By Mark I. West
April 26, 2022
Photo: The Urban Reader
On Saturday, April 30, Indie Bookstore Day will take place for the first time in Charlotte. While the event has been around for years, it’s the first year Charlotte is participating on a grand scale. In preparation for this event, a number of Charlotte-area independent bookstores have been working together on a month-long project that they call the Greater Charlotte Book Crawl.
One of the organizers of Indie Bookstore Day Halli Gomez from Park Road Books is excited about the event and the sense of community it brings. “As owners and employees of these bookstores, we love what smaller local shops offer and how they are a part of the community. Readers who frequent independent bookstores are not only in love with books and reading, but also the personal attention and knowledge they receive when visiting,” said Gomez.
Eleven participating bookstores are encouraging Charlotte-area readers to visit the businesses and get to know what makes each one unique.
Adah Fitzgerald, the owner of Main Street Books in Davidson echoed that sentiment. “Our customers love bookstores, not just ours. The Greater Charlotte Book Crawl is a celebration of those customers: the ones that love the unique personality of each indie bookstore.”
As part of the Greater Charlotte Book Crawl, the participating bookstores are also collecting donations for Promising Pages, a Charlotte non-profit organization that provides free books to under-resourced children and families in the Charlotte community.
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The Charlotte area is fortunate to have many independently owned bookstores. These stores not only provide readers with a wide variety of books and related materials, but they provide a level of customized service that online shopping cannot match. Many also sponsor book signings, readings and special events that add to the cultural vitality of the larger community.
Like many local businesses, these bookstores were hit hard by the pandemic. As customers stopped shopping in stores, many struggled to survive. Now that customers are starting to come back, it’s crucial for shoppers to support local. By collaborating on the Greater Charlotte Book Crawl, these stores hope to drive traffic to their own stores and promote literature and reading in the community as well.
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Check out more information on Indie Bookstore Day and the Greater Charlotte Book Crawl.
The following bookstores are participating in the book crawl:
The Urban Reader (Charlotte)
Park Road Books (Charlotte)
Shelves Bookstore (Charlotte)
That’s Novel Books (Charlotte)
The Book Rack (Charlotte)
I’ve Read It In Books (Charlotte)
Main Street Books (Davidson)
Walls of Books (Cornelius)
Second Look Books (Harrisburg)
Goldberry Books (Concord)
Editions Bookstore and Coffee Shop (Kannapolis)
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