Isn't there a saying about the phenomenon of prolonged stretches of seeing the same thing everywhere? If there isn't, there should be, because it's been happening to me a lot lately. This week, the subject is bookcases. Not only have I finally completed stocking ours with re-shelved books after a 1500 mile move, I'm also fixating on them throughout the virtual world of A&D. Just the other day, I wrote about Carl Hagerling's City and Cumulus, shelves that respectively embrace man's most notable constructed environment and nature's most unpredictable. Before that, fellow 3ringer Joseph examined the engaging verticality of Mauro Canfori's TEEbooks. I'd like to close out this microcosmic look at the vagaries and varieties of library shelves with Dona Living's Tesauro Collection.

Tesauro Bookcase. Designed by Dona Living.

Brought to NYC via distributor Lepere, Tesauro's free-standing case is formally conventional but conceptually bold. And I'm not saying this just because I have a fetish for red. The piece is offered in multiple materials (walnut, whitened ash, natural oak, lati wenge, ebony, or matte lacquer on the outside, with an interior surface and shelves of glass or matte lacquer). Tesauro features ultra-thin shelving and substantial spacing between tiers, which gives it an aesthetic that's slightly above the fray. But the showstopper is the heavily-lacquered interior, a choice that some may argue pushes the envelope of taste, just edging into tawdry territory. Of course, it's all about how Tesauro is incorporated. Against a backdrop of basic black-or, even better, nighttime eggplant or a rich chocolate brown-the piece provides exciting contrast with just a tinge of bordello bravura.

With that in mind, Tesauro would certainly work well in a bedroom or even a bounteous boudoir. Either way, I'd grace the shelves of mine with an eclectic range of classic Gothic and over-the-top libidinous. I'm thinking Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, perhaps even Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. But I'd be careful not to overload this particular Tesauro-because, in this case, the redder the better!