The more poetical the bookshelf, the more negative comments we receive here at 3rings about the shelf’s practicality. I recognize that deviant designs have their limitations. Some bookshelves offer only limited space for actual books; others force you to place the books in directions that might damage their spines; and so on. While these are valid complaints, books are fantastic beings that welcome transgressive housings. They mean to broaden horizons, so their bookshelves should echo that expansion of reality. Why keep books chained to linear stacks, imprisoned by parallels?

Short Circuit. Designed Alexandra DiCairano.

If you’re willing to stretch your concept of a bookshelf, then Alexandra DiCairano’s Short Circuit Shelf might work for you, especially for technophiles. This shelf represents a section of a computer motherboard—magnified to a much larger scope. DiCairano explains, “Beauty is sometimes overlooked because of scale. Circuit boards have a beautiful and efficient pattern that perfectly serve their function.” Just as circuitry holds digital information, the Short Circuit Shelf holds “the physical information found in books.” Even though the bookshelf enlarges the miniature conductive pathways, it is itself rather small: each unit holds a dozen or so books (or DVDs or CDs or whatever other electronic thing you might have a desire to shelve—can you tell I prefer documents over data?). Ideal books for the Short Circuit Shelf are 2001, 1984, The Cyberiad, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I could suggest fitting films, but I won’t—despite the beauty of circuitry, I am a philobiblist first.