Once you get these assembled, they're quite sturdy and very pretty for an inexpensive bookcase. I did swap the drawer knob for a crystal one and that was easy enough to do. Shelves are a good height for books. The one drawback to this particular bookcase is that you literally get a box of pieces--there was far more assembly than I was anticipating. The drawer was also extremely hard to figure out, although Wayfair customer support was amazing about trying to help. It took my 19 year old daughter 2.5 hours to assemble and she is an IKEA assembly whiz. I'd definitely buy again but, if I didn't have someone to assemble for me, I'd use Mayfair's assembly service.