Cellar Door Books in Riverside, Calif., "has been using their remaining copies of the Independent Bookstore Day Literary Map of the United States to provide a summer reading challenge for customers," Bookselling This Week reported. The store's "Literary Travelogue Challenge" asks customers to collectively read all 52 books listed on the map (Texas and California each have two books) before the end of the summer. The shop plans to host a Literary Travelogue party with pizza and book discussions later this year for readers who meet the challenge.
"When we got the Independent Bookstore Day Literary Map of the U.S., we just kept going back to it because it was such a cool idea," said store owner Linda Sherman-Nurick. "And there were so many books that I hadn't heard of! I love Montana. I visit fairly frequently and I had never heard of Breaking Clean by Judy Blunt."
The challenge proposes that people who are traveling to a state, or multiple states, within the U.S. this summer read the book for that state. "It can be real travel, like if you are really going to Texas and you want to get a feel for Texas, then we would strongly suggest you read one of those two books," she said. "Or, if you're not really going to Texas but you feel like you want to travel there through literature, then you could do it that way, too."
Cellar Door Books has arranged all of the books in a display at the front of the store, along with copies of the literary map. Booksellers add a star to the map each time a customer buys one of the books.