Creative book storage solutions

When I first moved from Nova Scotia to Toronto three years ago, my luggage included six very heavy boxes of books. Since, that collection has only expanded, which brings up the question of how best to display all of those cherished, and space hogging, pages.

My current set up involves two bookshelves, eating up a full corner of my partially finished basement. Plus an extra shelf upstairs. At least I colour-blocked them?

While this storage method obviously works - I can see the titles, and grab them at a moment's notice, it's just not cutting it for me aesthetically.

For starters, I have too many books to alternate them with shelves stacked sideways and pretty accessories! Plus, I can't help but wonder, what do people with less space do? Sacrifice their libraries?

I don't really want to downsize my personal library, so I started to explore other storage options. Here are some of my creative favourites:

The Umbra Conceal bookshelf ($14 for the large), which actually turns your books into their own stacked wall art.

 
The Bibliochaise chair-shelf fusion from Italy's Nobody & Co.:



 A book-lined staircase, spotted on Apartment Therapy:

Using dead wall space, like above the door or up in the rafters, as seen on HGTV's StyleSheet blog:

Or how about converting an unused fireplace into your new library - as spotted in this shot from Domino?

Or, you could always just resort to piles on the floor - or a staircase, another Domino idea, picked up by the Two Tall Girls blog:

What creative ways have you seen to max out your book storage - while still keeping all your titles accessible?