Hm. Well getting some obvious things out of the way...

Harvard Book Store
All Star Sandwich Bar

Walk through the city. Downtown Boston is fantastic. Take note of a cobblestone alley that may have been the center of downtown a looong time ago, and still has cobblestones and an open space in the middle with the 'this used to be the center of downtown' plaque. Walk back across downtown. Note the buildings that have plaques describing how the wall is many feet wide at the base; which is how taller buildings used to be built. Walk some more around downtown. Have a Sam Adams, at a pub where Sam Adams once drank, across the street from where Sam Adams was buried.

Basement pubs at random. Boston. Follow your nose and you will eat well. There's also like this ship, with some irrelevant name in the harbor; I think it is The Constitution.

I did not look for bookstores when I was there; but there is also some like, school or something close to downtown. I'll bet there might be stores of books close to it.
Lucky you. Days in Boston. Lucky me, Boston flashbacks.

Those look good, thanks! Sandwich Bar is just the kind of thing I'm looking for, I'm going to have the most free time for lunch. Oh and also bars with good beer on tap.

On preview:
Yeah I always walk around a lot when I travel, the best way to get a feel for a place (or at least part of a place).

I dig your tone buzzman but are you thinking of Cambridge in some instances?

If you do go to the Harvard bookstore/Harvard square area I love Pinocchio's sicilian slices (usually a fan of thin crust but it's pretty great).

Aw, I'm jealous, I was just talking about how much I miss Pinocchio's and wandering around Cambridge yesterday.

Trident bookstore on Newbury street is great and has very good food. It's one of my favorite places to eat alone (don't know if you will have travel partners, but if not, you will feel comfortable there).
Northeastern is within walking distance of both the MFA and the Gardner museum (my favorite, though even better when it's warmer and the garden is in bloom).

If someone offers to drive you somewhere, Kelly's Roastbeef is where you will find all the natives in their Boston accent glory.

If you can get to the North End, check out some of the italian places like Mike's Bakery or Luca restaurant. Also, Neptune Oystery if you're into that is right near there. Or Sel de la Terre.
There are also a bunch of good bars in the North End like the Living Room.

If you go to the aquarium and get hungry, Legal Sea Food is right there.

The Liberty Hotel is supposed to be cool and is near Fanueil hall, it's a converted prison and now is a swanky hotel and bar/restaurant.

Harvard Square: Fire & Ice (make your own stir fry), or Mr. Bartley's burgers, *drool* the quintessential HS experience.

Brookline Booksmith (on Green Line).

As long as you're by Northeastern, check out the Mapparium (sp?) at the Christian Science headquarters.

Hey thanks for all these! I suppose I should have mentioned that I trend toward vegetarian (that is I eat seafood on occasion but am mostly vegetarian. In a seafood town like Boston, I definitely will be eating seafood!).

I'm going for this which if you see that schedule is going to be keeping me quite busy. Will be at the Gardiner Museum for the last of that program and will definitely arrive early enough to check it out. The MFA and the ICA are also on the list (apart from walking around cities when I visit I always go to the art museums). If I can squeeze it in I'll probably swing down to the Museum of Science and maybe the Aquarium. As a card carrying geek I'd love to wander around MIT a bit as well, but one can only do so much.

Say hi while you're here!

I think I am lumping the Suburbs in with the actual downtown area. When I was there; I stayed at teh Holiday Inn on the other side of the river (Industrial Park), shuttle would take me downtown; and I would walk back after the shuttle had stopped. It is all a big happy blur.