GLENS FALLS — Kyle Welch sat down in front of his computer and pulled a copy of Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla” up onto his lap.
Welch was pricing books Thursday for the grand opening of his new horror bookshop, which will be open from noon to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday in Room 118E at The Shirt Factory in Glens Falls.
Beldame Books takes its name from one of Welch’s favorite publications, “The Elementals,” by Michael McDowell.
“I want to carry those types of things that other shops won’t carry,” Welch said Thursday. “And in the story there’s a place called Beldame. It’s like a summer house for this family and it’s like their heaven on Earth and they go there, but there’s horror.”
Beldame Books will carry all genre of fiction, including horror, romance, mystery, sci-fi, as well as comics, including manga, a Japanese comic read from left to right. The store sells both used and new books.
People are also reading…
“No nonfiction,” Welch said. “It’s all kind of genre-based.”
Welch has done press and podcasts about comics and previously worked three years at Barnes & Noble in Wilton. He is also employed full time at a local nonprofit agency running a day program for people with traumatic brain injuries.
He finally decided to open his own bookstore after his father passed away in January 2021.
“He was my gateway into reading, especially horror,” Welch said. “I would just stare at his bookshelf. He was a big Stephen King guy.”
Welch was entranced with his father’s books. He dove back into reading horror, and at the same time, his wife, Colleen, signed him up for a small business class.
“You can experience and empathize with people you wouldn’t necessarily understand,” Welch said about the horror genre.
He particularly enjoys female horror writers.
“It’s a really good way as a male to kind of understand the horrors of being a woman, because there’s tons every day,” he said, “and you can kind of learn about that and understand the tropes of horror.”
Welch hopes the bookshop will be a place his three young children can also hang out. He welcomes requests from horror book lovers visiting the shop.
“I want to know what people want specifically,” he said.
The opening of Beldame Books adds another bookstore to the several that already exist at The Shirt Factory, including The Bookhouse/Sweetside Records, Ghost Books and Matthew Rozell Books.
Book Warehouse opened up in the Outlets at Lake George about a year ago. And an independent bookstore has been proposed for downtown Glens Falls.
Welch attributes the bookshop renaissance to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I don’t know if over COVID people just started to read more?” Welch said. “It’s a weird thing because with the advent of digital reading and things like that, it would be less.”
Book collectors tend to want to hold a novel in their hands and enjoy the physical media, he said.
He will offer a 10% of discount during opening weekend. The shop will be normally be open from noon to 5 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday as well as 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays.
“Because new comics come out on Wednesday,” he said.
Gretta Hochsprung writes features and hometown news. She can be reached at 518-742-3206 or [email protected].
