Broadway @ 12th Street

Their slogan says “8 Miles of Books,” and even that’s an understatement. The Strand has over two million secondhand titles, and assuming that each book averages only one inch thick, that would still come out to a pile of books over thirty miles high. Whatever the number, this store never fails to satisfy New York’s bookworms. The Strand was founded by Ben Bass in 1929 and is now run by his son; it settled into its current digs in 1956, and has a few outlets and kiosks throughout the city.