CCNP Support materials and lab kit

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So I've just booked to go on my CCNP Route in July as my CCNA runs out in January and it's something I've been meaning to "get around" to this year. What would people suggest for support materials (books, lab sims, stuff like that) and how vital is lab kit vs a simulator, such as GNS3. I work with Cisco kit on a day to day basis anyway (BGP and EIGRP mainly on the route side and plenty of VLANs on the switch side) and have been in the networking industry now for about 8 years. The money aspect of buying a lab isn't bothering me but space is at a bit of a premium where I live unfortunately and I've had quite a few people tell me that even for the CCNP you don't need to bother with physical kit.

So any thoughts and opinions greatly appreciated.