Best of Boston

2012 Best Bookstore

The Coop

With independent bookstores (and even national chains) falling by the digital wayside, it’s all the more impressive that this classic soldiers on. The four-story Harvard Square behemoth peddles both bestsellers and literary classics, as well as arcane treatises on history, philosophy, music, and science—precisely what you’d expect from a store founded by Crimson scholars in 1882.

1400 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-499-2000, thecoop.com