I have to say I'm impressed with the weight the shelves can withstand. I have hundreds of pounds of books, and they don't stress the bookshelf a bit.

For your money, this is a great buy. The faux wood looks great, but when you touch it, you can tell it's not real. The bookshelf had a few chips on the wood shelves, but the don't face the room, so it's not noticeable. Otherwise, it's a ton of space for displaying object or holding many, many books.