Bookshelf Review

I'm going to do something different today and instead of a book review, I'm going to do a bookshelf review.

So if you remember from my sneak peak, CSN contacted me and asked if I'd like to review one of their products. I chose this:


Where you can find it on CSN's website.

First of all, I had a little bit of trouble getting it sent to me because I have a PO box and my town doesn't do mail delivery, so it had to be sent through Fedex and Purolator. It was really weird, though. I got a phone call saying that my address wasn't valid and my mom had to phone Purolator and give them our address again... but that's not CSN's fault. (Purolator sent one of my books to the wrong place, too. I don't trust them much.)

All in all, it got here fairly quickly, within a week of the order being placed, I believe (I can't quite remember, sorry). Certainly it didn't take long enough to bug me.

When it got here, it looked like this:

Giant bubble wrap! That stuff was fun. The box wasn't too terribly heavy, about the same size and weight as the when I got my two smaller bookcases. I moved it from my kitchen to the living room to assemble it by myself and didn't have any trouble.

Then, I opened it and it looked like this:

I liked how the metal sides of the bookcase were packaged seperately from the shelves and other parts, with the shelves and rods in a box on their own. I feel like that greatly lessened the chance of things banging into each other and potentially damaging something.

Unpackaged, the other parts looked like this:

It took me about an hour to put it together, which is not that long, honestly. It was very easy to assemble, and the directions were pretty clear. I did have to have my mom hold the rods while I screwed them into the sides of the shelf, but I probably could have balanced them on a chair or something if I really needed to.

If you're wonder, the shelves rest on two rods each, and then there's another rod to keep things from falling off the back of the bookshelf.

Complete (but empty) it looked like this:

(Yes, that's an Ariel pool ring in the corner. Long story.)

And with books on it:

This actually surprised me with how wide it is and how many books fit on it. It's at least as wide as my other two bookcases. As you can see, I put a ton of hardcovers on the top and almost no books on the bottom (I'm leaving them open for new books I get), and it didn't seem at all wobbly or like it would tip. I think that's probably because it is shorter, only three shelves. I would worry about the four or five shelf versions of this bookshelf tending to tip, but this one is really solid.

I like that the shelves are metal. With one of my other bookshelves, I think I hit it with the door or something and it chipped. This one obviously won't do something like that. I also think that the black metal look is very clean (and easy to dust) and the fact that the screws are black is a neat thing. Plus you can stick magnets to it! Oh, and it has little guards so the legs are easier on the floor.

It's a really good height, about three feet, and the shelves would be great for tall books. My tallest books fit very, very easily on the shelves. The bookshelf itself fits perfectly in my spare room. It's not TOO big, but it's not so small as to be utterly useless.

It's about 50 dollars, but I think for how well it's made and how many books it holds, it's worth the money.

Thanks again to CSN stores for allowing me to review this product!

Peace and cookies,
Laina