Explore Houston bookstores during a monthlong Bookstore Crawl

Bookworms, get excited about a new challenge: exploring Houston's local bookstores on a unique crawl through the city.

State of play: 18 Houston-area bookstores have united for the first annual Houston Bookstore Crawl , encouraging book lovers to discover and visit indie bookstores.

How it works: Pick up a bookstore crawl card at one of the 18 bookstores. Get your card stamped or signed by each of the stores you visit through the end of April.

• Once you visit 10 of the booksellers, you can submit your card to any of the participating bookstores to be entered into a raffle for special gifts.
• Every store you hit after the first 10 counts as an additional entry. The cards must be turned in to a bookseller by the end of business on April 30.

The participating bookstores include pop-up bookseller Candescent Books , mystery bookstore Murder by the Book , and several in the suburbs like The Book Attic in Tomball and Copperfield's Books in Spring.

• Check out a map of the booksellers here.

The intrigue: Lit Java , a new indie bookstore in Pearland, has gained traction ahead of its April 27 grand opening thanks to anticipation from the book crawl. It opened early for limited hours and with a limited cafe menu before the grand opening.

What they're saying: "The fact that we've been getting attention on social media because of the crawl has been astounding, which is why we decided to have a few soft opening hours," says Angie Jackson, who co-founded the bookstore cafe with her friend Dewana Montgomery

from bookclub after dreaming up the concept two years ago.

The bottom line: Support Houston's vibrant book community.

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