credit: Saporiti
A few months ago, my friend (and former housemate) Andrea started the blog A Classy Act to chronicle her DIY adventures as she decorates her apartment. Earlier this week, she featured this ‘Read Your Book Case’ shelving unit from the Italian furniture design firm Saporiti and, knowing how we’d all appreciate the sentiment, I had to share it here. I’m not sure how practical I’d find it – do I really have that many super-short or super-tall books? Would it be as impactful once there are items actually stored in it? – but it is certainly very striking. I may not want it in my home but I love the statement it makes!
The Captive Reader 
This looks like some kind of puzzle, or a psychology test, to see how you can escape the grid! I think it’s absolutely awful, it would drive me nuts to look at that. Give me open bookshelves any day, even though they attract dust.
But thank you for showing it; it clearly demonatrates how we all like different things!
You’d definitely have books both vertical and horizontal. I read in some magazine that having shelves of vertical books can make a room feel dull & closed in (not something I’ve ever noticed, but then I’m not a decorator) – the solution is to stack some of them sideways and so on. I’ve noticed that more in photos since then.
This is really cool. I’m such a book nerd that I would put something like this in the kids’ loft. It’s the sort of thing I can see me talking dh into making during his retirement (provided I can get him to retire!) – he’ll have to do it for the grandkids some day. By the time I have grandkids, we’ll need something like this to show the next generation what real hold-in-your-hand books are, won’t we? 😉
I think I agree with you – it would probably lose impact when filled with books – but I do love the idea!
Very cool, though I don’t know how practical it would be for me. I want to see a photo of it full of books, to see if the lettering is as easy to read!
While this is not my cup of tea, there is a little part of me that thinks it would be fun to see what I could do with it. It could be interesting setting books into the different slots in color blocks or similar spines or who knows what else? It is kind of fun that the shelves actually spell out READ YOUR BOOK CASE.
This is a fun library lust!
I want that bookcase. *drools*
I’m with you – I think the impact would be lost once you got books on it. However, it’s still pretty neat!