Best place to read and feed

If you're looking for a spot to nosh or sip a latte while sampling a bookstore's wares (or perhaps even writing a book of your own), we suggest heading for Trident Booksellers and Café. Not only will you support local, noncorporate enterprise, but you'll also avail yourself of amenities not considered by the soulless mega-entities of consumerism. A dozen variations on tarot cards and other instruments of arcana. A perpetual breakfast, including one of our favorites, the Salmon Scrambler. Or a genuine pot of linden tea in which to dip your madeleine for a Proustian moment, and free wireless to help you search for your lost time. "We even have a Tibetan man come in to make our Tibetan momos," adds marketing and events coordinator Jeana Connaughton.

But one thing Trident didn't offer until recently was celebrity readings (they've had sightings, with Drew Barrymore and Alanis Morissette among the more recent), an omission the store recently rectified with readings from the likes of Malachy McCourt, Erin Hart, and Thais Mazur. "The other bookstores are doing it," admits Connaughton. But none of them offers genuine Tibetan momos on the side.

Trident Booksellers and Café, 338 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 267-8688, www.tridentbookscafe.com.