Book houses

[Athena Bast]

Question to you all...

My BF and I are moving into a 2 bedroom apartment which is apparently smaller some how than our 1 bedroom because he wants to get rid of our bookcases in favour of building lots and lots of shelves.

I don't like shelves. I like bookcases. I find shelves somewhat tacky for books. I see shelves for picture frames and plants and things.

Shelves aren't as modular for arranging things I find. You can't hang pictures on walls with shelves. And when I say shelves he wants to buy/build shelves that are like 7 feet long. They take up a long of space.

I am leaning towards getting some invisible shelves cuz they're kinda funky looking.

What do you guys like... shelves or bookcases?

[K'Nort]

I wouldn't mind certain kinds of shelves if I owned a place, but bookcases are certainly more flexible when you're renting. Or really, they're more flexible, period. Bookshelves really only work for me when they're a full wall, floor-to-ceiling thing.

[Karl J Barnes]

I'd go with bookcases. They're more secure(won't fall over and such) and they can help with the decor of the room,too.

[Gordon Smith]

I prefer bookcases, but shelves will do in a pinch. Of course, I own so many books that every damned place in my house seems to do double-duty as a place of rest for the things.

[Karl J Barnes]

I prefer bookcases, but shelves will do in a pinch. Of course, I own so many books that every damned place in my house seems to do double-duty as a place of rest for the things.

Admit it, you make book forts,right.

[Gordon Smith]

Admit it, you make book forts,right.

In my childhood, sure, but that's a few decades behind me. :)

[Roquefort Raider]

For the past 20 years or so I've made my own shelves, which are actually more like bookcases made of stackable units. This system has the advantage of being customizable (some units can be made for specific books), easily rearranged (you can stack the shelves vertically, set them side by side or combine the two configurations) and of being both lightweight and sturdy.

I make them of pine wood and apply a few layers of acrylic on them, but of course you can use whatever wood stain you prefer to give them the look you want.

Here's the rough idea of what one unit looks like. (In all honesty, I swiped the design from an IKEA catalog)!

[Athena Bast]

We have 4 bookcases right now. I am willing (want to) throw out because it's old and falling apart but he wants to keep it because it's the smaller one of the four.

What's really weird is that I came home to him one day taking all the books of my bookcase that were neatly arranged, alphabetically, and stacking them randomly on one of his bookcases because it was "empty". *sigh*