Best of Boston

Here’s one thing you can’t do on Amazon: Roam the aisles, thumbing through new releases and used books. Also impossible: attending readings and lectures by Elizabeth Warren, Gary Shteyngart, B.J. Novak, and Thomas Piketty (his Harvard Book Store appearance was scheduled before he was famous, by the way). At a time when bookstores need to be much more than bookstores to survive and thrive, no other local shop offers so many reasons to turn into a bona fide bookworm. Lucky us.