My books look so pretty! (Argos Beech Tall Wide Bookcase)

Member Name: aylawarner

Product:	Argos Beech Tall Wide Bookcase
Date:	04/11/09 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Stylish and modern, great value, fits lots in

Disadvantages: None for me

Due to my obsession with books, the piles of them were mounting up in my house. I didn't have anywhere to store them so instead they were piled up on the floor against the wall which wasn't such a great place as it made the living room look messy, and my lovely 2 year old cousin would come round every weekend and knock them all over. So I was forced into buying some book shelves to put them on.

I found a nice bookshelf in the Argos catalogue for £34.99 which matched with some of the furniture I already had. It is a tall wide bookcase which comes in the colours beech, maple, pine and walnut. I opted for the beech as it's a more neutral colour and I already had a couple of beech things in the same room. The measurements (height 180cm, width 78cm, depth 20cm) of this bookcase were perfect for it to tuck in nice and snug into the cove under my stairs. The depth of the bookcase is only quite small (there is another bookcase in this range which is deeper) but is perfect to fit all my books on and means that it doesn't stick out in the room much at all. It will only really fit reading books and small books (both big hard back and paper back ones), it won't fit anything larger such as big cook books and encyclopaedias, etc. The case has 6 shelves - one of these is the bottom shelf and the other 5 shelves, which are 18mm thick, are all height adjustable so can be moved around to suit your own needs.

The bookcase is self assembly and it needs 2 people to put it together. This one is a little difficult as it requires lots of banging in of nails and lining things up correctly so for the unskilled or untrained DIY person (i.e. myself) it's a hopeless task. I had no clue where to even start and was lucky that my grandad was around to help out as he's the King of DIY and found it easy enough to assemble! Together it took us around an hour to put up with my grandad doing the majority of the nail banging and me just generally helping out and holding things up. It comes with a small security hanging strap so that it can be attached to the wall which works well for me as it stands on the carpet and so leans slightly. Plus my cousin can't now come round and knock the entire thing over.

It's made out of particle board so it's quite thin but not at all flimsy. It's fairly lightweight once put together but because it's quite big it would need 2 people to move it. The colour and texture is wonderful, it feels very smooth and has a nice shine and looks quite stylish and modern.

I was so excited to finally get it up and to be able to put all my treasured books on it. You should have seen me - it was like the bookcase was the best present that I'd ever received, even though I'd bought it for myself! Everyone who comes over now tells me how nice my lovely new bookcase looks and, full of books, it does make the house feel a lot more homely and it certainly looks much nicer than having a pile of books stacked up on the floor. My mum's partner liked it so much that he actually went out and bought exactly the same one!

I didn't think I'd be able to fit all my books on here but the amount that it can hold is surprisingly deceptive and almost all of my books managed to fit in it. Because it has a small depth, this means that there's no room to put any little bits and bobs in front of the books so it also looks very neat and tidy. Seeing as I'm a bookaholic I know that I'm going to need another bookcase soon enough and I will definitely be getting the same one again as this one is absolutely perfect.

Summary: A very affordable and great looking bookcase