Michelle Zhang always loved reading. After working at BookPeople post-college, she now works at Alienated Majesty Books, and last year, she co-founded the Austin Texas Book Trail.
This weekend, the second annual book trail highlights 29 local, independent bookstores spanning from Lockhart to Taylor, including brick-and-mortar stores alongside used book pop-ups. Last year, Zhang said at least 400 people participated in the trail, with some stores reporting increased sales of $5,000 to $8,000 per day — and one book lover marked off 19 bookstores on the trail map.
“Jackie (Rangel) and Michelle are doing this awesome thing for the city,” said Savanna Jones, Idle Hands Books co-founder. “They talk about the literary spirit of Austin, and they’re embodying that.”
The first idea for the trail sparked in 2023 when Zhang worked at BookPeople. One of her co-workers mentioned their colleagues had held an annual bookstore crawl from 2017-2019, but it stopped when COVID hit. Zhang wanted to pick it back up, so the Austin Texas Book Trail was born with the help of co-founder Jackie Rangel, founder for Read Write Austin, a local literary news source.
“Our main goal is to increase awareness of all the different bookstores that are here in town,” Zhang said. “It was really cute to hear from people saying (they) would go to a bookstore, then see someone else holding the trail map (and start a conversation). That’s why we do it.”
A pop-up bookstore created by Jones and her partner Zack Schlosberg, Idle Hands, can be found as part of the Austin (Used) Book Collective on this year’s trail. Jones said she feels the book community is very close-knit.
“If there isn’t (a) determined space for something, then you make space for it where you can,” Jones said. “Maybe that’s doing a reading in your yard or selling your books on your porch. … Just being creative and being weird.”
Aside from selling books, Jones said she looks forward to visiting Alienated Majesty Books, another store on the trail.
“Our store is a little different than most bookstores because we specialize in small presses and works in translation,” said Alienated Majesty Books owner Melynda Nuss. “You won’t find your favorite best seller, your New York Times (Bestseller or) notable book of the year here. What you’ll find is a little bit more unusual.”
This year, the event will run over two days. Last year, on the only day of the trail, Nuss said the store experienced a huge turnout.
“We had no idea what to expect,” Nuss said. “The minute we opened our doors, we were just packed with people.”
First Light Books’ Jordan Steyer worked on the day of the book trail last year and said she expects to garner more support from the community this year.
“I was surprised that people were (really) reading,” Steyer said. “Seeing how many bookstores are in Austin is nice. I went to journalism school, too, and it’s always like, ‘print is dead,’ but how if all this is happening?”
