It's a basic bookcase, made with a pine skeleton and with plywood in other places. Pine isn't an expensive wood, nevertheless part of the top is plywood, so there is colour mismatching, which looks odd. The plywood parts are quite rough to the touch. The instructions are just pictures but ok to follow, apart from not showing the four dowels you need to put into the top to help secure it to the frame. It's a very light bookcase and only really becomes stable once you have tacked on the back panels. I'm not overjoyed with it because the wood finish doesn't look very good, I probably should have paid a bit more for an oak one or picked the painted version, but it will hold the books I have, it is serviceable enough just not very attractive.