San Diego Book Crawl returns, bigger than ever

The San Diego Book Crawl returns this week for its sixth year, filling three days with prizes, special events and author signings (and of course books) at 13 indie bookstores throughout the county (view a map here). That's an increase of two new bookstores this year: Joyride Bookshop and Meet Cute.

The Book Crawl is organized collectively by all the local indie bookstores, falling on the weekend of the national Independent Bookstore Day, Saturday, April 29 through Monday, May 1.

According to one of the founding organizers of the Book Crawl, the Library Shop's Scott Ehrlig-Burgess, this year's growth reflects a culture of support for independent bookstores locally — and everywhere.

"When we started the Book Crawl, I think we had seven independent bookstores that were ABA — American Bookseller Association — members," Ehrlig-Burgess said. ABA membership is the main eligibility to be a store in the book crawl.

"We also have a whole bunch of other bookstores in town that are flourishing as well. But we went from seven that first year and this year we're up to thirteen. It's definitely a part of a national trend of independent bookstores kinda having a second life, which is super inspiring," Ehrlig-Burgess said.

New additions

One of the new additions, Joyride Bookshop, is the only dedicated children's bookstore in the crawl. It started out as a mobile bookstore, housed in a tiny, turquoise mini-truck, but recently moved into a permanent storefront in Liberty Station. Joyride will also be taking over operation of the New Children's Museum gift shop later this spring.

Courtesy of Joyride Bookshop

One of Joyride's owners, Susie Horn, said she and co-owner Katie Turner have long been devotees of the local indie bookstore scene.

"So to be able to join a community that we so admire really means so much," Horn said.

The shop features primarily board books through a small young adult selection. Horn is excited to meet new book lovers participating in the Book Crawl — particularly the younger ones — and they've cultivated a selection of books they hope will build life-long story lovers.

"We want all children who come to our store to be able to see themselves, their family, their culture reflected on our shelves. We believe that children deserve that. And at the same time, we want to provide stories that they've never encountered before, that get them thinking and questioning and curious and building empathy for other people in other situations that are different from their own. And we believe that books can do that in a beautiful way," Horn said.

Another new bookstore in the crawl is Meet Cute, a shop in North Park dedicated to the romance genre — one of just a handful of romance-focused bookstores in the entire country.

Meet Cute's owner Becca Title said she's excited to share their shop with more people in San Diego's "bookish crowd," as well as seeing their familiar customers on the weekend-long party. It comes at a time when reading feels more essential than ever.

"With book bans gaining traction across the country, it will be wonderful to have the opportunity to celebrate our love of indie bookstores with readers and indie bookstore friends," Title said.

Arts & Culture

Looking for love? New romance bookstore opens in North Park

Julianna Domingo

Listen • 1:24

Other 'firsts'

Barrio Logan's Libélula Books & Co joined the crawl for the first time last year, and will return for their second crawl this weekend. But the in-person collaboration with other bookstores was a new, welcome addition for co-owner Jesi Gutierrez this year, because most of the planning took place virtually last year.

"That just felt beautiful and exciting, especially exiting the height of the pandemic. So that felt really good to be able to be amongst fellow book nerds, kind of talking shop and dreaming about the possibilities of the return of the Book Crawl," Gutierrez said.

Courtesy of Libélula Books

Libélula has been a strong champion of San Diego-based writer Lizz Huerta's debut novel, "The Lost Dreamer." Huerta is the first official Book Crawl Ambassador, and her book is the crawl's first book club pick.

Local

Lizz Huerta's 'The Lost Dreamer' is inspired by Indigenous, Latinx culture and the power of story

Julia Dixon Evans

Listen • 8:11

"The Lost Dreamer" is a young adult fantasy novel informed by Mesoamerican history. A lineage of women known as "dreamers" can see a deeper truth. Libélula's Gutierrez said Huerta has "created something very magical."

"We see representation as integral in our ideals and our intention every day when we open up the shop, so the book is just highly celebrated by us as a little community in Barrio Logan. Being from a brown Chicana, indigenous queer author, that's in total alignment with our kind of representation in our ideology as a shop," Gutierrez said. "To top it off, like the beautiful cherry, of course, is that the book is phenomenal."

Huerta will make a series of appearances throughout the crawl.

"An aspiration was always to get local authors more involved with the crawl, because they're such an important part of supporting our local independent bookstores in town," Ehrlig-Burgess said. "We really have a lot more published authors than I think people realize. You know, LA is such a huge literary center, people just sort of assume that we don't have that culture down here — but we really do."

Though the crawl runs Saturday through Monday, not all bookstores are open each day and hours vary. See the list here.

To receive prizes, book crawlers can collect stamps on their official San Diego Book Crawl Passport as they shop at different participating bookstores, while supplies last.

The prizes include special stickers and tote bags designed by Burn All Books' Manda Bernal, and the annual special edition enamel pin designed again by San Diego-based illustrator and artist Susie Ghahremani.