San Diego book crawl spotlights indie bookstore surge
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Proceeds from the Library Shop Mission Hills support local libraries. Photo: Kate Murphy/Axios
Peruse the shelves of San Diego's independent bookstores this weekend during the city's annual book crawl.
The big picture: The three-day, self-guided tour is the local celebration of Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday. Thousands of shops nationwide are participating with prizes, activities and exclusive books.
How it works: From Saturday to Monday, visit one of 15 locally owned bookstores and make a $10 purchase to get a map, passport and your first stamp.
- Collect stamps at each shop to earn prizes designed by local artists, including stickers, patches and pins.
- Authors Kiersten White and Minh Lê are doing book signings at different shops throughout the weekend.
- Find pro tips on Instagram.
📚 New additions to this year's lineup:
- Library Shop SD in Mission Hills opened in December to support local libraries, which are now facing steep budget cuts.
- Bird Rock Bookshop in La Jolla is all about the kids.
- The Book Place in La Mesa offers a wide selection of used books, plus comics, puzzles and games.
State of play: Indie bookstores are seeing renewed growth across the country, and creating third spaces that build community in our increasingly isolated world.
- The number of independent bookstores nationwide jumped by nearly 70% in the past five years, per the American Booksellers Association (ABA) via Fast Company.
- And nearly three-fourths of booksellers saw sales rise between 2024 and last year, ABA found in its most recent member survey.
What's next: See the bookstore resurgence in action at this weekend's party, which the ABA says drew record interest last year.