When I came home from a six month adventure in New York City, one of the first places I visited was Mr. Paperback, my old book store job in Lewiston, Maine.
Mr. Paperback will probably always be one of my favorite places. Although it’s often depressing because of its lack of patrons and tendency to attract vagrants with bowel disorders, it employs some of the most intelligent, quirky, fun, and interesting people I have had the pleasure of knowing.
This picture is of the now empty fish bowl that once housed the first and second store mascots. I remember the day I brought the first fighting fish in from my other job at the time, (Pet Quarters), and Cheryl, our store manager, named him Chrysanthemum because Sushi would have been too obvious.
(I also remember fondly all the time I was allowed to spend surfing Craigslist for a junker and wasting time at the info desk making “creatures” out of limbs from broken x-mas ornaments.)
This fish bowl and its post-it headstone are a symbol of the store and my time there. I was very saddened to hear that the store is closing. I’m sad for my own personal reasons and because I think Lewiston really needs at least one book store. I hope you guys do band together and open a new one like you’re talking about. I hope the word gets out and people come there to buy books and learn. I also hope you do not have a public restroom.
