Thousands of free books at Bristol warehouse
They came with boxes, crates and even prams to fill to the brim with the most diverse collection of books imaginable.
Scores of people turned out to the the Book Barn in Bath Road, a second hand book warehouse that has opened its doors allowing people to take whatever they can get their hands on.
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The lease on the warehouse at the Paintworks site has run out, so for the next week everything inside is up for grabs.
Titles range from Stephen King horror novels and books on computing, to literary classics and 1970s cooksbooks.
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Mostly empty shelves line the the air-hanger size floor, but thousands of books are still scattered across the floor, some in piles and mostly musty but otherwise in good condition.
Residents from across Bristol were joined by people from as far as Hertfordshire to join in the free for all.
Rebecca Fitzgerald, 28 of Brislington, is an art teacher at Oasis Academy and came hoping to find some books for her pupils.
She said: "I've got quite a mixed bag, something about hair cutting, housework, and another called 'The Life of Long Legged Women'.
"One of the other members of staff said it was closing so I came after school."
Mark Lewis, 48 of Brislington, works at the Bristol League For Cats charity shop and came to stock up.
He said: "This is my third visit and, I've taken about 100 to 150 books.
"They will be resold, but they need to be clean.
"I know there are customers who like war books so I have taken a few of those, as well as prominent authors like Tom Clancy."
Rosalind Robbins, 58 of Brislington, came to find books for her whole family.
She said: "I've mainly taken stuff for my daughter, she likes Stephen King and that sort of thing.
"My husband is looking for anything and my son is going to join us to look for computer books.
"There's lots of them, some he bought for £45 when he was studying.
"It's a shame the book barn is going, I don't like walking on the books, it's criminal."
Agnes Brand, 72, came along from Brislington with her 21-year-old grandson college student Alex.
She said: "It's awful, books are so precious, it's a sin.
"There are Bibles, every kind of book."
The Book Barn is open today (Friday) until 4pm and then next Monday to Friday, 10am until 4pm.
Comments
by David, Chippenham, Wilts
Thursday, March 05 2009, 3:21PM
“The BookBarn warehouse at the Paintworks site closed on Tuesday 3rd March as apparently some children went in, turned a few of the bookcases over and the site owners shut it for health and safety reasons. The mindless act by a few has caused a greater annoyance by the many. I went down there today to see and was joined by about 15 people, all equally fed up. Apparently the owner is getting a few lorries in to export the books to Romania. A great shame, what happened about the local universities & colleges? Weren't they informed?”
by Carol Laslett, Bristol
Saturday, February 28 2009, 4:49PM
“I'd like a large banner over the warehouse that says " If you cannot find what you want here, try your local library". You don't have to store library books yourself either; you return them when you have read them!!”
by Alex, Redcliffe
Friday, February 27 2009, 10:56PM
“Only open 10-4 Monday till Friday? Some of us have jobs you know. Why on earth can this not be open on Saturday?”
by MendipMan, Wurzel Country
Friday, February 27 2009, 8:46PM
“Rachel, unfortunately the Evening Post, like many provincial newspapers, relies mainly on press hand-outs from organisations for its stories. Investigative journalism is rarely attempted, it seems.
When I read stories in the Post that are obviously either complete copies of someone's press handout or rehashed versions of the same, I sometimes say out aloud, "Why didn't the paper pursue that, or ask about that?"”
by Rachel, Bristol
Friday, February 27 2009, 3:28PM
“I would love to know what the Bookbarn in Hallatrow has to say about this. They took a lot of books in and the owners had 2 years for them to sell. My books hadn't been with them 2 years so I still orn them, strictly speaking. But of course, the contract's not worth the paper it's written on and Bookbarn Hallotrow are trying to distance themselves from the mess. Could the Post please ask them what's going on? I think that's called "journalism".”
by Pogo the Clown, Repentant
Friday, February 27 2009, 1:34PM
“Fair enough, Ruth. I suppose there aren't many charities that'd want to spare the (unpaid) time to shift through loads of books.
Plus, not many of them would have the storage.
To be honest though, I'm only saying all this as I'm gutted I knew nothing about it.
My "unread" book pile is down to about a foot tall, a worryingly small amount.”
by Paul, Bristol
Friday, February 27 2009, 12:14PM
“I went on Monday and selected 2 boxes of classic literary works for my son who is studying English at university. Various works of poetry from the great poets and many works of Shakespeare and other classic authors.
They were going to close it down from Friday. I am glad to see that due to the good response of people coming to clear the warehouse, they have extended it by a further week.”
by Ruth, Nailsea
Friday, February 27 2009, 11:33AM
“Apparently (this is from word of mouth only) the books had been offered to one of the large charities and they were not interested. Having seen how the books have been left, I can understand why the charity didn't take them away - it would take them weeks and weeks to sort through them (there must have been tens of thousands of books, many of them still in the carrier bags they arrived in and in no kind of order at all), and probably at least half of them would not be suitable for selling due to the age of the book and condition.”
by m, bristol
Friday, February 27 2009, 11:25AM
“It is wicked. There are third world charities which would love to rummage. There are home charities and there are schools.
Why oh why could the business not have infomred these people.
However at least some of the books are being rescued, I will go next week to see what can be rescued from the breakers.
I hate to see books which have been written and loved to be left in such a way”
by Pogo the Clown, Yeah yeah yeah
Friday, February 27 2009, 11:05AM
“Why did they not give the books to charity? If charity shops and schools had been given first choice on the titles maybe they'd do some good rather than sitting on people's shelves, unread.”