First put your hands flat together as if praying or greeting a Thai, then separate them four inches as if showing how big (between the eyes) a fish you caught. Your hands now look like two of these 6-10 distinctive, wooden bookends suspended from a support on the wall.
Looking towards the wall, one would see that the shelves fronts are slightly trapezoidal in shape (narrower at the top). The distance that separates the shelves can be determined by the shelf boards mounting slots in the wall support.
The correct number (thickness) of books is then wedged down between each shelf pair to hang for display or easy removal.-- FarmerJohn, Mar 10 2004 What happens when you remove a book?-- Worldgineer, Mar 10 2004 Nice idea, but what happens also when you have books of varying height, and the whole thing collapses (assuming it's spring-loaded?)-- mahatma, Mar 10 2004 I need a picture, FarmerJohn.-- yabba do yabba dabba, Mar 10 2004 Removing a book means it has to be replaced with one of similar thickness or the other three, or four will have to rest somewhere in the interim. No springs or book height involved.
/\[][][][]/\[][][]/\[][][][][]/\[][][][]/\[][][]/\
seen from the front, /\ = shelf, [] = wedged book-- FarmerJohn, Mar 10 2004 Anything that discourages me from reading is appreciated. +-- phundug, Mar 10 2004 Perhaps the bookends could be extended to meet at a point, forming a shape of a big V. Then when you remove a book, the stack can still be held in place. Of course, getting it back in would still be a problem.-- Worldgineer, Mar 10 2004 random, halfbakery