Quimby's is great! I've been two or three times with Vali. They specialize in stuff that B&N mostly won't bother to carry.* Plus monthly comics and very odd magazines. It has the absolute best sale section of any bookstore anywhere, my choices generally being limited to what I can carry onto the train without dying. My favorite thing is the bookcase that is labeled "Pornography" in delicate cursive writing. There's also a shop in Manhattan now, next to a Sicilian bakery.


*B&N used to have massive back catalogue stock in-store, and it was impossible to go in there and not find something interesting. Now it's more like a very big airport bookstore, with expensive Lego sets. I generally only go in when I get a gift certificate.