I had never heard of the Strand bookstore till my recent, and only the second ever, trip to the big apple when I was supposed to meet a friend of mine in the area. He was late so I started walking around the block and the sight/smell of miles of books on bargain on the street lured me in like a bug to a light... :0). Needless to say, I spent most of my evening (along with my friend) browsing this amazing book store. I walked out with some really good deals on difficult to find photography books.