An article on The Dollar Stretcher suggests doing more with books than reading them...

Decorate!

Many of us probably have some stacked in corners or shoved onto shelves. Could this be the start of a no or low cost decorating idea? Check out the article. 

Good article, great ideas.  I have two bookcases in the living room with all of the kid's books in them.  The bookcases stand about 4 ft tall, similar in height to what you'd find at a library.  I've started standing various books on top of the bookcases, "highlighting" them for the kids.  I rotate them, so that the kids can grab them easily.  It's fun, I like doing it.

Another idea I saw is to use old books and actually make decorative accents out of them.  It looks cute and pretty easy to do, I saw it on a blog I follow.  Here is a link to the blog that has instructions and pictures on how to do it if anyone is interested:

http://gorgfabgoodies.blogspot.com/2010/01/modpoged-books.html

I love this article. I've got books in every room in my house. I can't imagine my house without books; I've been in houses where there are no books in sight, and they seem...I don't know, empty somehow. Something vital is missing. I love the idea of using books to decorate; when I clean the living room, the last thing I do before I pronounce myself finished is place a couple of books on the coffee table. Something different each time, so people have something new to peruse. And I made sure, when we got a 'new' entertainment center for the TV and our DVD collection (it was new to us but really secondhand!), to put books on some of the shelves instead of just letting them fill up with DVDs. My way of reminding the family that there's more to life than just sitting there staring at the boob tube! LOL!