Houston Celebrates National Indie Bookstore Day with Drunk Coloring

They had us at drunk coloring, the Cormac McCarthy Edition, but the purists over at Brazos Bookstore only wanted us to use red and black crayons, keeping in line with the miserablist's bleak worldview. Themed cocktails, crafted by the mixologists from Under the Volcano, made everything rosy again. It was all part of the fun during National Independent Bookstore Day on April 29, where Houstonians celebrated brick-and-mortar literary mainstays Blue Willow Bookshop, Murder By The Book and Brazos Bookstore, among others.

Summer reading lists are big now, with Brazos Bookstore rolling out its "Summer of Austen" programming and staffers at Murder By The Book sharing some of their favorite beach reading lists. Houston-based author Lisa Haneberg breezed through MBTB to sign copies of her latest, Toxic Octopus, the first in her new Spy Shop Mystery Series (which is set in Galveston).

West Houston's Blue Willow had some witty merch for sale, including tea towels bearing quotes from Virginia Woolf and Oscar Wilde and a curated collection of books like an oh-so-fab cocktail book with the favorite drinks of classic writers (it's rumored William Faulkner favorited mint juleps).