San Diego
April 29, 2023
We celebrated Independent Bookstore Day by visiting five independent bookstores around San Diego. One was an old favorite; the other four were new to us. Thirteen independent bookstores around the county joined in making this national trade association day into a weekend “Book Crawl.”
Meredith had heard about the Book Crawl through an email from Reading Legacies, a nonprofit organization.
The participating bookstores offered a map and passport for Crawl participants. Shoppers who visited and purchased something at three stores earned a free sticker. Other prizes included a tote bag (6 stores), a pin (9 stores), and a coffee mug (all 13 stores).
We have been loyal and enthusiastic customers of Mysterious Galaxy since its founding 30 years ago, so of course that was our first stop, in Loma Portal. They specialize in science fiction and mysteries. We went on to Bluestocking Books in Hillcrest, then Book Catapult in South Park. We finished the day in North Park, home of both Verbatim Books and Meet Cute Romance Bookshop.
We had almost forgotten how much fun it is to browse the offerings at a thoughtfully curated, well run independent bookstore. The time flew by, and it was the dinner hour before we called it quits, heading home with some new acquisitions to read. Looking forward to next year’s crawl! In the meantime, we try to support independent bookstores, both through in person shopping and also when we do online book shopping, by using bookshop.org rather than Amazon.
