Bookstores I've Known and Loved

[first posted on www.myspace.com/anndowner on May 19, 2007]

The ones with resident cats, such as the late, lamented Avenue Victor Hugo on Newbery Street in Boston.
Speleobooks in an octagon barn in Schoharie, NY...books about bats and caves and spelunking, o my.
The ones you stumble on in foreign cities.
The chicken barn--I forget where it is--New York state somewhere. Visible from the highway. I uttered a shriek and my husband slammed on the brakes and said "What?!?"
and I said "Books!"
The Shire in Franklin, Mass, where we'd gone for apples and bread from a nunnery, where the unseen nuns pass the bread to you on a lazy susan. I remember the Shire was musty, cold, but amazing. A trove.
The bookstore whose name eludes me, on Route 2 in Mass, I think? Their slogan is "BOOKS YOU DON'T NEED, IN A PLACE YOU CAN'T FIND." An old mill building on the river, near an old paper mill, I think? Haven't been there in ages.
In Connecticut, just over the Mass line in Union, the place visible from the highway with a huge sign that says "BOOKS, FOOD." The Traveler. Turkey dinners all year, a free book with your meal, and books to pay for downstairs.
The bookstore in Geneva, NY, that was closed with a dead deer out front (!) as a further insult. Great old spiritualist books and old stereoview cards.

What old bookstores have you known and loved, especially any in upstate New York or in New England?