What a Year It’s Been… And We Have YOU to Thank!

One year ago today we opened our doors to the Summerville community, making it our mission to curate a store that would be uniquely you. Today we celebrated with our one-year birthday party – and we truly couldn’t have done it without you! (For a full gallery of photos from our event, visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/MainStreetReads/

By the Numbers

In our first year we featured 67 local and/or visiting authors in book signings, averaging over one a week. You’ve special ordered over 300 books (nearly one a day!). We have four book clubs running, including Living Large (meeting this week to talk about American Dirt! Other clubs include the Pulpwood Queens (reading Blackwood next month), our YA club (reading Scythe this month) and our Thrill in the ‘Ville club (reading You this month), with more on the near horizon.

And we’ve celebrated holidays and community events throughout the year, from parades to dessert strolls, Third Thursdays to concerts on the square. To accomplish all that, we’ve added three brilliant booksellers through the year: Hannah Rose Summers, who joined us first last April; Emma Wood, who came aboard in November, and our newest addition, Thom Schmenk, who joined us in February. Their love of matching awesome books to awesome readers makes them very special members of the team for whom we’re so grateful!

Giving Back

We’re so fiercely proud of the giving back that so many of downtown Summerville’s merchants participate in to make Summerville a special place to work and live. We’ve been honored to join them to bring you the concerts on the square series, and to make donations to dozens of local schools, charities, and civic organizations.

Most recently, Main Street Reads had the opportunity to provide a children’s collection of books to the Summerville Medical Center. This week we attended the opening of a Neonatal ICU Library at Summerville Medical Center designed to bring the gift of reading to our smallest community members. The library is sponsored by the Summerville Rotary Club and housed in the hospital’s Level II Neonatal ICU (NICU). 

As part of their “Gift of Literacy” program, the Summerville Rotary Club raised funds to purchase more than 100 books to go into the library. “Through this wonderful program, our families, staff and volunteer cuddlers can read to the babies while they are in our care,” said Assaad Merchak, MD, neonatologist and NICU Medical Director. “For babies and their families with us for weeks or months, you can imagine the impact the NICU Library will have for them.”

Kicking Off Year Two

We’re not resting on our laurels – year two kicks off this week for us with several events, so come on out and join the fun… we’ll see you on Main Street! (Click on each image below for more details or visit our EVENTS PAGE).

Last But Not Least…

A special thanks to our visiting authors this weekend – Josie Olsvig and Herman Dixon. It was a great Saturday of signing and of course we held back signed copies of their work so if you couldn’t attend, come by and grab a signed copy!