Independent Bookstore: Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, MA

Brookline Booksmith, in the heart of Coolidge Corner in Brookline, Massachusetts, since 1961, is one of New England’s premier independent bookstores. They offer books including current bestsellers to the most eclectic titles. They also have gifts for your bookish friends. Customers buy and sell gently used books in their treasured Used Book Cellar and enjoy the bountiful bargain book selection. Brookline hosts award-winning events series offering more than 300 author talks, community conversations, and book clubs annually.

More than 60 years ago, Brookline residents Marshall and Judy Smith opened Paperback Booksmith which helped to make the diverse world of great literature accessible and affordable to the reading public for the first time in American history.  Booksmith was also one of the first stores to organize books by genre and category rather than by publisher and to shelve books alphabetically by author, encouraging customers to browse at their leisure and independently in search of that perfect book. 

Their original tagline, dedicated to the fine art of browsing, remains as central to their identity now as it was in 1961. Booksmith has a mission in response to current events, political upheavals, and social injustices, providing materials to inform the curious with knowledge and offering itself as a place to engage in hard, meaningful, and evolving conversations.