We just got our basement finished and bought this for our "man cave". My husband put it together and I read the directions - we messed up a few times (I missed some of the key points in the directions, but if you pay attention it seems easy to put together.) After it was built but before we screwed it into the wall (my husband doesn't like to do that) it was not level and we could push it forward or back. We leveled the floor and it was level so it is the bookcase - not sure if its something we did somehow or if they are all like that so thats why they tell you to mount it to the wall. Because of this issue we did mount it to the wall and it obviously doesn't tilt anymore. It looks beautiful and we are overall very happy with it. Now we just need stuff to put on it!