Return of the Greater Charlotte Book Crawl

March 20, 2023 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

For the second year in a row, many of the independent bookstores located in the Charlotte area are working together during the month of April on a project they call the Greater Charlotte Book Crawl.  Their collaborative book crawl will culminate on April 29, 2023, which is Indie Bookstore Day.  These participating bookstores are encouraging area readers to visit each other’s businesses and get to know what makes each bookstore unique.  For more information about the book crawl, please click on the following link:  https://greatercharlottebookcrawl.com/

Beginning April 1, bookstore lovers can pick up Greater Charlotte Book Crawl (GCBC)
passports at any of the fifteen participating bookstores. Each visit to one of the bookstores during the month of April earns the crawler a new stamp.  The ultimate goal is for participants to visit all fifteen stores. Each “finisher” will earn a special edition GCBC decal designed by Davidson artist Lily Clark. The finishers simply need to show a completed passport at any participating bookstore. Finishers can also submit a photo of their completed passport to be entered in a drawing for the Grand Prize: a collection of gift cards from each of the bookstores.

Last year I visited several of the participating bookstores during the Greater Charlotte Book Crawl, but I did not earn the distinction of being a finisher. However, my friend and university colleague Greg Weeks succeeded in visiting all of the last year’s participating bookstores, and he still has the completed passport to prove it.  I contacted Greg and asked him about his experiences with last year’s book crawl.  Here is what he sent to me:

I am a lifelong lover of bookstores (and especially independent used bookstores), and so last year when I happened to see the news about the Greater Charlotte Book Crawl, I was immediately on board. Nonetheless, I didn’t think I would have time to visit all 11 bookstores in a single month, particularly since a few were quite a drive from my home.

What I found was that once I started, I just had to finish it. It was a great excuse to go places I hadn’t been before, connected by a love of books. The most unique was Shelves, a popup bookstore focusing on African American books. The owner, Abby, had set up at Enderly Coffee in west Charlotte. I bought Daniel Black’s Don’t Cry for Me, which I had never heard of before but ended up recommending to family and friends (and now to anyone reading this).

This year, there are 15 bookstores, even into South Carolina, and my initial reaction is that I don’t have time to do that many in one month. I recently mentioned it to my wife and my teenage daughter, both of whom laughed and assumed I would end up going to them all.

As part of the Greater Charlotte Book Crawl, the participating bookstores are collecting donations for Promising Pages, a Charlotte nonprofit organization that provides area children with their own books.  For more information about Promising Pages, please click on the following link:  https://promising-pages.org/

I urge everyone to participate in this year’s Greater Charlotte Book Crawl by visiting the participating bookstores. Here is the full list of these stores:

The Charlotte area is fortunate to have so many indie bookstores.  Each one of them helps make Storied Charlotte a special place for readers and writers.