Michelle Chan has always loved reading. After working at Book People Post College, she currently works for books under the marginalized je, and last year she co-founded the Austin Texas Book Trail.
This weekend, the second annual book trail highlights 29 local independent bookstores spanning Lockhart and Taylor. Last year, Zhang said that at least 400 people were on the trail, with some stores reporting revenues increased between $5,000 and $8,000 a day. Trail map.
“Jackie (Langer) and Michelle are doing this amazing thing for the city,” said Savannah Jones, co-founder of Idol Handbook. “They talk about Austin’s literary spirit, and they It embodies that. ”
The first idea for The Trail sparked in 2023 when Zhang was working for Bookpeople. One of her colleagues said her colleagues were doing their annual bookstore crawls from 2017 to 2019, but it stopped when Covid was hit. Chang wanted to get it back, so the Austin Texas book trail was born with the help of Jackie Rangel, founder of Read Write Austin, a local literary news source.
“Our main goal is to raise awareness among all the different bookstores in town,” Zhang said. “It was really cute to see (they) say they’re going to the bookstore and someone else has a trail map (and start a conversation). So we’re Do that. ”
Idol Hand, a pop-up bookstore created by Jones and her partner Zack Schlossberg, can be found on this year’s Trail as part of Austin (Used) book Collective. Jones said the community feels very close.
“(a) If there’s no decision on the space for something, we’ll make that space as much as we can,” Jones said. “Maybe it’s a reading in your garden or selling your books on your pouch. …It’s just being creative and weird.”
Besides selling the book, Jones said he looks forward to visiting another store on the trail, the book under the marginalized Ma.
“Our stores are a little different from most bookstores because we specialize in small presses and translation works,” says Melynda Nuss, the owner of the book under the marginalized je. “Your favorite bestseller, the New York Times (bestseller or famous Book of the Year is here. It’s a little more unusual to find.”
This year, the event will be held over two days. Last year, on the only day of the trail, Nuss said the store had experienced a huge turnout.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” Nass said. “The moment we opened the door, we were just stuffed with people.”
Jordan Steyer of First Light Books worked on Book Trail Day last year and said he hopes to gain more support from the community this year.
“I was surprised that people were (really) reading,” Stayer said. “It’s nice to see how many bookstores there are in Austin. I went to journalism school too. I always think “the prints are dead,” but how about this all happening? ”
