If you are decorating your house, apartment or dorm room, there's really no getting around the need for a bookcase. It's up to you whether you want a subdued furniture piece that subtly indicates your bookish intellect, or if your desire is to display your many, many books with garish delight. It then comes down to the multiple decisions of width, the height, the number of shelves, the material, color, etc. And of course, there is the option for bookcases delegated to children's rooms, or for the posh, classy living room where one of those mahogany behemoth bookshelves would best blend in.
Feng Shui Bookcase
You can also use bookcases as more stylistic devices in your home. Feng shui suggests that you pay particular attention to what kind of books you keep around, consequently redirecting the energy of the books out to the rest of the room. So you may want to keep your violent, creepy novels out of the living room, Stephen King. In fact, wall to wall jamming books into bookshelves, while necessary for some of you bookies, can make a room feel cramped and crowded. Some suggest that you keep your book shelves about half full of books (when possible) and then add a complement of some sort: a single photo would do, or a special vase that catches the light nicely. It's also preferable to get a bookcase with extra tall shelves so you don't have to worry about piling up taller books, like fine art or coffee table books.
