Independent Bookstore Day to be celebrated at Main Street Books

Zach Tuggle
Mansfield News Journal
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Llalan Fowler, the manager of Main Street Books, sorts titles at the store in the Carousel District of downtown Mansfield.

MANSFIELD - Need a good excuse to go to the bookstore?

If so, then Aug. 29 is a date to put on your calendar: Independent Bookstore Day.

Main Street Books, 104 N. Main St. in Mansfield, will be open noon to 4 p.m. that day with activities for the whole family, said Llalan Fowler, the store's manager.

She hopes for a big turnout.

"It's a day to celebrate the fact that we have these independent stores," Fowler said. "They bring things to the community that big box stores can't."

The event normally takes place every April, but was postponed this year by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Main Street Books — like many small businesses — was closed from the end of March to the middle of May. The weeks of isolation left many people with a lot of free time to read, but no way to access new books. The days felt like years.

"It was a while," Fowler said.

Main Street Books will be hosting a socially distanced party for book-lovers from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Thankfully, Main Street Books could still help the community by shipping books that were ordered through the internet.

"Over the quarantine, we did fairly well online," Fowler said. "We partner with an online bookseller, so we get some of the profits from the sales."

Opening the store again to the public made the late spring and early summer so much more special for avid readers.

"It's been decently busy," Fowler said. "It feels like people really wanted, at least at first, to be out of the house and to spend all of the money that they'd saved up."

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The socially distanced event Aug. 29 could be the highlight of the community's summer of reading.

"It's a celebration of our customers," Fowler said. "We get to offer them some fun stuff."

There will be scavenger hunts — one for adults and one for kids — that can earn visitors discounts on purchases. There will be a kid-sized Dog Man selfie center. Plus, there will be many exclusive items for sale including poetry collections, socks, candles, tote bags and more.

The monster paintings exhibit will be open for guests to enjoy.

Everyone who attends will be required to wear a face mask. The main priority is to keep everyone safe.

  • "We have sanitizer all over the store," Fowler said. "We've been cleaning things regularly."

ztuggle@gannett.com

419-564-3508

Twitter: @zachtuggle

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