Philly Bookstore Crawl returns for its second year this Saturday, bringing discounts, giveaways, and author-led events to 40 small businesses throughout the Philadelphia area.
“It’s sort of run like a gigantic First Friday,” Eric Smith, the 42-year-old literary agent, author, and organizer of the crawl, told Billy Penn. There’s no set route to travel along, and in-store events vary across locations (scroll down for a full list of participating businesses and what they’re offering).
“There are neighborhoods with multiple bookstores within walking distance,” Smith said, counting three participating venues in Chestnut Hill and four in Fishtown.
“You could spend all day wandering around Center City going from the Book Trader to Brave New Worlds, over to Giovanni’s Room, down to Philly AIDS Thrift to rummage, up to Wooden Shoes on South Street,” he suggested.
Saturday’s event adds more than 10 participating businesses to last year’s inaugural crawl, including newcomers to the scene like Chestnut Hill’s Multiverse comic book store, and the Italian Market’s upcoming cookbook shop, Binding Agents, which will be hosting a preview in the form of an on-site pop-up.
“There’s just so much, and all the bookstores are wildly different, so I feel we’re very lucky,” Smith said.
The idea for the daylong event came to Smith after he and his wife left Philadelphia in 2014 for Richmond, Virginia, and then Ann Arbor, Michigan — both cities with an active independent bookstore scene and both featuring similar crawls. “I told my wife if we ever move back to Philly — which, of course, we ended up doing, because everyone moves back — that we should start one of these,” Smith recalled.
The couple returned to Philly in 2019, but plans for a crawl were put on hold due to the pandemic. When businesses began to reopen, Smith said, “there were a lot of indie bookstores that were launching GoFundMe’s to try and stay [afloat], and it felt like a good time to remind people these bookstores are here, and if we want to keep them here, let’s make sure we’re visiting.”
Organizing the initial crawl, he said, involved “a lot of awkward emails,” with Smith first reaching out to bookstore owners he was friends with, as well as publishers who generously sent free books for venues to use as giveaways. Without a driver’s license, he relied on Philly-based author Jiordan Castle, who’ll be participating in a writer’s talk at H&H Books in Fishtown, for help delivering this year’s free titles.
Smith, who has authored 11 books — most recently, With or Without You, a YA tale of two star-crossed teens caught between their families’ rival cheesesteak businesses — will also be participating in the crawl with a Q&A session at Kensington’s American Grammar cafe, covering publishing-industry topics like how to get an agent and pitch a book, and the current state of the literary market.
“It’s tough running independent bookstores,” he said, adding his hope that, if supporting small businesses isn’t enough to get people to come out, then giveaways, discounts, and author events might. Much of last year’s feedback, he said, came from attendees who shared that the crawl had gotten them to finally check out bookstores they’d long been meaning to visit.
“And that’s awesome, I love when that happens,” Smith said. “But, if we don’t go to these places, we don’t get to keep these places.”
For the latest updates, visit phillybookstorecrawl.com or follow @phillybookcrawl.
Participating stores
A Novel Idea
Four author book signing + giveaways!
1726 E Passyunk Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19148
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American Grammar
Publishing industry AMA with agents + editors at 10am!
2046 N Front St, Philadelphia, PA 19122
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Big Blue Marble
Picture book + kid-lit giveaway while supplies last
551 Carpenter Ln, Philadelphia, PA 19119
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Binding Agents
Enjoy a sneak peek of the shop!
908 Christian St, Philadelphia, PA
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Bindlestiff
4530 Baltimore Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19143
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Booked
Chestnut Hill breakfast + more!
8511 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19118
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Brave New Worlds
Book signing with Jadzia Axelrod
55 N 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA 19106
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Bristol Books + Bindery
Wine tasting + clothing discounts!
129 Mill Street, Bristol, PA 19007
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Capricorn Books
Laura Piper Lee signing
605 West Ave, Jenkintown, PA 19046
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Children’s Book World
Meet Pete the cat + get ice cream!
17 Haverford Station Rd, Haverford, PA 19041
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Du Bois-Robeson People’s Center
Virtual chat with Dr. Melissa Ford
4515 Baltimore Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19143
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Garland of Letters
10% discount on all books + a mystery box for the first 21 book buyers!
527 South St, Philadelphia, PA 19147
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Pat at Giovanni’s Room
Exclusive totebag giveaway
345 S 12th St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
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Harriett’s Bookshop
258 E Girard Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19125
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Healing While Black
Cookbook giveaway + more!
4111 Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia, PA. 19104
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H&H Books
An evening with Jiordan Castle, Alina Pleskova, Eshani Surya, and Joseph Earl Thomas
2230 Frankford Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19125
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Headhouse Books
Readings with Emma Copley Eisenberg, Eshani Surya, and Alyssa Songsiridej
619 S 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA 19147
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Hilltop Books
Mystery + thriller book giveaway
84 Bethlehem Pike, Philadelphia, PA 19118
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House of our Own Books
3920 Spruce St., Philadelphia, PA 19104
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Iffy Books
404 S 20th St. Philadelphia, PA 19146
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Inkwood Books
Meet Gail Priest + Shveta Thakrar
106 Kings Hwy E, Haddonfield, NJ 08033
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Julia de Burgos Bookstore
2600 N 5th st, Philadelphia, PA 19133
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The Last Word Bookshop
220 S 40th st, Philadelphia, PA 19104
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Lot 49
408 E Girard Ave, 19125
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Main Point Books
Philly bookstore crawl after party
116 N Wayne Ave, Wayne, PA 19087
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Making Worlds Cooperative Bookstore & Social Center
210 S 45th St, Philadelphia, PA 19104
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Mavey Books
Book signings with karen tang, dana kramaroff, and jamilah t. Bigelow
8 Cricket Ave, Ardmore, PA 19003
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Miscellanea Libri
Signings with Boney Atlas and Dr. Mercedes Osakwe
454 E Girard Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19125
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Molly’s Books & Records
1010 S 9th St, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Mostly Books
529 Bainbridge St, Philadelphia, PA 19147
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Multiverse
Chestnut Hill breakfast + more!
8026 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19118
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Narberth Bookshop
221 Haverford Ave, Narberth, PA 19072
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Neighborhood Books
1906 South St, Philadelphia, PA 19146
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Open Book Bookstore
7900 High School Rd, Elkins Park, PA 19027
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Partners & Son
Book crawl after concert! Michael Foster solo (saxophonist), and duo with Victor Vieira-Branco (vibraphone) with Anne Ishii (drums) 6–9pm $10–$15 suggested donation at door
618 S 6th St, Philadelphia, PA 19147
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Umoja House
6338 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19144
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Uncle Bobbies
5445 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19144
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Wooden Shoe Books
Just Seeds poster giveaway
704 South St, Philadelphia, PA 19147
