Bookshop Hop

It’s no secret the publishers behind Women to Women are book girlies. And after we spotted the influencers of BookTok jumping from bookstore to bookstore as a day outing, we had to try it for ourselves. We spent an entire Saturday exploring and hopping around Lakeland’s most well-known book spots and had an absolute blast getting to know parts of Lakeland we would’ve never visited if not for this book crawl.

Let’s hop to it!

Pressed Books and Coffee

Downtown Lakeland is known for it’s Saturday Farmers Market, and situated right there on the corner, is Pressed. It was cute overall, very heavy into coffees and teas, but they did have a selection of bestsellers near the front door. A personal favorite of Sarah’s in this store was the dedicated section for local authors and the cutest bookmarks and art prints from a nearby artists. It felt personal and very community-driven. It was also the store with the heaviest traffic for us, likely due to them also being a café and their location next to the farmer’s market.

Inklings Book Shoppe

From the outside, you might miss it. It looks more like a cozy little house than a used bookstore, but step inside and you’ll see shelves of surprisingly well-organized chaos. Each room was dedicated to a different genre, including one for children’s books and some toys (not fully pictured to avoid the kids playing). The staff were friendly and welcoming. Sarah scored the perfect find: a gorgeous Dolly Parton book. And yes, she also spotted a Buffy the Vampire Slayer book. Already regretting not getting it.

The Bookish Flower

This bookshop was all about Aesthetic. If you’ve ever wanted to feel like you’re inside a beautiful, romantic, bookish Pinterest board, this is your place. We loved their dark fantasy romance room. Yes, you read that correctly. A whole room dedicated to Romantacy. The owner was incredibly warm and clearly passionate about books, which made the whole experience feel even more special. She had a few “blind date with a book” for sale, our only complaint would be, that at the time, they were all YA options. If you keep going through the store, they have a surprise antique selection with the coolest pieces; we will definitely be going back for a better look at those!

Bookends

This used bookstore was deceptively large. Each section came as a surprise when walking to the back of the store. The organization here was a bit more difficult to navigate, but the employee at the front was more than willing to point us in the right direction. Emmarie found a few Edgar Allen Poe works she was tempted to take with her, but we were just about weighed down by the books from all the stores before.

Bookareaderville Lakeland

We LOVED this massive selection of used books and they were only $4 each? YES. The books were in good condition, the store was organized, and the whole atmosphere just felt fun and welcoming. Sarah walked out with four books… and let me tell you, that took serious self-control because she could’ve easily doubled that. We loved it so much, we’re already planning a trip to their sister location in Winter Haven.

The Unbound Bookery

This gem was a rare book collection hidden within a boutique. The owner had antique, rare, signed editions, literally something for everyone. Sarah came across a stunning copy of Jane Eyre. Of course, she had to get it, “I love my girl Jane”. Emmarie left this one with four books (two gorgeous Poe books and two children’s fairytales), so we considered it a great success! Very well organized, you could tell this was a labor of love.

Books A Million

A tried-and-true bookstore; this was mainly used as our baseline. Their selection is vast and they have so many items besides books as well. They had $25 blind book boxes, which Sarah had to try. Her haul from this wasn’t exactly to her taste, but that’s part of the fun, and thankfully, she has plenty of bookish friends who’ll happily give those reads a new home.

Overall, we had an amazing time browsing all of the bookstores and finding new additions for our collections. It is hard for smaller bookstores to compete with the options available in stores like Books A Million, but we were impressed by the stores we were able to see. We’re already planning the next trip to explore more bookstores so if you have any favorites, let us know and we’ll add them as a stop!