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David wrote:
I want to put up a large-ish bookshelf, along the following
'pigeonhole' design. I want to make it from maple-effect contiboard

I've built bookshelves all over our house (we have several thousand
books) to a standard design using pine shelving and 10mm dowelling as
the vertical supports. The oldest have been up for five years or so
now and show no signs of failing. To use contiboard shelving you'll
need more dowelling verticals but that should be all.

Thanks very much for all the replies.
Yes, the above is how I'd envisaged my setup working...

People always ask "is that dowelling strong enough to carry the
weight" but as it's just in compression it really isn't an issue.
Visitors are often impressed by the apparent fragility and lightness of
the construction.

I have a pair of dowels at about 60-70cm intervals, one a couple of cm
from the front of the shelf and one a couple of cm from the back.
Most of the shelves run right down to floor level and for these I have
a bottom shelf that actually rests on the floor and has blind holes to
support the dowels so the weight of the books rests on the floor. A
fairly lightweight fixing to the wall is then all that's needed to
prevent the whole lot tipping forwards. The shelves are simply
screwed to the dowels, I don't find visible screws obtrusive but you
could cover them if you wanted.

You just lost me there...! how do you mean, the shelves are screwed to the dowels?

Thanks
David