Bookcases: Eleven Outstanding Projects by America's Best Craftsmen

Hello, Mr. Barrett and his team have knocked themselves out to train and educate people like me on both the asthetics and craftmanship of high quality bookcases. I am a professional instructional designer who graduated from a top three graduate program in the field (FSU) and I recognize how important it is for the subject matter expert (Mr. Barrett) to logically convey his or her teaching objectives to the reader in ways that the reader will hold fast to and generate good work from. IOW, I know I can follow the instructions while referencing the excellent exploded diagrams and produce handsome bookcases to hold and display my beloved books. My own goal and the instructional goal of Mr. Barrett and his team match cracker jackerly. Thanks for your hard work.

Bookcases are a reviewer's friend. Or rather, they are until they take over the house. Eventually you realize that you have more invested in cheap assemble-it-yourself furniture than you do in that Volvo in the garage. If you have pretensions at being handy, there will come a time when you start dreaming of nifty cabinets and lawyers bookcases - all make in that shop in the basement. And that's the time to reach for Niall Barrett's book.Think there's nothing to it? Barrett starts right out with a bit of bookcase theory. Finally you will understand why those shelves keep sagging and how to keep it from happening. The author's style is straightforward, right to-the-point, but it is clear from the beginning that Barrett loves making bookcases, and loves what goes in them as well.Eleven designs are presented, from a simple, short bookcase to and exotic formal sideboard bookcase. Other than the sideboard, which is a bit over designed for my tastes I found all of the bookcases attractive, graceful, and functional. Barrett pays most of his attention one the details of building with only elementary suggestions about finishing. As has been mentioned earlier, he uses shop tools to simplify the work. Although there is no reason that some of the simpler designs couldn't be done with basic hand tools or handyman's power tools. Probably a router and a good rotary saw (small table saw or hand tool) are minimum requirements.

In general I like almost all the books and magazines that I own from Taunton press (such as Fine Woodworking, Fine Homebuilding, and some of their other books). In general the their writers are adept at what they do and their editing and illustrations are well done.This book is no exception. Unlike several of the reviews I have read, I didn't find any glaring errors in any of the plans (I built the maple plywood bookshelf and adapted the beech bookshelf for my own needs). I find the designs and illustrations to be useful. I plan on building the cherry Shaker-style book shelf in the near future (it should be easy enought to adapt to hold my DVD collection).Of course you will need some good power tools to complete these projects, especailly a good table saw (although I built the maple bookshelf mostly with my circular saw and a good edge guide), a biscuit joiner, jointer and a router. But this is pretty standard fare for any woodworking project.

This book is filled with nice projects. I have just started working on one of the bookcases, the instructions are very detailed, even discussing finishing. The photography and illustrations are great. Looking forward to doing more of the bookcases.

This book is does and excellent job covering bookcases. There are several styles of bookcases and construction methods detailed. This gives you not only different looks to choose from but also different methods to use in building bookcases. There are many detailed diagrams, from perspective measurements to exploded views showing where the biscuits go. The simple jigs used to make the angled cuts are also covered.