66 Books, A Trip for Book Lovers

Hello, my fellow introverted book lovers,

Have you ever wanted to lock yourself in a warehouse full of books? Just wonder around floor to ceiling books, bourse until your heart’s content. Well, that’s what my sister and I did just that when we attended 66 Books book club over the weekend. What is 66 Books? Well, it’s the UK’s leading largest book wholesalers, located Hemel Hempstead. With 20 years’ experience and specialising in clearance, remainders, and reprints. Catering to the big branded high-street and bespoke boutique book shops, 66 Books opens their doors to the public for there Book Clubs a view weekends a year selling books at 70% off.

So obviously, we had to go.

Straight from work I met up with my sister and we drove 2 ½ hours to Hemel Hempstead’s. Now 66 Books only has 42 parking spaces which are taken up quickly, and we stayed in a travel lodge, which is only 30 minutes’ walk away and has all day parking for free. I would suggest you walk down, as we ended up needing to turn around and find parking as it was already full when we got there. Handy enough they do have parking attendance who let you know if there are spaces left. The walk was fine, pleasant enough even with the on and off rain and quite easy to find. The massive line of questionably parked cars is pretty hard to miss. You should remember though that you are on an industrial sight, and to keep a look out for lorries and other workers.

You’re in their space try and respect that.

Now whilst the walk was pleasant, the wait to get in was not. It was it was cold, raining and a slow-moving que. Since we have never been before we didn’t know what to expect or how most of it works, so we turned up 10 am and stud there 4 hours. Now their ware members of staff giving us updates on how long the que will be, personally I prefer not to be tolled. As they kept telling us that we wouldn’t be let in if it came to 4 pm. Which logically I knew we could get in but, my anxiety was having a fun time telling me we weren’t going to make it. Especially when they keep increasing the wait time, with nothing to do other then wait. Was not very pleasant. Now that I have been I would suggest arriving before 9 am when the doors open, to avoid queuing times. If you can’t make it for that time, bring a drink a warm one in winter a cold one in summer. There is practically no ware to get a drink and if you’re going alone, you can’t send someone out to find one either. I will say the atmosphere within the que was great though. Despite the wait everyone was excited, and we did have a nice chit chat with the mum and daughter in front of us.

When we finally did get in at around 2. Which is when we got a little health and safety guide, because as I said it is a warehouse, not shop. It’s also when they told that asking where anything it was pointless. Since they didn’t know where anything was either. Not going to lie kind of put me off a bit. Once you stepped in though you could understand why.

There is just so much. And its everywhere. Its honestly impressive how much is there, and that new book smell is everywhere. Its what I imagen heaven to smell like. Everything is books. However, to me at least it was overwhelming. There was no rhyme or reason to the lay out. You went down one isle and you thought there was theme be going on, but no graphic novels turn to autobiographies with no link between them. It was very hard for me to find anything. The sheer number of books alone started giving me a sort of book blindness where I couldn’t focus on any of the tittles anymore. There is also a lot of people trying to go up and down very small isles at the same time, kept bashing into each other. So, to be very honest It wasn’t for me. It was too much disorganised, and I just struggled to find anything I was interested in. That doesn’t mean it can’t work for other people, as we were standing in the que, we saw people leaving with boxes and trolleys full of books. My sister managed to get 75£ worth of books for 24£, which is amazing and I’m glad it worked for her. It just wasn’t for me.   

Overall, I think it was a worthwhile experience, I didn’t get much out of it book wise, but my sister did, which I’m pleased about. It also has us looking into similar thing closer to us, maybe I’ll have better luck there. If you do want to go through remember: early, supplies, prepare for people.

The Overly Anxiouse Writer