Wednesday, May 28, 2025

The Houston Bookstore Crawl 2025: Basket Books & Art


I was delighted to participate in the Second Annual Houston Bookstore Crawl #HTXBookCrawl25 in April. Here is a map I made of the twenty-five indie bookstores in the Houston area.


How it worked: I picked up a crawl card at Then & Now Bookstore in Galveston, one of the 25 participating stores. I got my card stamped or signed by each of the stores I visited through the end of April. Once I visited 10, I submitted my card to any of the participating bookstores to be entered into a raffle for gifts. Every store I hit after the first 10 counts as an additional entry. The cards had to be turned in by the end of business on April 30.


April 26 was Indie Bookstore Day, and indie bookstores all over the US hosted events. Take a look at the map here to see what events were held in April.

Say hello to the Participating Bookstores:

Basket Books & Art · Blue Willow Bookshop · Books Abound · The Book Attic · Books by the Bay · The Book Readers Venue · Brazos Bookstore · Buy the Book · Candescent Books · CLASS Bookstore · Copperfield's Books · Dreamers Books + Culture · Good Books in the Woods · Good on Paper Books and Stationery · Gulf Coast Cosmos Comics · Houston Book Warehouse · Kaboom Books · Katy Budget Books · Kindred Stories · LIT bookbar · LIT Java Coffee & Books · Mossrose Bookshop · Murder by The Book · Then & Now Bookshop · Village Books

I visited twelve bookstores in April. 

Here is my fourth bookstore:

Basket Books & Art is an independent bookstore inside the Montrose area of Houston. It specializes in literature, art, and thought. Owners Laura Hughes and Edwin Smalling say, "Our goal is to offer a unique context in which art and books can co-mingle in exciting ways, opening up alleyways of conversation. We aim to provide a space for creative and intellectual exchange through our inventory and programming, and to offer Houston’s diverse arts and intellectual communities something for the mind, a portal to the world of art, writing, and thought writ large.”

Basket Books & Art
115 Hyde Park Blvd., Houston, Texas




All these are poetry books.


A gallery upstairs



What I bought.







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10 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 28, 2025 at 2:09 AM

    NancyElin: 25 bookstores? I have just one in my town! What a great project....love bookstores!

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  2. JeanieMay 28, 2025 at 7:49 AM

    It's nice that they have a gallery, too. Love the color on your new collection of poems!

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  3. Mae TravelsMay 28, 2025 at 8:47 AM

    Books! We can’t live without them. Though I admit that mostly I read eBooks these days.

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  4. SandeeMay 28, 2025 at 8:48 AM

    Wow, that's a lot of bookstores. I would love to do this crawl. Fun. Books are the very best form of entertainment.

    Thank you for joining the Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop.

    Have a fabulous Wordless Wednesday. ♥

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  5. Mary KirklandMay 28, 2025 at 3:11 PM

    Sounds like you had a good time.

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  6. sherryMay 28, 2025 at 7:00 PM

    I love bookshops! especially indie bookshops. Our local one is a hub for lots of people, as is our local library. Long may they last :)

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  7. Melissa WillisMay 28, 2025 at 7:31 PM

    I've been so inspired by your crawl that I'm really going to try to take a trip to see my bestie in Houston next April. I think we'd have a blast together hitting as many spots as possible :-)

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  8. messymimiMay 28, 2025 at 9:44 PM

    I like the idea of a bookstore to foster an intersection between art and books.

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  9. LyzzyBeeMay 29, 2025 at 3:16 AM

    What a super lot of bookshops in one city! This one looks lovely. And hooray Wendy Cope, one of my favourite poets. I have her Collected Poems tbr.

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