Someone once said that the soul of a city is its bookstores. Well, odds are, someone at some point said something like that — and they weren't wrong. Unfortunately, the independently owned bookstore has largely gone the way of the dodo bird, run into the ground by soulless big-box bookstores, and, of course, Amazon. But indie stores are not all gone, and the ones that have managed to hold on this long must be doing something very, very right. Big Apple Bookstore is one such establishment. Established in Oakland Park in 2005 and relocated to Fort Lauderdale in 2012, Big Apple is primarily a used-book store. While some local shops have survived by specializing (like Murder by the Beach in Delray), Big Apple has remained a generalist, offering fiction, romance, science fiction, children's, self-help, business, etc., as well as CDs, DVDs, and even vinyl records. To top it off, everything in the store is $4 or less. A self-described "quaint" shop, Big Apple invites you to browse the aisles at your leisure. And it's got to get those used items from somewhere, so it buys and accepts trade-ins, but always call ahead when you've got something to unload.
Readers' Choice: Murder on the Beach Bookstore