When it comes to your bookshelves, bookends are often a must. Whether you’re trying to keep your novels in line or attempting to tame your textbooks, bookends are a simple solution to prevent your volumes from falling over or slipping off their shelves. While their function may be the same, bookends run the gamut in terms of style and material. Ahead, find the five bookend sets that we find most noteworthy.
1. Pandapark Wood Bookends
These bookends are a happy medium, an industrial-type bookend with a flash of style. With a metal base and wooden sides, it’s a no-frills bookend that gets the job done but also looks excellent on any bookshelf. The reinforced steel base has non-skid tabs to keep them in place, and the sides measure 5.1 inches high and 3.1 inches wide. The wood itself is beech for durability and stability, available in any of eight wood stains.
2. Fox Run Marble Bookends
These marble pieces are just the thing if you want a pair of bookends that are just as much of a work of art as the novels you’re trying to keep in line. Made of natural polished black marble, these hefty triangular monoliths weigh 8 pounds each, making them stable enough to hold even the heaviest book. They each measure 4 inches wide, 6 inches tall, and 2.5 inches thick at their narrowest point—small enough to not take over, but large enough to stay strong on your shelf.
3. Acrimet Premium Metal Bookends
If you’re looking for a no-frills bookend that can stand up against scratches, movement, and more, this is the style for you. Made of metal with rectangular sides measuring about 4 by 7 inches, they come in black, silver, blue, or purple. Each bookend has a no-slip base to ensure that they hold firm even when large books are added to or removed from a row. The design may be basic, but it’s effective all the same. What’s more, the pair comes at a low price, making it a great affordable option for the classroom.
4. Officemate Bookends
To keep heavy reference books in line, trust these bookends to do the job right. They are 10 inches high and made of heavyweight steel to ensure that your books will not topple. They are L-shaped in design, and each end tucks under an outermost book to keep your stack snug and immobile. The bases are padded and nonskid, so when you move them around they will not damage the surface of your shelf, table, or desk.
5. Anwenk Vintage Bookends
These bookends are artistic but not obtrusive, with a decorative design that lies flat against your outermost books. The bookends are crafted of bronze-painted iron for strength, durability, and style. They each measure 8 inches tall with a 6-by-7-inch base plate, plenty big enough for everything from paperback novels to large textbooks. To protect your furniture, each pack comes with eight small felt pads to affix to the undersides of the bases.