Although part of the East Village neighborhood, the Strand Bookstore is located two blocks south of Union Square. The now largest independent bookstore in New York City was born in 1927, and widely known for hosting "18 miles of books" across four floors. The uniqueness of the Strand Bookstore comes from the fact that, under a single roof, customers can either spend one to few thousands of dollars for a single book, within a diversity of 2.5 million new, used and rare books. Thanks to the dedication of the Bass family and their employees, booklovers seem as passionate as booksellers. Many celebrity employees have worked at the Strand Bookstore, including Patti Smith and Tom Verlaine (who later became one of their best customer).