Susan Novotny, owner of The Book House, holds a floor plan of her store’s new location at Stuyvesant Plaza on Friday in Guilderland. The new storefront will be located in the former Eastern Mountain Sports location, between Sur La Table and Athleta, not far from its current site.
Will Waldron/Times Union
The Book House owner Susan Novotny hopes to gather community members to create a “chain brigade” of people lined up from the current to the new location who will move the store, book by book.
Will Waldron/Times Union
The exterior of The Book House’s future location at Stuyvesant Plaza on Friday in Guilderland. The new storefront will be located in the former Eastern Mountain Sports location, between Sur La Table and Athleta, not far from its current site.
Will Waldron/Times Union
Inside The Book House store’s current location on Friday at Stuyvesant Plaza in Guilderland. The bookstore plans to relocate to the former Eastern Mountain Sports space within Stuyvesant Plaza.
Will Waldron/Times Union
Susan Novotny, owner of The Book House, stands in her store’s new location at Stuyvesant Plaza on Friday in Guilderland. The new storefront will be located in the former Eastern Mountain Sports location, between Sur La Table and Athleta, not far from its current site.
Will Waldron/Times Union
Exterior of The Book House’s future location at Stuyvesant Plaza on Friday in Guilderland. The new storefront will be located in the former Eastern Mountain Sports location, between Sur La Table and Athleta, not far from its current site.
Will Waldron/Times Union
Inside The Book House store’s current location on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, at Stuyvesant Plaza in Guilderland, N.Y. The bookstore plans to relocate to the former Eastern Mountain Sports space within Stuyvesant Plaza. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Will Waldron/Times Union
Susan Novotny, owner of The Book House, is interviewed at her store’s current location on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, at Stuyvesant Plaza in Guilderland, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Will Waldron/Times Union
Inside The Book House store’s current location on Friday in Guilderland. The new storefront will be located in the former Eastern Mountain Sports location, between Sur La Table and Athleta, not far from its current site.
Will Waldron/Times Union
GUILDERLAND — Inside The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza are rows and rows of more than 40,000 books, surrounded by items like stuffed animals, games, stationery cards and tote bags. At the end of the year, this will all be moved into a new, yet familiar, space in the plaza.
The woman-owned, independent bookstore of 50 years will move from its current space between Bountiful Bread and Apple Barrel Home + Pantré to a space between Sur La Table and Athleta — the same space the bookstore previously occupied nearly 40 years ago.
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“I’m going to be taking a lot of the feel and warmth of this store and making sure that it’s transposed down there so that there is the continuity for our regular customers,” said owner Susan Novotny. “They’ll feel like they’re still at The Book House.”
The Book House first opened in 1975 in the space where Samantha Nass Floral Design is currently located at the plaza, Novotny said. In the 1980s, the bookstore moved to what will soon be its “new space,” until it moved to its current location later that decade in 1989, Novotny said. Soon, the bookstore will be taking over a space it once called home and where EMS was previously located.
“This is our third move, so third time’s a charm,” Novotny said. “(This shows) you can go home again.”
Conversations about moving started when WS Development took over ownership of the plaza in 2022, Novotny said. The new location will offer an open ceiling, a wider but shallower retail area, more backroom space and proximity to the plaza’s new multipurpose turf area, which the bookstore looks to utilize for children’s programming and events like book talks, Novotny said.
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“It’s always good to reinvent yourself and your space,” Novotny said. “It’s all positive. It gives us an opportunity to freshen everything up, rethink everything and make it a more beautiful and welcoming space to sell books.”
The new space will be 4,000 square feet, the same size as its current space, Novotny said. At the new location, The Little Book House, the bookstore’s children’s area, will be located more toward the front of the store rather than at the back of the store, where it’s located at its current location. It will feature a “magical-looking arbor” that children can walk through into the small, wooden book house, complete with vines, sticks and more.
The bookstore will close at its current space on Dec. 28 and reopen in the new space on Jan. 2, 2026, Novotny said. It’s about a two-minute walk away. With this in mind, Novotny hopes to gather community members to create a “chain brigade” of people lined up from the current to the new location who will pass down the books, book by book.
“Needless to say, the move will be challenging,” Novotny said. “I am now 73, and the prospect of moving 40,000 books absolutely exhausts me.”
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Recalling the bookstore’s early years, Novotny said the store has grown from a space of 2,000 to 3,000 square feet to its current 4,000 square feet. It has faced challenges along the way, including the opening of Barnes & Noble in the early 1990s, which Novotny said caused many independent bookstores in the region to close.
“It was very difficult for us, too. We lost a lot of sales, literally overnight,” Novotny said. “It was an uphill climb to get out of the sales slump that we were in, but ultimately we did.”
Looking ahead, Novotny hopes to grow even more, continuing to provide a service to the community.
“It’s my vocation and my avocation,” Novotny said. “I sell books for a living, and I’m very happy to put a book in a customer’s hands.”
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The Book House isn’t the only business in the plaza to recently announce a move. Plant-based eatery BARE Blends, which opened at Stuyvesant Plaza in late 2018, relocated to a space between Blaze Pizza and the Pottery Place at Stuyvesant Plaza earlier this month. The 5th Corner Goods & Gifts store relocated to a new storefront within the plaza this year. The plaza has also welcomed a handful of new businesses over the past few months, including Samantha Nass Floral Design, Rowan, Anthropologie, and Free People Movement. Simone’s Kitchen and Union Supply Hall opened in Stuyvesant Plaza in late 2024. The plaza has also seen a number of businesses leave, including Penzeys Spices and Ten Thousand Villages.
“We’ve been a fixture in this community for 50 years now, and I and my staff are absolutely devoted to the community and keeping bookselling and reading alive,” Novotny said. “I hope we sell a whole lot more books.”