Houston Bookstore Crawl 2025

For the month of April, local independent bookstores are participating in the second annual Houston Bookstore Crawl in connection with Indie Bookstore Day, Saturday, April 26th. Houston’s independent bookstore community has grown significantly in the last few years, and the Bookstore Crawl is a great way to check out some of these new stores as well as visiting longtime favorites. I love visiting indie stores to find great recommendations on books I might not find elsewhere as well as picking up fun bookish gifts. 

Here's how the crawl works:

1. At the first bookstore you visit, pick up your bookstore crawl card, which includes all of the local stores. Each time you visit a different store in the month of April, get your card stamped or signed by a bookseller at that store.
2. Visit as many of these stores as you can this month. Many will have a special bookstore crawl tote bag available for purchase. Limited quantities available. Grab one while you can. 
3. Support the stores you visit by posting on social media about your visit, telling your friends, leaving a great review, and making a purchase if you find something you like.
4. Use the hashtag #HTXBookCrawl2025 in any post you make.

If you visit 10 or more stores and get your crawl card stamped, you can enter a raffle for the chance to win some fun bookish gifts. The card must be dropped off by April 30th to be entered in the drawing.

Happy customers, pictured at Blue Willow Bookshop, enjoying the Houston Book Crawl. (Photo courtesy of Blue Willow Bookshop) 

The following bookstores are participating and many of them have information about the crawl on their social media as well as maps showing each store’s location: Basket Books & Art, Blue Willow Bookshop, Books Abound, The Book Attic, Books by the Bay, The Book Readers Venue, Brazos Bookstore, Buy the Book, Candescent Books, CLASS Bookstore, Copperfield’s Books, Dremers Books + Culture, Good Books in the Woods, Good on paper Books, Gulf Coast Cosmos Comics, Houston Book Warehouse, Kaboom Books, Katy Budget Books, Kindred Stories, LIT bookbar, Mossrose Bookshop, Murder by the Book, Then and Now Bookshop and Village Books.

Make sure you visit a store or two (at least) on Indie Bookstore Day because the stores will have special events, author visits and more on that day to celebrate the importance of these stores in our communities as well as the importance of literature.

I would love to hear about which stores you visit and what you found!