Though it is only a little bookstore, Main Street Books has a large heart; filled with books, vinyls, skateboards, and so much more.
Charlotta McMann is the founder of this homey little store and started Main Street Books to help fulfill her daughter’s dream of having her own bookstore after she retires. McMann says that her daughter is a huge bibliophile, which was the main reason she started her store. Once McMann retires, her daughter will be taking over Main Street Books.
She moved the store to its new location of 134 E. Main St. about a year ago. The bookstore offers many books with various genres. McMann is a personal fan of nonfiction, but has books ranging from fantasy to biographies, and everything in between. In the front of the store, there is a table with books trending on TikTok, as well as another table dedicated to books from the streaming service Netflix. She has the latest crazes of novels from authors such as Sarah J. Maas, Suzanne Collins, H.D Carlton, Holly Black, Charles Graeber.
Keeping her book loving customers in mind, McMann keeps free cookies, coffee, and tea out at all times. There are also couches to read on, a small room with a chair and bookcase of young adult books, and a small children’s reading area. On occasion, McMann and other staff will sit outside of the store with a table full of books on sale. Overall, the store has a very relaxed and comforting atmosphere.
Furthermore, Main Street Books is not an ordinary bookstore. The store sells themed tarot cards, vinyls, skateboards, CDs, and local small business entrepreneurs’ products. One of the products made by a small business are small colored crocheted bees themed as famous Halloween icons like Ghostface, Freddy Krueger, and Chucky. Another product sold are rings made out of recycled forks by a different entrepreneur.
There is a bin full of free stickers in the back of the store available for anyone to look through. Free wall mounts to hang skateboards can be found in a bucket in the store. In the back of the store, where the skateboards are located, there is a table that holds free stickers, candy, and various other random items almost every week. There is also a small rack of shirts for sale in the back as well.
McMann welcomes everyone who walks in the door, and is constantly looking for ways to help the customers. She is very supportive of the community around her by giving those smaller entrepreneurs a place to start out and sell their products. McMann also collects donations for the local food pantry.
The store offers Lock Haven University students 10% off of their purchase if they show their school ID.
The Eagle Eye is the student run newspaper of Lock Haven University.
