In the spirit of Nobody Drives in LA’s 2017 Los Angeles Train Pub Crawl, the Car-Free Guide to the World Cup 2026, and Car-Free Guide to the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, we bring you: The Car-Free Guide to the 2026 Los Angeles Indie Bookstore Crawl. If you’re less familiar with the Bookstore Crawl than the Olympics or the World Cup — or even the Train Pub Crawl — don’t kick yourself too hard. There have been 23 World Cups and 30 Summer Olympic Games. This, on the other hand, is the inaugural Los Angeles Indie Book Crawl, so there’s been less press. But don’t sleep on it, either, because what could be more fun? The world needs more crawls!
The idea for the Los Angeles Indie Book Crawl originated with Jennifer Caspar, the owner-founder of Village Well in Culver City. She was inspired by the annual San Diego Book Crawl, launched in 2017 and sponsored by the Library Foundation SD. It typically takes place over three days in April, to coincide with Independent Bookstore Day (the final Saturday of each April). For the inaugural Los Angeles version, taking place between 24-26 July, thirteen independent bookstores will celebrate small businesses, community, and Los Angeles’s rich literary culture. As with the San Diego one, participants in the Los Angeles crawl will be able to pick up a passport at any participating location and then, with every purchase of $10 or more, collect a passport stamp. Participating stores will also offer exclusive merchandise, giveaways, and activities. The more locations you visit, the more prize tiers you accumulate. Anyone who collects stamps from all thirteen bookstores will be entered into a raffle for the grand prize: a $25 gift card to every participating store.
For the Bookstore Crawl, someone made a map that helpfully includes hours of operation and, less helpfully, information about car storage. Cars? I suppose you could say that the obscene over-reliance on cars in this city is why our transit — when denied signal preemption, grade separation, and dedicated rights-of-way — moves along at a snail-like speed that could be described as a crawl. Car-dependency is also is antithetical to the very spirit of a “crawl.” A bar/pub crawl is walking from bar-to-bar. Driving from bar-to-bar is psychotic.
Mass transit is for book lovers. Although it’s true that I have read some pretty thick books whilst walking, mass transit is the best option for book lovers and it just so happens that Los Angeles has the most extensive mass transit network of any county in the US. LA Transit Girlies, bus baddies, psychogeographic flâneurs, and Metro mamis who already navigate their 21st century metropolis with style and ease probably won’t need this guide but will hopefully appreciate it.This is more for the car-depenedant but transit-curious reader. There’s no way you prefer staring at brake lights and sitting in gridlock of your own making to reading a book and watching the city go by from the large window of a train or bus. This is your sign to take the plunge Nobody Drives in LA has got your back! Remember — everyone on the train was, at one point, a Tube Noob (except Stephen Merritt). Here’s what you’re going to do. Leave your land-yacht moored in the garage, download and familiarize yourself with the Transit App, consult this guide. If you have a transit-pilled friend, enlist them to be your transit buddy. Before you know it, you ill have successfully transformed your commute from Ballardian stress-scape into something romantic that you will actually look forward to.
Hopefully Metro (and other agencies) will get onboard this bookstore crawl next year. Another idea — Metro could design eki stamps for every station that could be used to fill the book crawl passport. Also — install book vending machines on your platforms and fill them with works by car-free (and car-lite) Angeleno writers like Charles Lummis, Mary Austin, Aldous Huxley, Thomas Mann, Ray Bradbury, Christopher Isherwood, Charles Bukowski, Eve Babitz, Octavia Butler, DJ Waldie, Geoff Nicholson, Geoff Dyer, and Yesika Salgado — plus books like Stairway Walks in Los Angeles (1990), A Guide to the Public Stairways of Los Angeles (2008), The Lost Art of Walking (2008), Secret Stairs (2010), Car-Free Los Angeles and Southern California (2012), Railtown (2014), Sidewalking: (2015), and Walking Los Angeles (2015). Metro Office of Strategic Innovation — we have more ideas and a brand new Patreon.
NOTE: If you’re only an occasional transit user, there are a couple of developments with which you may not yet be familiar. Metro transit fare is capped at $5 per day. You will not be charged more than that no matter how many trips you take in a day. TAP cards are still accepted by all of the transit operators you’ll use — except Metrolink. We’ll cross that trestle when we come to it. You can also now pay with a mobile wallet – but only for standard adult fares. Note: contactless pay also does not currently support senior, student, military, or LIFE discounts.
