Thousands in scramble for free books after Amazon supplier abandons warehouse



The treasure hunters stand knee-deep in Danielle Steels, Len Deightons and Jeffrey Archers, hoping to find more exotic literary fare.



This is the scene at a huge book warehouse whose contents are being given away after they were abandoned.



Strewn across the floor are thousands of volumes. Many are a little dog-eared or have yellowing pages. But since they are free, who's complaining?



Thousands of people descended on this warehouse in Bristol for free books after Amazon's largest supplier of secondhand books left the site

Bibliophiles have travelled from far and wide to the old Bookbarn site on an industrial estate in Brislington, Bristol.

Yesterday, Porsches and BMWs were parked alongside vans outside as the scavengers carried out their finds in crates and on trolleys.

In an endearing display of how the British love the offer of something for nothing, someone had even come with a small trailer on the back of his car. Others were seen stacking books in prams.

Inside the warehouse, Travis Speedie was crouched in a mound of books, ferreting about and gleefully placing his finds into a large wooden box.



People stood on piles of books in order to rummage through the millions of titles, which were up for grabs

The books ranged from Stephen King novels to other classic and cookery and self-help

Over two hours the 25-year-old student had already managed to find 20 volumes of Compton's Encyclopaedia and was now desperate to complete the set.



'I love old books,' he said. 'It's a mess in here, real chaos, but it's so exciting looking through it all.



'It's like finding treasure when you discover something you want.

'I've also found a nice, illustrated copy of William Blake's poems and I want to get some history books too.'

Hazel Gurneet, 61, a retired PA, had found 'a couple of cratefuls' of things she fancied, mainly gardening and natural history books, and was coming back for more.



She said: 'It's an unbelievable site when you walk in here. Lots of the bookcases have been knocked over and the books are everywhere. It doesn't feel right having to walk over all these wonderful books to find what you want. But given the cost of new books these days, who's going to refuse this?'



Some enthusiasts had queued for hours hoping to grab as many books as they could carry

Bookbarn had been at the site for five years and left millions of titles behind

Nurse Sarah Campbell, 27, there with her son Daniel, seven months, said: 'It's a strange situation, but I've managed to get a carrier bag full of children's books for my little boy.'

The warehouse, whose lease recently ran out, once contained as many as five million books destined to be sold online.



After the lease expired, he firm running the secondhand book business moved out, leaving it full of books.

Managers of the industrial estate invited people to help themselves so they can free up space at the site.



The warehouse where people are flocking to pick up books

Director of the industrial estate Ashley Nicholson said: 'We asked Bookbarn to clear the books and they got rid of some of them but there is still a huge, huge number inside the warehouse.



'We thought it was a sensible idea to give people the opportunity to come along and choose themselves a book or two and help us clear the warehouse.



'The response has been unbelievable since we opened it to the public. It's like a swarm of locusts.



Bookworms came armed with bags and boxes to grab as many titles as they could physically carry

'I've seen people backing cars and vans into the warehouse so they can stock up.

'One couple even came in a campervan and I think they slept overnight and then crammed as many books as they could into their van and drove off.'

The contents of the aircraft hangar-sized warehouse are a librarian's worst nightmare, with the books piled willy-nilly and not separated according to subject or genre.

For those with the time to browse, the great giveaway continues next week.

Emilie Bailey braved the crowds to rummage through the titles on offer

Thousands of people have turned up to literally help themselves to the books