As is usually the case when you discover or rediscover something wonderful, you’re usually on the way to somewhere else, and that was the case when I happened on the Brattle Book Shop, tucked into a quiet block just off Boston Common.
Though I’ve largely stopped hoarding books, the sight of endless open racks of $5 books nearly pulled me in, but I was on my way to timed tickets at a museum and fortunately couldn’t stop. But I expect the store will be there next time I pass—it’s been in business since 1825.
It’s not the place to shop for the latest best-sellers; in addition to the outdoor display, the lower floors are full of used books and the top floor houses a serious antiquarian department.
But if you’re interested in some mass-market bestsellers of the past, they’ve got quite a collection of the sort of trashy paperback that sold cheap and could just about survive one reading with intervals in a back pocket. Oh, the days!