ANNABELLE’S BOOK CLUB LA (12200 Ventura Boulevard, Los Angeles)
Annabelle’s Book Club LA is in Studio City, a neighborhood that began life in 1910 as Laurelwood but the name of which changed after Mack Sennett moved his studio here from Edendale. The bookstore is located, specifically, in the comparatively walkable Silver Triangle district. It was founded as a pop-up by then-16-year-old high school student, Annabelle Chang, in 2022. The physical store opened on Black Friday of that year and is dedicated, primarily, to young adult literature. Note: Chang’s mother, Amanda Brown, wrote the novel Legally Blonde.
GETTING THERE
If you’re coming from elsewhere in the San Fernando Valley, you’ll have your own route to the book store but for most Angelenos, take the B Line to Universal City/Studio City Station. From there, take the Metro 240 Route west along Ventura Boulevard to the Ventura/Vantage stop. Look across the street for the Pepto-Bismol pink bookshop.
THE BOOK JEWEL (6259 West 87th Street, Los Angeles)
Karen Dial and her brother, Jim Drollinger, opened the Book Jewel in 2020 in Westchester. Its name honors their mother – an avid reader named Jewel. It has a large children’s section, many local history books, and an emphasis on highlighting authors of diverse backgrounds. It’s located inside a shopping center owned by the Drollinger family and, in addition to the books, there’s a demonstration kitchen, a cafe, an event space, and a rooftop deck garden. Dial and manager Sean Moor were featured on an episode of the podcast, We Need Each Other, titled The Book Jewel.
GETTING THERE
If you’re coming from the Westside, you’ll probably find a route that makes more sense for you, but most Angelenos will want to take the Metro K Line to Westchester/Veterans Station. From there, walk the short block to Isis/Manchester and take the Metro 115 Route west along Manchester for about fifteen minutes to Manchester/Truxton. Walk a few steps south along Truxton to 87th, and then turn right into Westchester Village, where you’ll find Book Jewel in the center.
BOOK SOUP (8818 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood)
Book Soup is located in West Hollywood’s Norma Triangle neighborhood. It was opened in 1975 by Glenn Goldman, who envisioned it as the “Bookseller to the Great and Infamous.” It specializes heavily in art, film, photography, and music.NOTE: Because of a recent rupture of a water main and catastrophic flooding, Book Soup is closed indefinitely. Check to see if it (hopefully) reopens by the time of the crawl!
GETTING THERE
If you’re coming from elsewhere in the Westside, your route will be different, but for most Angelenos, the best way to get to Book Soup is by taking the Metro B Line to Hollywood/Highland Station. From there, walk south on Highland Avenue for a couple of blocks to Sunset Boulevard and board the westbound Metro 2 Route from Sunset/Highland. Ride it about fifteen minutes west along Sunset Boulevard to Sunset/Horn and disembark. On the south side of the street is Book Soup, the entrance of which is flanked by something sadly increasingly rare – a news and magazine stand. If the book crawl continues far enough into the future, you’ll hopefully be able to take the extended K Line to a station within walking distance.
CHEVALIER’S BOOKS (133 North Larchmont Boulevard, Los Angeles)
Chevalier’s Books is located in the Larchmont Village section of the Windsor Square neighborhood. This charming stretch of Larchmont Boulevard, now largely surrendered to diagonally parked cars and (more appealingly) alfresco dining – originally developed around Los Angeles Railway’s 3 Line/R Line, which was instrumental in the development of the neighborhood. Honestly, it’s not at all a stretch to say that mass transit is why Larchmont Village exists. Joseph Chevalier opened his bookstore here, in 1940, to take advantage of transit traffic. Sadly, though, the last of the yellow cars passed through in 1941. The bookstore, however, is today the oldest continuously operating in the city. Also of note is a newsstand in the bookstore that opened after Above the Fold closed in 2025.
