Seminary Co-op Bookstore. 5757 S. University Avenue, Hyde Park; 773-752-4381; 800-777-1456. Arguably the best source for new academic books in the country. A warren of basement rooms on the University of Chicago campus, packed to the gills, with a great staff. Their second, generalist shop, 57th Street Books, is a few blocks away, at 1301 E. 57th Street, 773-684-1300.

Powell's. 1501 E. 57th Street (at Harper), Hyde Park; 773-955-7780. A large and excellent used bookstore with a well-chosen and high-quality stock, specializing in scholarly books. Even recent titles in high demand are often well below half the cover price; and out-of-print titles are reasonable. Other locations in Chicago include 828 S. Wabash (South Loop), 312-341-0748, and 2850 N. Lincoln (Lincoln Park), 773-248-1444. Note that this Powell's is not the same as (though it is a distant cousin of) Powells.com, which is the online presence of Powell's Books in Portland, OR.

Rain Dog Books. 400 block of S. Michigan Ave. (near Van Buren), Loop; 312-922-1200. This shop recently moved a few doors down from its original location at 404 S. Michican, and also changed focus. It now has a downstairs cafe and some shelves of used paperbacks, generally well-priced and in good condition, but for the casual reader rather than the collector; upstairs, it has quality hardcovers and rare books. A nice shop, and a good alternative to the chains for coffee, but I am alarmed at the recent elimination of the upstairs art books, and they do not seem to be acquiring much new scholarly or collectible stock.

Myopic Books. 1468 N. Milwaukee Ave. (near Damen), Wicker Park-Bucktown; 773-862-4882. A big, comfortable, rambling general used book store with a laid-back atmosphere, in a great neighborhood.

Black Oak Books. 1491 Shattuck Avenue (at Vine), North Berkeley; 510-486-0698. Black Oak, a large new and used bookstore and a Berkeley institution, is one of my favorite places -- not least because it's spitting distance from Chez Panisse, Cheeseboard Pizza, the original Peet's, North Berkeley Wine and Cesar -- but also because it has a large and outstanding selection of used and rare books in many subjects. Warning: their prices increasingly strike me as amounting to highway robbery, especially in the Philosophy and Classics sections, where items that sell elsewhere for (for example) $60 can be found for $175. I still shop there, but it's becoming bittersweet.

Moe's Books. 2476 Telegraph Avenue (near Haste), Southside; 510-849-2087. A four-floor emporium of mostly used books near UC Berkeley, founded by the charismatic, cigar-puffing Telegraph icon Moe Moskowitz, who died in 1997. Runs the gamut from inexpensive mass market paperbacks to antiquarian items, with a solid selection of used academic books. Reasonable prices.

University Press Books. 2430 Bancroft Way (near Telegraph), Southside; 510-548-0585; 800-676-8722. Specializes in new books published by university and scholarly presses, though they have a smallish selection of used books in their back loft, too (as of Winter 2001 this area was being remodeled). Located across the street from the UC Berkeley campus. Knowledgable and helpful staff. Stop by next door at the serene Musical Offering, a combination classical music store and cafe.

Cody's Books. 2454 Telegraph Avenue (at Haste), Southside; 510-845-7852; 800-995-1180. The jolly giant of Berkeley independent bookstores. Sells everything: trashy novels, scholarly books, travel guides; magazines and journals; foreign-language books; greeting cards; calendars; Passover haggadot. They now have a second store on Fourth Street: 1730 Fourth Street (between Hearst and Virginia); 510-559-9500.

Pegasus Fine Books & CDs. 1855 Solano Avenue (near Colusa), North Berkeley; 510-525-6888. This was the first used book store in which I spent any significant time, and while it doesn't have the selection (or the space) of Black Oak or Moe's, it's still a sentimental favorite; and it's the only bookstore I've ever seen with a "Pocket Metaphysics" section. Sells some new books too, as well as magazines and CDs; be sure to visit their other store in downtown Berkeley 2439 Shattuck Avenue, 510-649-1320) and the related Pendragon Books in Rockridge (5560 College Avenue, 510-652-6259).

Hackenberg Booksellers. 1614 Kearney Street (near Portrero), El Cerrito, 510-234-3214. An excellent rare and out-of-print shop, run by a former partner in Turtle Island Booksellers in Berkeley, specializing in scholarly books in many languages. Quite strong in philosophy, religion, classics, and history, and definitely worth the 15-minute drive or BART ride from Berkeley (it's seconds from the El Cerrito Del Norte station; the web site has more details).

City Lights Books. 261 Columbus Avenue (at Broadway), San Francisco (North Beach), 415-362-8193. Lawrence Ferlinghetti's almost-all-paperback shop, founded in 1953, is not only a landmark of the Beat era but a thriving new bookstore; they have a fine selection of mainstream books as well as an unparalleled selection of literature and nonfiction that is too obscure or too radical to find its way into Barnes and Noble. Don't miss the poetry room.

Harvard Book Store. 1256 Massachusetts Avenue (at Plympton), Harvard Square, 800-542-READ, 617-661-1515. Best new book store in Harvard Square (no, I don't like Wordsworth); great selection of new academic titles; large selection of remainders; some good used books downstairs; and a helpful staff.

