Nothing Is Hard Work at The Works! (Works, the)

Member Name: vassilis73

Product:	Works, the
Date:	07/07/03 (104 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good Variety, Great offers

Disadvantages: Not always the best quality

The Works is a very nice, cheap and with great variety of books shop. I have been in several around Britain. I liked the one in Newport S. Wales but I?m shopping mainly from the one in Preston or the one in Chorley, Lancashire.

The layout and the presentation of the shops are almost the same wherever I have been. They differ only in size and quantity.

Why To Go There.
You can go there if you want buy books really cheap. That?s a great reason to visit a shop isn?t it?

What Books You Can Find

Children Books
The children section is usually the first near the door for obvious reasons. The book that I noticed from that section was an amazing Face Painting book. You can have really good fun with the kids. On offer for only £2. I almost bought it even though I don?t have children.

COOKERY BOOKS
One of the big sections is the cookery books. Really great variety of books with recipes. Here you can find Delia?s Vegetarian Collection in £18 (which is £2 cheaper from the ?Taste? club.) What impressed me the last time I went there, was that the 95% of the cookery books were £1 only and the recipes in them were great! Excellent value for money.

Gardening
It?s a relatively small section in the shop and the variety is not as big. They have books from £0.99 up to £4.99. Even though I not crazy with gardening, I like to take some ideas about my garden from books of famous gardeners. I didn?t saw any books of famous gardeners there though, all the times I have visit it.

Reference
There is a good variety of dictionaries. Except English, they have French, Italian, German and Spanish from £1.99. That section of the shop though is incomplete for me as they don?t have Greek dictionaries as WH Smith let?s say. For this reason I am taking a star out of my overall rating!

Nature
A really big section of the shop, full of books on animals, forests, lakes, mountains etc . The quality is very good in
these books and the prices are between £2.99 and £13.99. The last time I went they had really generous reductions on some interesting books for cats and dogs which I took advantage of.

Health.
That is the biggest section of the shop. Books about everything that has to do with the human anatomy. They had on offer, a homeopathy book that the time I was looking at it , four different customers bought it! The price on it, was £4.99 and the title was something like guide in Homeopathy. Similar to that was Detox-Complete Guide which I bought for my wife. Another offer was on a book with the title: Organic Living.150 pages, fully illustrated for £1.99!Fantastic value. They have variety of guides on sex (full of strange suggestions. I also noticed a book named Yoga for Sex with unbelievable difficult things to do for better sex.. Isn?t there any simpler way??)
The best value for money offer in that section though was an Encyclopaedia for Family Health with 400 pages, fully illustrated and only £4.99!( how on earth they make money?..)

Art Books- Artists
Another big section of the shop. They have books for all the famous painters and also books that show you how to paint in a style like theirs! They also have very big variety of artist?s materials.(paints, brushes etc.)

Travel
Maps, City guides, walks, paths, you name it, it?s here. I always pay a visit there before going for holidays.

New Stock
In this section you will find stock that usually were not there the previous times you have been in the shop.

Other Book Sections
Books for History, for Sport, for the Military, for Collectors, for Crafts, for DIY, for entertainment (good prices, not big selection though.)

Potty Deals
A very cool section that! The biggest book they had there was The Punk Generation ,over 400pages fully illustrated, from £35 reduced to £14 and now reduced to £7.99!
They had series of book handled by Readers Digest w
ith subjects like Life in The Victorian Age, Life in Ancient Rome at £3.99. I was very disappointed because I couldn?t find anything about the ancient Greeks but my wife pointed to me the book The Greek World, fantastic book, illustrated and it has the history of Nafplio, the city I was born! Isn?t that a great reason for you to buy that book?

Recent Releases
Big selection of novels there from £1.99 or 3 for £4.99.

Stationary
Pens, papers(200pages A4 refill pad for £0.99.By far the cheapest in my area).Also they have nice little stationary gifts as desk organiser really cheap. Not the best quality though.

Cards
It?s not a card shop but they have some cute cards to choose from.

Services
I have bought several books that after 10 pages is getting really bad. They don?t have any problem to refund it for you.
The stock that usually have in all the time, in case they don?t have it in , they can order it and have it in a couple of days to collect it from the shop or even to send it in your house. The books that they don?t have in usually, they are not ordering it for you.

Staff
The staff is really good in the shops I usually go. They are very pleasant young people with good knowledge of the stock they have in the shop. They knew were to find the books I have asked for and also they stayed and search with me as I was trying to find what I wanted. Really good that!

Atmosphere
Its usually quiet(except the Christmas period) and pleasant. There is some music in the background but not loud. I have to mention that It smells (!) like a bookshop which I like very much! The queues that sometimes have, are not ruin the nice atmosphere.

Overall opinion
The Works is a great place to go when you want to buy cheap books. They always have good offers and always it?s cheap. The atmosphere is nice and the staff knows the stock. What else do you want from a book shop?

Thanks for reading.

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