GETTING THERE
For most Angelenos, the best option is to ride the D to Wilshire/Western Station. From there, take the Metro 210 for a ten-minute ride north along Western Avenue and then west along Beverly Boulevard to Larchmont/Beverly. There, stroll just a bit south along Larchmont Boulevard to the bookstore, located on the west side of the street. While you’re there, you’ll want to grab a bit at some place nearby like Larchmont Village Wine, Spirits & Cheese; Great White, Max & Helen’s; or Village Pizzeria. If you come through on Sunday from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, you’ll be there in time to take advantage of the Larchmont Village Farmers’ Market.
CHILDREN’S BOOK WORLD & CBW TEENS AND ADULTS (10580 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles)
Children’s Book World & CBW Teens and Adults was founded by Sharon Hearn in 1986. It’s located in the Cheviot Hills neighborhood. It specializes in children’s literature, educational resources, and young adult fiction. It also boasts a large selection of audiobooks. Until 2023, when it was knocked down, the two halves of the store were separated by not just an ampersand, but a physical wall.
GETTING THERE
For most Angelenos, the best route is to take the Metro E Line to Westwood/Rancho Park Station. Walk a few steps north on Westwood Boulevard to Westwood/Ashby and take the Big Blue Bus 3 north along Westwood and east on Pico for about ten minutes to Pico/Prosser. Children’s Book World and CBW Teens and Adults is on the southwest corner of the intersection. Look for the book-juggling jester.
DIESEL, A BOOK STORE (225 26th Street Suite 33, Los Angeles)
Less informed writers will tell you that DIESEL, A Book Store, is in Santa Monica. This is inarguably wrong. It’s even obviously wrong. The bookstore is located in Brentwood Terrace, inside the Brentwood Country Mart. When this location opened in 2009, it replaced Dutton’s Brentwood. Reading is fundamental — got it? The brand was founded by John Evans and Alison Reid in 1989 with a focus on fiction, poetry, and art books. In 2024, this location was taken over by Richard and Heather Turner.
GETTING THERE
Had they not decommissioned it in 1940, you’d be able to take a Pacific Electric Railway (PE) red car right to your destination. Wide San Vicente Boulevard has been deprived of rail, though, in 1940. Hopefully rail will be restored someday but in the meantime, your best option is to take the E Line to 26th St/Bergamot Station and, from there, to take the Big Blue Bus 43 north along 26th Street for ten minutes to San Vicente/26th. Look for the red barn with the word, “B” (for Banta Monica?) on it.
MALIK BOOKS (6000 Sepulveda Boulevard Suite 1444, Culver City)
Note: there are two locations of Malik Books but only this one, in the Fox Hills neighborhood of Culver City, is participating in the bookstore crawl. The first location was founded by Malik and April Muhammad in 1990. This one opened in 2019. There’s a strong focus on black authors and self-help but also a selection of greeting cards and gifts. They also have a podcast called Malik’s Bookshelf.
GETTING THERE
If you’re coming from the north end of the South Bay, you might find a better route. For most Angelenos, though, the best route is the Metro K Line to Hyde Park Station. From there, walk a few stops north to Slauson/Crenshaw and take the Metro 108 west for about 25 minutes to Bristol/Green Valley, in front of the Fox Hills Mall (rebranded, currently, as Westfield Culver City). There may be a shorter single-seat ride from a train station than this one but, if there is, I haven’t been able to find it so do let me know if you find one. It’s been over a century since PE’s Venice-Inglewood Line served this location so maybe it’s time for a transit upgrade.
ONCE UPON A TIME (2207 Honolulu Avenue, Glendale)
Jane Humphrey founded Once Upon a Time in 1966, making it the nation’s oldest children’s bookstore. Many sources state that Once Upon a Time is in Montrose. It’s actually in the Montrose-Verdugo City neighborhood of Glendale. Montrose, on the other hand, is an unincorporated community which begins about half a block north of Verdugo Boulevard – although the border is shaped more like a Jack O’ Lantern’s teeth than a straight line. Culturally, though, Montrose-Verdugo has more in common with Montrose than Glendale, proper, and many residents and businesses there identify more with Montrose than Glendale except, perhaps, when voting.
