Watch This Store Move 500,000 Books

As any book-lover can probably attest to, moving books is a pain — they're heavy, they come in all different sizes that rarely stack neatly into boxes together, and did I mention they are heavy? And this all sucks if you're a person moving your personal library from one apartment to another, but what if you're a bookstore moving to a new location? What kind of effort do you need to move then?

When the famous London bookstore Foyles decided to move to a new location, they were faced with precisely this question — and 500,000 books that needed to make the trip. Fortunately, Foyles was only moving a little ways down the street, but still, 500,000 books, guys. That's a lot of books. And considering the average weight of a hardback book is more than a pound, the prospect of moving that many books is pretty daunting. How would you even do that?

Well lucky for us, Foyles created a time lapse video to give us all an idea of what it takes to pack up and move a bookstore, and to document the move for posterity. Foyles has been at their same location on London's Charing Cross Road since the 1930s, so the move is sort of a big deal. The new store offers even more space, and includes a 200-seat auditorium for hosting events, something Foyles is known for, and which gives them an edge against the international behemoth that is Amazon.

From what we can see in the video, the new space looks incredibly cool, and the move went smoothly. So congratulations, Foyles! You moved 500,000 books! That is certainly nothing to sneeze at.