and literary nonfiction. Further back there are large sections for art, cooking, travel, poetry, and history, and fiction in both hardcover and paperback, with authors new and old ranging from Colette, Hemingway, and Chekhov to Lethem, Lamott, and Kingsolver.
Amusingly, it seemed like the further back you went the more eclectic the organization became, with sci-fi and fantasy next to philosophy and sports, crime and classical music next to medical and New England titles, and on of the notes I jotted down felt more and more apt as I went on, that the shop is a “clutter of delights.” I stand by that, and I’d definitely return the next time I’m in Portland.
Atmosphere — The stacks are many and towering, the rows are long and sometimes dim, sometimes bright, and the books are many many many, with plenty of others reaching and sidestepping to find that hidden gem all around.
Quality — The books are all used but are in pretty good shape.
Quantity — A vast amount of books for a moderately sized shop. You’ll be here a while if you aim to be thorough.
Diversity — They cover a lot of ground, and there are interesting entries for each section. And since they deal in rarities too, you may want to ask for a little help for older titles.
Affordability — The prices seemed fair, and I saw most books going for between $4 and $10, unless you were looking for something rarer or more extensive.
Amenities — I recall a chair or two, but you’re there for the books and the browsing and they offer a lot of that.
Location — Congress Street seemed like a mix of new commercial and diehard locals blended in together, with some quirky throwbacks like Yes books holding the fort against the tide of banks and chain coffee shops.
Customer Service — There was a gentleman there tending to the voluminous stacks up front, and he let us all browse at our own pace.
Overall — This is a book hoarder’s dream, with tons of secondhand books covering a range of topics, from the dependable classics to the strange and unusual. An excellent used shop.
