13 bookstores, one weekend and a $325 grand prize: L.A.’s first book crawl is here

Los Angeles bookworms, clear your weekend plans: L.A.’s inaugurial Indie Book Crawl is kicking off this weekend.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 13 indie bookstores across the city and beyond are joining forces for an inaugural celebration of local literary culture. While the lineup looked to be reduced after West Hollywood’s iconic Book Soup closed indefinitely due to a water main break, event organizers say they plan to reopen for the crawl.

Richard Turner, who owns Diesel in Brentwood, was among a small group of store owners who decided to organize the event.

“We’d been talking about this for about a year,” Turner said. “The goal is … to get real books in the hands of people who still want to read them.”

Turner and his peers originally drew inspiration from San Diego’s book crawl, which just had its ninth anniversary. Now, the event has 15 participating stores and a shuttle service to take participants to each location.

Similarly to that crawl, L.A.’s will feature a passport system, which involves delegating stamps for every purchase of $10 or more at each stop. Shoppers will also win prizes along the way, such as tote bags, pins, stickers and a free audiobook.

For those who hit all bookstores — with stamps to show for it — the grand prize awaits: a raffle entry for a $325 gift card.

Some legacy institutions show up on the list of L.A.-area stores, such as Vroman’s in Pasadena and Chevalier’s in Larchmont, but there are also a few niche inclusions, like children’s bookstores Once Upon A Time in Montrose and Children’s Book World in Cheviot Hills and Culver City’s classic romance read haunt, the Ripped Bodice.

Though the L.A. area is home to scores of bookstores, a crawl isn’t exactly walker-friendly. For instance, if some bookworms want to stick to the west of downtown, they’ll still be in for quite a trip. Diesel in Brentwood, Malik Books in Culver City, the Book Jewel in L.A.’s Westchester neighborhood and Pages in Manhattan Beach are all near the coast, but to visit all would mean bouncing around in your car, inevitably hitting traffic along the way.

Chevalier’s Books in Larchmont will participate in this weekend’s L.A. Indie Book Crawl.

(Shelby Moore / For The Times)

“It’s such a big metro area, and the idea that you need to drive around and visit all the stores in a weekend … we’re trying to make it an achievable goal,” Turner said. He added that if folks visit at least more than one independent bookstore, that counts as a crawl.

Turner said that indie bookstores in L.A. are a closely knit group, one that is “remarkably collaborative and collegial.” They want each other to succeed, as they recognize the importance of the bookstore’s role as a third space. Or a physical location where people can gather and connect, outside of home, work or school.

Rather than merely serving as an establishment where people are in and out the door, Turner said bookstores invite customers to stay.

“We’re not just selling books; we’re a place where community gathers,” he said.