Getting Around
Map of Bookshops
Bookshop Bus Tours
Bookshop Bus Tour: Great World
3 October 2026, Saturday / 915am - 130pm
Guided bus tour of 5 bookshops, on Singapore Indie Bookshop Day.
Bus will take participants to Woods in the Book (New Bahru), Books Ahoy!, Epigram Books, Sea Breeze Books and Natventure.
Tour picks up at Great World MRT and drops off at Singapore Book Town, Bras Basah Complex where more bookshops await you on your own free-and-easy tour of the complex, as well as nearby bookshops in Kampong Gelam!
$20/ticket, Eventbrite’s booking fee applies.
Bookshop Bus Tour: Tai Seng
3 October 2026, Saturday / 1230pm - 445pm
Guided bus tour of 5 bookshops, on Singapore Indie Bookshop Day.
Bus will take participants to Closetful of Books, City Book Room, Woods in the Books (East Coast), Dakota Dreams and Wormhole.
Tour picks up at Tai Seng MRT and drops off at Grassroots Book Room in Chinatown, where more bookshops await you on your own free-and-easy tour of this heritage precinct!
$20/ticket, Eventbrite’s booking fee applies.
Bookshop Crawls
Why you need a bookshop crawl
Bookshops are pocket concentrations of knowledge and beauty that encapsulate the imagination and aspiration of the readership it serves. The value of a bookshop is threefold: the curation, the space, and the community. A bookshop crawl is a wonderful way to get a real sense for these spaces, and to understand the context in which these bookshops are located.
In Singapore, there are three precincts that lend themselves to bookshop crawls because of how accessible, walkable and resonant they are with literary culture. These precincts are: Chinatown, Katong/Joo Chiat, and Bras Basah & Kampong Gelam.
Bookshop crawls
Bookshop crawls
Bookshop Crawl - Chinatown
Bookshop Crawl - Katong/Joo Chiat
Bookshop Crawl - Brash Basah & Kampong Gelam
Tips for a successful bookshop crawl
Set a goal
Plan your trip by charting a route that works for you, allowing yourself ample time at each bookshop. You don't have to visit all the bookshops in a precinct at one go because you can always come back another day. The hint is in the name 'crawl'. Go slow and be open to serendipity.
Browsing mindset
We no longer need bookshops to buy books, so why do we treasure them more now than ever before?
The defining purpose of a bookshop is the unparalleled joy of browsing it provides so open heartedly. The bookshop shifts the patron's sense of time and priorities, and they lose themselves in unhurried reflection while engaged in browsing: their everyday concerns shed at the threshold as they enter a more thoughtful space. Bookshops are the antitheses of hustle because they encourage a form of outward idleness that energizes not a productivity that drains. Bookshops are spaces of healing because the array of books presented before us – which would take several lifetimes to peruse to completion – allow us to find ourselves within the totality of human intellectual and imaginative endeavour.
Reading and journaling
Plan for some purposeful page time on your crawl. This could be at a cafe or, weather permitting, a park bench. As someone once said, writing is just reading in reverse, so page time can take the form of reading or journaling. Think of it as a time for yourself, away from devices: the benefits of page time can be far reaching.
Dress for the weather
Singapore can be hot, humid and rainy, so be prepared for sun or rain. Plan your hydration accordingly. Wear comfortable shoes because there will be lots of walking and standing.