Bookstores as a measure of a school...

College Search & Lists
2

<p>The “official campus bookstore” anywhere is going to be kind of bleh. However, what I think you really need to look for is the REAL bookstore.</p>

<p>UChicago, for example, has the requisite Barnes and Noble that’s big on sweatshirts and small on anything academic (though it’s where a lot of the grad students pick up their textbooks). The Seminary Co-Op, though, is one of the best academic bookstores in the nation, and is an underground wonderland.</p>

<p><a href=“http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0112/campus-news/images/0112_journal-cella.jpg&imgrefurl=http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0112/campus-news/journal-coop.html&h=350&w=289&sz=33&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=8utOSi5CUOvBCM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=99&prev=/images%3Fq%3DSeminary%2BCo-Op%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG[/url]”>http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0112/campus-news/images/0112_journal-cella.jpg&imgrefurl=http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0112/campus-news/journal-coop.html&h=350&w=289&sz=33&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=8utOSi5CUOvBCM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=99&prev=/images%3Fq%3DSeminary%2BCo-Op%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>UChicago has a lot of great little bookstores in the neighborhood too… four blocks of 57th street are home to three different bookstores, all with their own flair.</p>

<p>Other great college towns with cool bookstores include Amherst, MA (I seem to remember a few great bookstores in town) and Iowa City, Iowa, where the Prairie Lights bookstore and UIowa are. I’m sure there are others-- Harvard’s Coop, for example-- that escape my mind.</p>