Photograph courtesy The Bookery
Book fans, mark your calendars from October 3–5—the Cincy Bookstore Crawl is here. The 23 participating shops will be extending their hours and offering activities for this three-day literary extravaganza . On Friday, all stores are open from 11 a.m.–8 p.m. and 10 a.m.–5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Some stores will have exclusive specials, with Bike Trail Books offering official t-shirts and the Book Bus Depot offering a yoga session on Saturday.
The Crawl, now in its third year, started when Bookery owner Sierra Hollabaugh received a call from a volunteer at Book Bus in Sharonville asking to arrange such an event. The intention to create such an event was as simple as bringing together a large community of readers and unite local bookstores. Last year alone, 1,400 visitors came to the Bookery.
Photograph courtesy The Bookery
Participating business owners have also seen the Crawl as a way to boost awareness of their shops and build out their year-round customer base. Joy & Matt’s Books is participating for the third time this year, and co-owner Haixia “Joy” Nu is looking forward to a new horde of book lovers the event brings in. “We were just two bookstore nerds trying to open a bookstore after the pandemic,” Nu says. The shop is also bringing in authors Emily Jane and Yume Kitasei on Friday and Jordan S. Keller on Saturday for Crawl-exclusive signings.
“People are just so excited to be around other people who read books,” says Isa Fernandez, store director of The Bookmatters. “A group of women flew in from Florida just for this [last year.]”
This year, there will also be a contest to visit every store for the chance to win prizes. You can print out the special passport online and get it stamped at every stop. Each stamp enters the participants into a prize drawing, with a “Super Crawler” drawing for more those that visited 16 or more bookstores. Prizes include a $35 gift card to every shop, a basket of books which has each shop’s book of choice with a personalized note, an annual membership to the Mercantile Library, and more. Drawings will take place by Sunday evening.
The Cincy Bookstore Crawl takes place Oct 3-5. Check out the map and full list of participating stores here.