On Saturday, October 28th, seven independent bookstores on Manhattan’s Lower East Side will celebrate the diversity and resilience of the neighborhood’s indie bookshops by offering discounts, special giveaways, and curated selections of spooky seasonal books.

After the success of the past few years, the book crawl returns! This year it will feature many of the original shops, as well as new additions book lovers may not have explored yet. Joining Bluestockings will be neighborhood favorites: Book Club Bar, a cozy bookshop also offering a cafe and full bar; Sweet Pickle Books, a wonderfully quirky shop that honors the neighborhood’s history of pickling by selling pickles in addition to used books; Yu and Me Books, the first female Asian-American owned bookstore in NYC that focuses on curating diverse voices and immigrant stories; Printed Matter/St. Mark’s, a mainstay in the neighborhood offering a wide selection of art books; P&T Knitwear, a bookstore and podcast studio that opened just last year; and our newest addition to the crawl, Village Works, a bookshop on Saint Marks that features books on NYC history, culture, and art.

Each bookstore will offer discounts and perks (such as free merchandise and free snacks) throughout the day. Visitors can go to the bookstores in any order between the hours of 12:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.; no reservations required. Costumes encouraged! Visitors of all ages are welcome to join (although there are no specific activities planned for kids).