Newspapers aren’t only meant to be read. At The Fairmont Store inside the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel, Couture Planet handbags are fashioned from the recycled newspapers left by hotel guests. Once gathered from guest rooms and lounges, the gazettes are sent to Boston-based Couture Planet, which is owned entirely by women, and the papers are then repurposed into beautiful handbags and clutches. The informative accessories are waterproof and sold exclusively at this hotel gift shop, in styles ranging in price from $28 to $125.

138 St. James Ave.
617-927-5910

Boston boasts an enviable network of fascinating used bookstores. Among the nine locations in the consortium, Commonwealth Books, in the basement of the Old South Meeting House, has the most colorful location: in an early Puritan church of old Boston. Hunting through its stacks is a marvelous way to experience the city’s scholarly customs firsthand – almost like time travel. The network also includes the Brattle Bookshop, Peter L. Stern & Company, F.A. Bernett Inc., Buddenbrooks, Bromer Booksellers, the Boston Book Annex and Symposium Books. Feel free to read to your heart’s content, and then take home a souvenir example of Boston’s tradition of academic prowess.

2 Milk St.
877-292-0065
www.commonwealthbooks.com

The air in Polcari’s Coffee in the historic North End is alive with the roasted scent of fragrant coffees, teas, and spices from around the world – so heavily that you can practically taste the offerings on your tongue when you walk in. Sparing design, this time-worn shop is laid out as it was when it was founded in 1932, with beans climbing the walls; flower, seeds and spices stuffed into rows of glass jars; and candy, cookies, and fruitcakes stacked up on the floor. With a kind of cultish devotion, locals line up to chat with their neighbors while purchasing fresh grounds, along with such hard-to-find favorites as Italian citron, chickpea flour, lupini, and fresh ground lemon and orange zest.

105 Salem St.
617-227-0786
www.northendboston.com/polcaricoffee