GETTING THERE
Once Upon a Time is the hardest bookstore in this crawl to reach via transit – although it’s honestly not that difficult. If you’re coming from elsewhere in the Crescenta Valley or from within the San Fernando Valley, you may find an easier route. However, for most Angelenos, the best (and frankly, most fun) option is to take Metrolink – either the Antelope Valley or Ventura County line, to the historic and beautiful Glendale Transportation Center. Unlike less expansive transit agencies, Metrolink charges based on the distance of your travel and so can vary between $1.50 (if you’re coming from one stop away) to $15 (if you’re coming from, say, Oceanside). To pay, there are station ticket machines or you can download and pay on the Metrolink Mobile app.
From the Glendale Transit Center, board the Glendale Bee Line 8 Route and head north along Glendale and Verdugo boulevards to Verdugo/Calle Vaquero. From there, transfer to the Metro 90 north along Canada and Verdugo to Verdugo/Honolulu. The commute from the transit center should take about 35 minutes. It’s the longest ride on this itinerary – but not an unpleasant one, as for much of its length, it passes through a valley between the Verdugo Mountains and San Rafael Hills before bringing you to a walkable, charming area. If you have the time and thirst as you wait for the 90 to take you back down the hill, pop over to the Blue Moon Lounge, crack open a book, and drink a pint or two.
If two transfers is too many for you, you can also simply take the Metro 90 Route from near Union Station all the way to Once Upon a Time. It does require walking about ten minutes from the train station to Hill/Ord, though, and the bus ride takes about an hour. If it seems like there should be a train line directly to Montrose, you may be annoyed to learn that there used to be – from 1909-1920 – terminating at Honolulu Avenue a few blocks west of the bookstore.
{PAGES} A BOOKSTORE (904 Manhattan Avenue, Manhattan Beach)
{pages} a bookstore was founded in 2010 by Margot Farris, Linda McLoughlin Figel, and Patty Gibson. The three mothers, whose children grew up playing youth baseball, wanted to create a real life literary space as an alternative to a childhood centered around digital screens. Appropriately, given its South Bay location, there are numerous books about surf culture, oceanography, and coastal photography.
GETTING THERE
If you’re coming from elsewhere in the South Bay or Harbor District, you may find better routes, but for most Angelenos, the best route involves taking the Metro K Line to Douglas Station. From there, walk a few steps south to catch the Beach Cities Transit 109 Route, which you’ll ride for about fifteen minutes to Manhattan/10th where, upon disembarking, you’ll see {pages} a few doors down on the east side of Manhattan Avenue. If it seems like there should be a train serving this corner of the South Bay, your thinking was aligned with the PE board, who built the Redondo Beach-Del Rey Line between 1902 and ’03. It traveled the entire length of the southern half of Santa Monica Bay (i.e. the South Bay) until 1940. You may have plenty of time to reflect on that as headways on the Beach Cities Transit 109 Route range from 35-50 minutes. Check your departure time to avoid what could be an inexcusably long wait at the bus stop.
THE RIPPED BODICE (3806 Main Street, Los Angeles)
Sisters Leah Koch and Bea Hodges-Koch opened the Ripped Bodice in 2016 after launching a successful Kickstarter campaign. It is one of the first bookstores focused on romance novels. It’s explicitly designed to be a sex-positive, snobbery-free space for women and queer patrons.
In yet another (understandable and not that important) geographic error, most sources state that the Ripped Bodice is in Culver City. It’s actually in Palms. The invisible northern border of Culver City is located three storefronts south. I swear I’m not being pedantic but this geographic disinformation particularly irks me. Culver City has more than enough attractions to make it worth visiting without having to steal Palms’s thunder. Palms, meanwhile, is one of the best neighborhoods on the Westside in no small part because of its attractions that many falsely attribute to Culver City, including the Actors’ Gang, the Museum of Jurassic Technology, the Center of Land Use Interpretation, and even most of the Culver City Arts District. While you’re in the neighborhood, you should check them out! If you’ve been in the neighborhood before, pour one (or pass one to the left) for Carbon (2002-2025).
GETTING THERE
The best option is to take the E Line to Culver City Station (not Palms Station – I know) and then to walk southwest down Venice Boulevard to Bagley Avenue. Bagley becomes Culver City’s Main Street (I know). It takes about five minutes and I’ve done this exact walk to go to this bookstore, where my friend, Rena, gave a reading of her book, The Sex You Want. Since the Village Well is so nearby, you’ll probably want to walk to it from here rather than back to the train station. If you’re looking for romance, you could do worse than a train, by the way. If you find a stranger in your car, on the other hand… Just one more reason to leave the car behind!
