Never Gonna Fall in Love Again

3/30/2025

Bruised Apple Books, Peekskill, NY

Something about independent-owned used bookstores makes them more exciting and adventurous than newer chain ones. Perhaps it’s the way they smell, or their quirky decorations—like an old Victorian-style chair, a red lamp shade, or stuffed birds hanging from the ceiling corners or the old jazz music playing in the background. A bookstore becomes even more inviting when it has a resident cat, like my ex-lover Carl Eklund had at his bookstore on King Street in Charleston, SC. During my college years, I first met Carl in his store, Harpagon Books, where his playful cat Mr. Pip was always eager to charm the customers—many of whom were attractive college students from the nearby College of Charleston on George Street. Among them were plenty of cute Southern boys with curly blond hair (like popular bad-boy Luke Spencer on General Hospital at the time) and tan skin and long legs in tight white shorts.

Peekskill’s Bruised Apple Books gives me the same feeling I had at Harpagon—a sense of eccentricity, warmth, and adventure. The owner, rumored to be a poet, adds to the bookstore's character. I’ve often wondered if his residence is upstairs, much like Carl’s arrangement, with the store below and living quarters on the second and third floors. Carl never fixed up the upstairs, but I loved its old-world charm—just like Charleston itself. The creaky floors and maze of rooms were perfect for wandering or curling up with the green pages of Herb Caen’s column in the San Francisco Chronicle.

I could spend all day in Bruised Apple Books, browsing through every book in its treasure trove. There’s an entire section on the history of Peekskill that I adore, alongside African American writers, world history, and American historical books. I’ve fallen in love with the old dime store paperbacks, once sold for a dime but now deemed collectibles at $6 apiece by the owner. Collectibles are delightful, I suppose, but I’m no collector—I prefer pulling them off the shelf to re-read. Imagine never opening Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, my peculiar Bible of life. I own four copies that have journeyed with me from state to state, and I expect to be buried with a copy near my head.

Rain or shine, you’ll find me in Bruised Apple Books at least twice a week…Bruised Apple also has an old phonograph album section with classic covers I find endlessly inspiring.😊