When you’re confined to your home for any reason, from a three-day cold that has you feeling haggard to a yearlong global pandemic that has wrecked every aspect of your life and has completely enervated you, you need a panacea to prevent insanity. From cobbling together inventive workout routines with household items to starring in your own YouTube videos to whipping up something completely new in the kitchen, we’ve all found methods to amuse ourselves. (Binge-watching brainless reality shows doesn’t cut it.) Of course, the old standby — curling up with a good book—rises to the top of the ways to escape your situation and enter a world far-removed from your own. And finding a unique brick-and-mortar bookstore to expand your library with anything from the definitive biography of an obscure artist to a demotic novel for a beach read is where it all begins (sorry, Amazon). Read about my top five bookstores >