Build a better Bookshelf

Thanks! We took a gamble with that, but it works as expected.

Not at all. The shelves are 18 mm thick multiplex, but they all have a thin 20 mm strip of MDF covering their front edge (overlapping the shelves by 2 mm downwards), so the effective shelve thickness is 20 mm.

The bird's beaks vertically divide each case in increments of 53½ mm. The four practical shelve heights this allows are:

    A: 53½ mm × 4 - 20 mm:    194 mm
    B: 53½ mm × 5 - 20 mm:    247½ mm
    C: 53½ mm × 6 - 20 mm:    301 mm
    D: 53½ mm × 7 - 20 mm:    354½ mm

Other configurations don't make much sense, although I do use (53½ mm × 2 - 20 mm = 87 mm) for the special atlas shelves at the bottom.

You may have to adjust these sizes depending on the books you own (particularly paperbacks; they can have regional variations in height). If you go for the bird's beak approach (looks really classy, but a lot more work) you could increase or decrease that basic unit size of 53½ mm.

Test it all in a mock-up before you build it. :)

I used a custom jig and a router to cut the bird's beaks from 18mm multiplex (went through three router bits; gruelling work that), but you can also buy them pre-made.

Feel free to contact me on Twitter if you need more details. I'm only an amateur woodworker though. I really should write up the process of building this beast some day.

I think you may be able to tell from the first photo here:

https://twitter.com/jdhoek/status/881243775288389632

And the second photo here:

https://twitter.com/jdhoek/status/876126132734656514

So beaks at the front and back, with trapezoidal blocks that fit in between. The shelves rest on those blocks.

So how do you prefer the company collects money to pay their expenses?

Definitely not, see an article I submitted the other day for proof: )

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17940617

But: if something don't have an obvious way to monetize I fear one of three:

- I'm not the user but the product

- They're too idealistic and will disappear

- They're looking to sell out to a bigger actor, -and then my data will be abused

With an open source self hosted solution I can be somewhat safe.

With a paid product there is a bigger chance they will be smart enough not to to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs by selling out their paying customers.

Example where this worked: Basecamp

Example where this failed: WhatsApp

The problem with Google Books is search capability within "your library" really has no way to constrain itself to tables of contents and/or indices; even advanced search falls flat on its face by this measure and generally sucks hind tit by every other. I'm just imagining running a search query for "recursion" only to have Hofstadter and Wolfram comprise 90%+ of the return.

Even if full search capability is what you really want, you're limited to ebooks for which digital rights are established via Google Play purchase. For everything else that isn't acknowledged public domain, you'll get a tease preview without even a hint of completeness...if you get anything at all. Invested in a Kindle digital library? I'm liable to suspect Google gave users vested in Amazon DRM a gratuitous GTFO-not-in-my-backyard finger.

Then there's the issue of specific revisions, e.g. it doesn't matter that Google Books shows skant preview of 4e Sedra/Smith when 5e is on my bookshelf--which, oh by the way, doesn't have preview.

Then there's the issue of copyright lockdown, e.g. only one of Carroll Smith's popular ...to Win series has any preview; the others are on lockdown. Same with Milliken on vehicle dynamics, Katz on aerodynamics, and many other titles published by SAE.

(Observe how the thematic high mark we've been striving for is a mere preview.)

Which brings up the issue of availability, e.g. good lucking trying to find the Institute of Navigation's canonical GPS red books in a Google Books query, or specific translations of the Bhagavad Gita, or other rare publications that an archivist would generally not hesitate to shoot you dead if caught attempting to adulterate in a scanner.

Surely I'm not the only person on HN who maintains a tangible library that's 1000+ large and growing. Like the author, I care about what's in my library, not what Google Books superficially pretends to offer as a front to getting me to purchase books in the digital (when available) that I've already paid handsomely for. Amazon and eBay combined see roughly 70% of my bookshelves. Even if Google Books did a fair job by some objective measure, I neither need nor desire their service.