A quick photo essay celebrating Independent Bookshops and the 2026 DC Independent Bookstore Crawl.
At 10 a.m. this morning Candice and I set out to visit six area independent bookshops as part of the 2026 DC Independent Bookstore Crawl. I highlighted this event last Saturday on MORE TO COME so today’s post is a photo essay of our splendid adventure.
We began just north of Silver Spring in the bustling little downtown of Kensington Maryland, where in 90 minutes we visited three bookshops:
While there we chatted with the owners: James at Bergstrom Press & Books, Elisenda at Kensington Row Bookshop, and Melissa at Bonjour Books DC. It was so appropriate for multiple reasons that Candice found a copy of our friend Janet Hulstrand’s memoir for sale at Bonjour Books. That was the book that kicked off my Author Q&A series back in 2023, and Janet was the one who introduced us to this wonderful treasure in historic Kensington.
We then drove down to the heart of DC as we visited:
- Bold Forks Books in Mt. Pleasant,
- Lost City Books in Adams Morgan. and then wrapping up our tour at
- Kramers in Dupont Circle.
All three were packed with other “crawlers” and shoppers, but we had a chance to explore each and made plans to return later when we could spend more time in the stacks. The friendly staff at Bold Forks took time out to discuss future shopping opportunities and to pose for a photograph.
. . . while we made sure to document each visit with an in-store photo.
At Kramer’s, our sixth stop, we picked up our prizes—great looking Independent Bookstore Crawl tote bags—and ask a shopper to document the end of our tour.
Oh, did I mention that I had prepared a “shopping list” of recommended books, and we found seven of those treasures today (one is on back order). We were able to spread the wealth among all six stores.
We finished our crawl with a pizza and then stopped across the street at Second Story Books in Dupont Circle which I’ve already visited this year, just to add a seventh stamp to our collection.
I’ll write more about each of these stores when I review the books I purchased in those shops. For now, I just want to say thanks to all the wonderful booksellers and staff for making this such a grand day of celebration. As the t-shirt I wore today says, Knowledge is Power!
Keep reading!
More to come . . .
DJB
MORE TO COME... 