MacIntyre & Moore Books. 255 Elm Street, Davis Square, Somerville, 617-629-4840. Driven out of Harvard Square by high rents, M & M moved to hip, up-and-coming SoMo, where they've got a great new space and arguably stronger stock than before. Dealing in used books, both scholarly and general, they've got an excellent selection and rapid turnover in most subjects, and they're now in a fabulous neighborhood. Prices are generally quite low.

Starr Book Shop. Formerly at 29 Plympton Street (at Mount Auburn), Harvard Square. First MacIntyre and Moore, now this. The Starr Book Shop was slated to close in December 2001, unable to renew its lease in the Harvard Lampoon building. A real shame, because Mark Starr ran a fine shop. Unless you count the basement of the Harvard Book Store, or unless something has opened since I left town, that means there are now no generalist used book stores in Harvard Square. Oh, but there's an Ambercrombie and Fitch! Feh.

Commonwealth Books. 134 Boylston Street (near Charles), Boston. A relative newcomer, this smallish shop (across the street from the old graveyard in Boston Common) has an impressive selection of high-quality, reasonably priced books, especially in history.

Lame Duck Books. 355 Boylston Street, 2nd Floor (near Arlington), Boston, 617-421-1880. An antiquarian shop specializing in modern European philosophy and literature. Especially strong in rare German-language material: this is the place to visit if you're in the market for, say, a first edition of Hegel's 1807 Phaenomenologie des Geistes. Some less rare items are within reach even for those of us who lack endowed chairs and/or wealthy patrons, and you don't need to be a big-ticket collector to be taken seriously by the erudite staff.

Brattle Book Shop. 9 West Street (between Tremont and Washington), Boston, 617-542-0210, 800-447-9595. A grand old three-story used and rare book store, founded in 1825, now located near the Boston Common. In my experience, the first two floors are a bit cluttered with relatively undesirable items, but there are real treasures mixed in, and it's worth the hunt because the prices are low. The top floor is devoted to antiquarian books and is terrific.

Grolier Poetry Book Shop. 6 Plympton Street (near Mass Ave), Harvard Square, 800-234-POEM, 617-547-4648. Fifteen thousand volumes of and about poetry: this is the oldest continuously operating poetry bookstore in the country. One of the last remaining gems of Harvard Square.

Schoenhof's Foreign Books. 76A Mount Auburn Street, Harvard Square, 617-547-8855. A large foreign bookstore (new books only) catering to scholars. They also carry an excellent selection of English-language monographs in their classical studies section.

Bryn Mawr Book Sale. 373 Huron Avenue (at Standish), Cambridge, 617-661-1770. In the middle of the Huron Avenue commercial district, this shop sells donated books at wonderfully low prices to benefit Bryn Mawr College, and while its stock is consequently unpredictable, it's a fun place to browse. If they're open, eat at Emma's Pizza across the street.

House of Sarah Books. 1309 Cambridge Street (near Hampshire/Beacon), Inman Square, 617-547-3447. This shop began with a focus on women and religion but has become an excellent general used book store with a carefully chosen stock; their new, larger space also includes a section in the back in which booksellers from around New England put up a selection of their books for sale, which is a nice touch.

Arlington Books. 397 Massachusetts Avenue (at Franklin), Arlington, 617-643-4187. This store used to consist of an impossible maze of rooms and shelves (with books stacked two deep) on the ground floor and in the basement of a building next to the Capitol Theater in Arlington. They have since moved to a new space in which it's only a little harder to get lost. This is THE stereotypical used bookstore: great masses of indiscriminately chosen books, from the ridiculous to the sublime, loosely arranged at best, dirt-cheap. Tons of fun, and the sort of place that can swallow you for an afternoon.

MIT Press Bookstore. 292 Main Street, Kendall Square, 617-253-5249. Unlike the Harvard University Press Display Room, which only carries Harvard titles, the MIT Press bookstore also stocks new books by many other publishers, and it has a deep and unusual selection in art, architecture, and philosophy as well as science and technology. The store also carries a number of slightly damaged MIT Press books at substantial discounts.

Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America. This recently redesigned site now includes a search engine of its own, a la ABE and Bibliofind. I haven't used it much yet so I don't know how extensive (or redundant) it is. Also includes a calendar of book fairs, a national member directory, and other information about the ABAA and its activities.

Bibliomania. This site, which bills itself as "the ultimate source of information for book buyers, sellers, and collectors," is an excellent and well-maintained resource that includes author biographies, book award information, lists of book search engines, links to book-related organizations, information about book fairs, and many other things.

Center for the Book at the Library of Congress. In addition to information about its own activities, the Center's web site includes calendars of book-related events and book fairs across the country.

Brodart Library Supplies. Sells book jacket protectors and book repair supplies (as well as stuff like barcode scanners and book trucks). Caters to institutions, but they are happy to fill orders by individuals.

Discover Bookbinding. Interested in bookbinding and book repair? This well-designed site, created and maintained by Chris Lipscombe, has plenty of information and links.