2-DIVERSION BOOK SAFE Made from a Real Book

Bought 2 of these for my bf. They are the size of standard NYT best-seller hard cover books, so if you don't like the covers they come with or they would look out of place on your book shelves, just go to Salvation Army or Good Will or some other thrift or used-book store where you can pick up hardcover books for pennies on the dollar... and find some more appropriate paper covers.These are made from real books. Anyone who might casually pick them up *without* opening them would not be able to tell they're book safes (unless the stuff stored inside rattles or jangles around -- which you can prevent by padding it with bubble-wrap or some other light packing material). The pages seem securely glued all the way around.The internal compartment is black flocked plastic and is not the most sturdy, but you wouldn't want to hide heavy objects in these anyway. The top and bottom of the compartments are glued in place. They mesh well and close securely. That being said, there is no lock, so once someone picks up the book and tries to open it, they'll easily find the compartment.I also bought a different, locking book safe for my bf. While it is more secure, it is also less likely to pass the "innocuous book" test than these book safes are, because the locking book safe doesn't have realistic page edges. These do. I think if you had a bunch of real books, the locking metal book safe, and these book safes on a bunch of shelves together, you'd pick out the locking metal book safe pretty quickly. These you wouldn't, so despite being less secure and having no locks, these are almost better because they don't stand out as different from other hard cover books. So they're less noticeable and less likely to attract attention in any way. Once someone picks them up, the jig is up, but I think they're less likely to get picked up than the locking metal book safe *because* they look like real books... because they are made from real books!

The inside dimensions are not as large as advertised. There is a felt lined plastic lid that fits into the space. This lid takes up a large part of the space. The top of the space is larger than the bottom part, so the lid won't fall in. You can get a little more space by throwing away the lid, but then things are more likely to fall out.In particular, my hard drive is 4" wide. It only fits into the top part of the space and will only go down as far as the lid's lip, so it doesn't actually go into the space meant for the valuables, at all.The advertised dimensions are 6 3/4 x 4 x 1 1/4.The actual dimensions are 6 5/8 x 3 5/8 x 3/4.If you want to fit your hard drive in, which is 4" wide, you probably could pull out the felt lined plastic container which is glued into the book. I'm not sure if this would cause the pages to start to open up.To me the description "2-Book Safes" was not clear. You actually get two different books, each with a different title. I thought that there might be two books glued together with one larger space but instead you just get two separate book safes. Perhaps they should lose the hyphen.

I was looking for a place to hide various small items and I wanted a "book safe" but most were too fake looking. The good thing about these "safes" is that they are actual books and the pages have had a deep square carved out of the middle. The first 20 or so pages of the book are undamaged and that helps the effect. These are so well made that when I first opened the package I honestly thought they messed up my order and sent me two actual books! The real book covers are a really nice touch but like I said these are made out of actual hardcover books. My only critique is that the lid of the secret compartment is very flimsy but it shouldnt be a problem as long as the book is tucked in on your bookshelf or wherever you choose to put it.

These book safes were better than I expected. It would be impossible to pick them out of a bookshelf, and you could always change the book jacket for something else if the kind of literature that you get (random choice?) doesn't match the other books on your shelf. My pair were two recent actual female fiction works. I was able to put about 60 silver dollars in one, and the other will hold about 75 US bills, that's $1500 in twenties or whatever you have. I like that the first quarter inch or so of the book's pages are original before you come to the plastic cavity insert, which is nicely lined with a felt material. The cover is somewhat difficult to remove. I suppose this cavity would be good for using directly with jewelry or other valuables. Now my only fear is that something will happen to me and my kids will take all my books to Goodwill. Boy, then somebody would get a real prize!

This is a great product, works as advertised, however there is one significant drawback.The book from which the book safe is created is a random book. If it was the Stephen King book as pictured, it might be okay. But, if it was like me, you received two random books that you would never actually have on your book shelf let alone read, then it might be a problem.True, for most burglaries, the burglar isn’t likely to find the safe. However, if friends see this strange book that you are very unlikely to read sitting on your bookshelf, it’s actually more likely to call attention to the safe and have people investigate further.THE TROUBLE IS THAT YOU CANNOT REPLACE THE DEFAULT JACKET WITH ANOTHER ONE. The back flap of the book is actually glued closed, glued around the default book jacket, and short of ripping the book jacket off forcibly, you are stuck with whatever default book cover you get.