Wednesday, May 21, 2025

The Houston Bookstore Crawl 2025: Candescent Books


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 was my third bookstore:

Candescent Books is a Black and woman-owned pop-up bookstore, founded by a reader who aims to build community around the infinite worlds and experiences created by fiction books and book-ish candles. I visited Candescent Books during a weekend in which it was at Native Coffee near downtown Houston.

@Candescentbooks
Open Saturday and Sunday 
at various locations around Houston



The week I visited the bookstore was open in the corner of a neighborhood coffeeshop.


The owner was friendly and helpful.


Here's what I bought!



11 comments:

  1. I've not heard of that one -- It will be fun to learn what you think!

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  2. I have only read Zevin’s book “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow”… I hope you enjoy this one! You are making me want to invent my own bookstore crawl.
    best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com

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  3. How fun that you got to visit and select a book from Candescent Books. I'll admit I've not visited a pop-up bookstore, but I would love to come across one. Enjoy your book!

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  4. It would be fun to hang out with you :-)

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    1. It would be fun to hang out with you :-) Maybe we can do so one of these days!

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  5. What Tina said. I love a good book store. Beautiful shots.

    Thank you for joining the Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop.

    Have a fabulous Wordless Wednesday. ♥

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  6. Interesting. Frankly, I had not heard of that bookstore or that book - more to explore.

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  7. I've read several books by Gabrielle Zevin (Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, and a three part young adult series in a future United States where chocolate is illegal and controlled by organized crime) but never The Storied Life...maybe one day. And maybe one day I can live in a place that has multiple indie bookstores, too.

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  8. I haven’t had the chance to visit a pop-up bookstore yet, but I’d love to stumble upon one someday. Hope you enjoy your book!

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  9. I like the idea of pop-up bookstores.

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I love to hear your thoughts.