Best store for used books

Fear not, brave readers, literary landmark Avenue Victor Hugo Bookstore did not close: it just moved a block closer to Mass Ave. Some 150,000 new and used titles (including first editions and antiques), vintage and used magazines, and unique cards can be found on two levels in the shop's new location. The 27-year-old store's towering shelves hold hardcover and paperback classics, science fiction, Westerns, and historical fiction, plus books on film, theater, art, poetry, music, and history. It's just the spot to while away an entire afternoon -- be it browsing among the dusty stacks or petting the shop cat, Blue Bart.

If you get so lost in the Harvard Book Store's rich selection of new books that you never make it downstairs, you've been doing yourself a great disservice. In the basement, you'll find thousands of used paperbacks, including classic and modern literature, children's books, cookbooks, and nonfiction works on architecture, history, film, religion, science, and much more. The basement also offers a great selection of deeply discounted new books. Remainder finds not long ago included classics such as The Catcher in the Rye and Silent Spring, and recent bestsellers like The Nanny Diaries and The Corrections -- all at half the price you'd pay elsewhere.

Avenue Victor Hugo Bookstore, 353 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 266-7746; Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass Ave, Cambridge, (617) 661-1515.