The Utah Indie Bookshop Crawl is kicked off on the last Saturday of April every year to coincide with Independent Bookstore Day. Participants have a year to get stamps from participating bookstores across Utah to earn a prize. Apparently, it’s been happening a few years, but I only learned about it this year (probably because I don’t spend much time on social media). You can get a map of the stores to put your stamps on if you go to one of the participating bookstores on Independent Bookstore Day. I missed this, so I printed out my own map.

Most of the bookstores are located not too far from I-15, so they’re mostly easy to get to. The bookstore in Moab will be the most out-of-the-way one for me. I live in Salt Lake City where most of the bookstores are located, but I’m saving those for later. I actually started my bookshop crawl in St. George and Cedar City since my family happened to be in the area during our trip to see the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

It’s been fun seeing all the different independent bookstores in Utah. Some are located in strip malls and some have enormous buildings to themselves, but many of them are located in repurposed single family houses, giving them a nice homey feel.

There’s a lot of variety. Confetti Antiques and Books in Spanish Fork is an antique store that also sells books. Mosaics Resource Center in American Fork is an LGBT+ resource center that also sells books. Bookdom Apothecary in Cedar City sells incense and tarot cards in addition to books. Planted in Pages in Provo sells plants in addition to books. Many of the bookstores display pride flags, which isn’t surprising for liberal Salt Lake, but is surprising for the smaller towns in rural Utah.

It’s socially awkward to go to the bookstore, get the stamp, and leave without buying anything, so it’s good that most of them sell stuff besides books. None of the booksellers have pressured me to buy anything, of course, but I always feel weird when I go to a store and leave without buying something. So far, I’ve bought something at each store I’ve visited, but only two books so far. I love books, obviously, but I don’t want to buy 23 new books during this bookshop crawl while my TBR pile is so high already.

More recently, I visited Grandpa’s Bookshelf in Logan which sells used books and 3 Goats Gruff, an antiques/bookstore in Brigham City. We visited during Brigham City Peach Days so it was incredibly crowded (they have the largest car show in the West plus everything else going on). My family also went to the super-crowded Swiss Days in Midway the previous weekend, but I realized too late that there’s a bookstore there I didn’t visit. I guess we’ll have to go back again before April.

Anyway, I don’t know if I’ll end up visiting all the bookstores or not by the deadline, but it’s fun to see that there’s so many amazing independent bookstores in my neck of the woods. Each one is unique and worth checking out. Plus, it’s fun to do a statewide scavenger hunt like this. It’s a lot of driving, so it’s not the sort of thing I plan on doing every year, but it’s worth doing at least once.