Southern California readers have another reason to head to the bookstore.
In fact, they have 13 reasons.
Next weekend, Friday through Sunday, July 24-26, the inaugural Los Angeles Indie Book Crawl will encourage readers to visit 13 area independent stores (all of which will already be familiar to readers and book cartographers who’ve studied our Southern California bookstore map).
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The 13 participating bookstores are Studio City’s Annabelle’s Book Club LA; Westchester’s The Book Jewel; West Hollywood’s Book Soup; Larchmont Village’s Chevalier’s Books; West Los Angeles’s Children’s Book World & CBW Teens & Adults; Santa Monica’s diesel, A Book Store; Culver City’s Malik Books; Montrose’s Once Upon A Time; Manhattan Beach’s pages: a bookstore; Culver City’s The Ripped Bodice; Los Feliz’s Skylight Books; Culver City’s Village Well Books & Coffee; and Pasadena’s Vroman’s Bookstore.
“We’re modeled after the very successful book crawl in San Diego. For all the bookstores, it’s just a great opportunity to get out of our own little bubbles and work together,” Dan Graham, promotional director for Book Soup and Vroman’s Bookstore, said during a phone call this week.
“We’ve heard this narrative that indie bookstores are closing, and it hasn’t been true for years. We want to change the narrative to show that indie bookstores are thriving. We just need people to realize there is a very healthy indie bookstore ecosystem.”
Jennifer Caspar, founder and owner of Culver City’s Village Well Books & Coffee, reinforced the idea in a statement.
“Independent bookstores are having a resurgence,” says Caspar via email. “People still like to browse, touch and see physical books, and hang out in stores that are third places, where community and culture – and sometimes coffee! – meet.”
Here’s how the crawl will work for those who want to participate in the passport program: Visit any one of the bookstores anytime between July 24-26, make your first purchase of at least $10 and you’ll receive a Book Crawl Passport and first passport stamp. Then continue on to the other bookstores (in any order you choose) and make a purchase of $10 or more at each stop to receive another stamp.
According to organizers, there are potential prizes and exclusive merchandise available at every store, and the more you visit, the more potential prizes there are.
“The hope is that this will grow significantly year over year,” says Graham. “That this will be successful and more stores will want to join, and we’ll make room for more.”
For more information, visit www.laindiebookcrawl.
Map: 100 Southern California independent bookstores to visit in 2026