7 Bookends: Going Beyond the Purely Practical

Bookends are often a practical necessity to keep books upright. They can also be fun and decorative — especially if you have the bookshelf space to show them off. And bookends come in a wide array of materials and designs.

ThinkGeek’s Build On Bricks Bookends allow you to add your own bricks: LEGO, K'NEX and more. At first glance I wondered how supportive they were, but then I learned that there are metal pieces that slide under the books, so that should help.




These granite bookends from Field, designed by Daniel Emma, aren’t cheap — but they should certainly be effective, and they are lovely. They come in a black version, too. [via Better Living Through Design]




E15 provides these Stop marble bookends in two sizes. They’re sold by various sites around the world; The Residents is one in the U.S.




Rough Fusion makes these concrete bookends, which cost a lot less than granite or marble ones.




While these wool felt bookends come from RH Baby & Child, the company says they are “stuffed and weighted to stand up to a library of books.”





Powder coated steel bookends can be interesting, too; just look at these from Block, with two different shapes in the pair. Both have tongues that go under the books.





Bookend Singles are sold individually for those who need just one bookend, not a pair. That can easily happen if the books take up just part of a bookshelf; the shelf itself props up one end, and you only need a bookend for the other side. They bookends are made of polypropylene and they ship flat, so they're easy to store when not in use. There are also “grippy feet” on the bottom to help them stay in place. Here’s one place to buy them.


Related posts, with more interesting choices:
Nice Bookends Don't Have to Cost $685
Treat Your Books to Some Nice Bookends: The Elephant Edition
Bookends for Those Who Haven’t Totally Converted to the Kindle, Nook or iPad
5 Bodacious Bookends
For Book Lovers: Fun and Functional Bookends
A Bookend Menagerie — and More
Got Books? Get Bookends!
Heavy-Duty Bookends: Plain and Fancy