Steal My Crawl: Kyle Nardine
Need ideas for your crawl? We asked some folks to share how they participated last year, or what they’d like to do this year. Take inspiration or copy them outright–we won’t tell!
Kyle Nardine, Central Jersey believer.
Kyle Nardine is a freelance writer located in Bordentown, NJ. He focuses on local politics, music, culture, and sports.
Kyle’s 2025 Crawl
My girlfriend and I participated in last year’s crawl and loved every minute of it. Even the not so great parts of circling around Lambertville trying to find parking.
We started in Princeton at Labyrinth Books. Princeton is a special spot for us, and six years ago we had our first date at PJ’s Pancakes House and then went to Labyrinth. So Princeton was a natural starting point. Since it was: 1. Kind of hot. 2. I saw the most recent PSEG bill, I picked up a book about our nation’s electric grid. One of the most underrated things about living in Central Jersey is having Princeton nearby and taking advantage of all of (usually free too!) cultural events. I meet so many of my favorite authors at Labyrinth.
We then traveled to Hopewell, and made a stop at The Bear and the Books. Our godson loves to read and we picked him up books. It’s really cool to see more stores dedicated to a specific genre of books whether it is children’s, romance, mystery, etc. It shows that there is a a heavy interest in reading.
We attempted to go to Lambertville, but parking beat us. You can’t be mad about spending time on 29 so we went to Frenchtown Bookshop. It’s one of my favorites in the state, and I like how you can find local authors and books there. I picked up Hanif Abdurraqib’s book A Little Devil in America.
Kyle’s 2026 Crawl
Realistic: Start at the Wawa I would always visit before high school and community college and then start at Ren’s in my hometown of Blackwood. Then hit up all the Camden, Gloucester, and Burlington stores, and finish in Bordentown. I spent so many hours in the Saxbys in Haddonfield studying, writing, or reading and we’ll get a coffee there before going to Inkwood.
Dream: Do a NJ Transit book crawl where I get off at towns that have a train station and visit their bookstores and go on to the next one. Or a Pork Roll Challenge: For every book I buy in a town, I have to visit their bagel shop and eat their pork roll sandwich.
Kyle’s Shopping List:
Favorite bookstore outside of NJ: So there’s a city that is important to some New Jersey residents. New Jerseyans commute here to work, the city has a lot of Fortune 500 companies there, you can get there from the turnpike, and a recent President is synonymous with this place and has a residence there. Wilmington, DE is criminally underrated and one of my favorite non-NJ cities. Huxley and Hiro is a gem in the Diamond State and has great variety. And as someone who reads too much political, cultural, and sociological nonfiction books for their own good visiting Politics and Prose in DC was sort of like how baseball fans visit Fenway or Wrigley Field.
Favorite book accessory: I love to collect bookmarks from every book store I visit.
A bookstore I’d like to visit: Weller Book Works in Salt Lake City.
I read best… outside: along the Delaware. Inside: at the library.