BELFAST — Bellabooks at 136 High Street in Belfast is a true Maine love story. Owner Gary Guida is from Long Island, New York. Owner Kim Zahares is from Southern Maine. They met in Virginia.

“She was surprised I had never been to Maine,” said Gary. “I had never been here.”

“I told him, you’ll love Maine,” said Kim.

“We took a week and came up here,” said Gary. “And she was right.”

“We drove into Belfast,” said Kim, “and fell absolutely in love with it.”

That was a year and a half ago. Kim and Gary opened Bellabooks and added antiques to their selection of new and used books including best sellers, literary fiction, cookbooks, good science fiction and history.
 
“Our customers tell us we have a good selection of books,” said Gary. “Most of the antiques on display in here are for sale. The antiques are very good, too. We’re very good at what we do.”

Both Kim and Gary agree that Belfast is a good place to do business.

“It’s terrific,” said Gary. “There is a great bunch of people downtown. The interaction between businesses is wonderful.”

Bellabooks has been featured in a number of magazines.

“We’re very flattered,” said Gary. “We were even mentioned in a quilting magazine. The article said that after you pick your fabric, be sure and stop in Bellabooks. Why it said that I don’t know, but I’m not complaining. Like I said, I was very, very flattered that they mentioned us.”

Gary summed it up: “Once we were here the city was very nice to us. People in Belfast and the surrounding area are incredibly supportive of us as an independent book store.”

With a successful business come the inevitable growing pains. Growth equals not enough space. Such was the case with the children’s book section at Bellabooks.

“We were, just running out of space,” said Kim. “The kids needed their own space.”

To alleviate the problem Bellabooks decided to open up Babybella across the street from their shop. Besides the big selection of children’s books, they now had room to offer games and toys as well as, space for sitting and reading for kids and adults.

“The kids love it,” said Kim. “It’s like their own specialty store, just for them, and in a way it is.”

“And the parents love it because there are no antiques there,” interjected Gary. “Truth be told, Kim and I have accidently broken far more antiques than any of the kids.”

You can find Bellabooks on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/bellabooksbelfast.