Good bye, Casco Bay Books

I am going to miss that damn little store.

I still stopped in even after you turned half of it into a clothes store that I never stepped foot in. I may be part hipster, but even that was too much for me. Sorry, I know honesty hurts.

I loved your coffee. It was you that introduced me to the Red Eye Chai. You that got me even more hooked on McSweeneys. You that had Bitch magazine displayed so it winked and flirted with me to buy it. You where I sat and read. You where I constantly brought people to get coffee instead of Starbucks. You where I heard Lewis and Steve Almond read with my various Stonecoast comrades. You where I could have my many loves in close proximity -- comics from Casablanca just a mere footsteps away from battered old used poetry books. You became engrained in some of the best parts of my Portland sense memories. Now that the Portland Public Market has closed and left me, what am I to do?

I am going to miss you. Good bye, friend. I think I had a crush on you, but was never able to tell you until it was too late