Lakeland's 3rd Annual 'Book Crawl' Begins Monday

Book lovers, take note: The third annual Lakeland Book Crawl starts Monday. The six-day celebration of local, independent bookstores highlights a different Lakeland shop each day from April 22-26, leading up to National Independent Bookstore Day on April 27.

Seven bookstores are participating in the 2024 Lakeland Book Crawl, touted as “a week of wanderlust: getting lost and found in a good book.” They are:

Bookends Used Books
The Unbound Bookery
Inklings Used Book Shoppe
Pressed Books & Coffee
Crash Bookshop
Little Bus Books
Bookareaderville, a new store opening Saturday at 2120 S. Combee Road, the former location of Inklings.

Brooklyn Lindsey, owner of Crash Bookshop and one of the founders of the event, said Lakeland is lucky to have so many different independent bookstores, but the shops can survive only with community support.

“Give each bookstore a chance to show you its unique characteristics,” she suggested. “Every bookstore in Lakeland has a very unique experience because of the people who started it.”

Here is a map with the locations and hours of operation for all of the participating bookstores.

The map was designed by local artist Danielle Douglin. Click here for a larger version.

Each store is offering deals on select days.

A much-needed boost

Lindsey said each shop represents the fulfillment of a dream, and the Book Crawl — which draws book lovers from as far as Tampa and Orlando — offers a much-needed boost to their businesses.

“Amazon makes it very easy to get books quickly and cheaply and it’s very difficult to compete with that and so we are just trying to raise awareness in how local bookstores create community, how they create culture, and how they add value to the places where we live,” Brooklyn Lindsey said.

“I appreciate the way our community has responded to the Book Crawl … We’re very grateful for how Lakeland has supported these little stores and the dreams behind them,” Lindsey said. “The first year of the Book Crawl, (my business) generated more revenue in that one day than it did in any other day of the year.”

“We are just trying to raise awareness in how local bookstores create community, how they create culture, and how they add value to the places where we live.”
Brooklyn Lindsey, owner of crash bookshop

Her business, Crash Bookshop, is a popup bookstore that specializes in creativity resources and is located inside Somos Church on US Highway 98 South where her husband, Coy Lindsey, is pastor.

According to Lindsey, she came up with the idea to have a Book Crawl when the booksellers gathered to meet each other in 2021. Many of the stores started their businesses around the same time, seeing a need in Lakeland for independent bookstores.

“I thought it was important for us to come together to create a Book Crawl. We have multiple bookstores in our community and not everyone is aware that they exist,” Lindsey said. “When I brought up the idea to have a Book Crawl, everyone was very excited and very willing to contribute.”

It can be a struggle to keep the book shop open, Lindsey said, as the upsell on books, especially new books, is minimal.

“Books are not a lucrative business. We don’t make a lot of money on books,” she said. “It’s very difficult unless you’re selling something like coffee or you have some other item that is generating revenue. New books are very very difficult to stay in the black. “

Lindsey used to open her store monthly but due to demands from her full-time job and raising children, she scaled it back to being open during the Book Crawl, around Christmas and for special events, which she publicizes on the shop’s Facebook page. Her store is always open online and she enjoys creating book lists throughout the year that cater to different topics.

“I like to focus on what’s happening in our world,” said Lindsey, adding her shop consists of about 80% new books and 20% used books.

“Every book that comes in for kids I’ve read. I keep a lot of children’s books.“ Lindsey said, adding that she’d love to hire someone to help her out in her shop but for now, she plans to stick to her pop-up format.