SKYLIGHT BOOKS (1818 North Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles)
In a walkable area of Los Feliz known in the 1930s as Holly-Mont but generically rebranded “Los Feliz Village” during the regrettable village-ification craze of the 1980s and ‘90s. Skylight Books was opened in 1996 by a collective of local investors led by Kerry Slattery. It took over the location of another bookstore, Chatterton’s Bookshop, which had closed after its owner, William Koki Iwamoto, had died in 1994. The Skylight Books Arts Annex opened next door in 2008, taking over a former bakery. The centerpiece of the bookstore is a Frantoio olive tree that grows beneath the titular skylight. Employees at Skylight Books host a podcast series, SKYLIT Author Interviews and formed the Skylight Booksellers Union in 2021.
GETTING THERE
If you’re coming from the nearby Hollywood Hills, you’ll have your own route but for most Angelenos, the best option is to take the Metro B Line to Vermont/Sunset Station. After exiting the subway, just walk north for about ten minutes. After you pass Hollywood Boulevard, it’s a very pleasant stroll. In fact, you may wish to linger. From House of Pies at the north end over to Prospect Avenue in the south, there are so many businesses here that I’ve frequented over the years: Bru, the Dresden Room, Figaro Bistrot, Fred 62, Guac Daddy, the Los Feliz 3, Mirate, Palermo, Pattaya Bay, Sumi’s. Holly-Mont, sorry, Los Feliz Village, really warrants apprectiation.
VILLAGE WELL BOOKS & COFFEE (9900 Culver Boulevard Culver City)
Unlike the nearby Ripped Bodice, Village Well Books & Coffee is actually in Culver City – the Carlson Park neighborhood, to be precise. Carlson Park was originally Victory Park but was renamed after medical missionary and Culver City native, Paul Carlson, who was falsely accused of being a spy and murdered in Congo in 1964. The neighborhood’s bookstore was opened by Jennifer Caspar in 2021 and is notable for its selection of memoirs and the presence of a cafe for people who’d prefer to sit down and enjoy their tea or coffee over a book rather than photograph themselves sucking it out of a single-use plastic container as they drive. Village Well also produces its own podcast, which releases episodes every Wednesday.
GETTING THERE
The best way to visit is to walk from the Ripped Bodice south on Bagley to Culver Boulevard – where, up until 1940, you could’ve hopped on the Redondo Beach-Del Rey Line and gone all the way to {pages}. Instead, however, you’ll just walk. It’s only about four blocks. From here, you can either walk back to Culver City Station (about fifteen minutes) or north two blocks to Venice Boulevard, where a five-minute ride on Metro’s eastbound 33 Route will get you back there.
VROMAN’S BOOKSTORE (695 East Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena)
Adam Clark Vroman founded Vroman’s Bookstore in 1894, making it the oldest and largest independent bookstore in Southern California. Appropriately, it’s home to an on-site wine bar called 1894. It’s located in Pasadena’s Playhouse District, named (as you’d expect) after the nearby Pasadena Playhouse (founded in 1917). Also nearby – and worth a visit, is the new kid on the block, Canterbury Records, founded in 1956.
Vroman’s used to be located along PE’s 1906-1950 Oak Knoll Line, which operated from 1906-1950 but Vroman’s connection to trains runs even deeper than that. Vroman was a bibliophile who worked for sixteen years as a railroad agent for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company. In 1892, he and his new wife, Esther Griest, hopped aboard an Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe train and headed west from Illinois to California. They came as part of the Cold Rush with Griest hoping the dry air would cure her tuberculosis. She died, though, in 1894, and Vroman began selling his book collection.
GETTING THERE
Take Metro’s A Line to Lake Station. Walk south along Lake and west along Union Street for ten minutes to get to the bookstore. In the future, thankfully, you’ll be able to take Metro’s L Line (scheduled to open in late 2027/early 2028).
If you do visit any of these bookstores for the book crawl whether on foot, on a bike, on a bus, on a scooter, on a train – or by other car-free means (e.g. dirigible, ferry, cat-bus), let us know. And share what you’re reading on your commute!
Eric Brightwell 