I'm pretty sure it's related to the diabetes, as I can tell I'm not operating at efficiency. If I had an internal gauge, it would be sitting at around 70%. My thighs ache, and my fingers aren't moving as fast as my brain wants them to be; all signs of fatigue. And considering I've been sitting behind a desk all day, that's not a good sign.
Never again will I buy furniture that has cardboard as a major structural component. The Target bookshelf simply sucks ass: most "decent" pressboard furniture is made with MDF (medium density fiberboard), which is about four times more dense (and thus stronger) than the crap particleboard that these shelves are made from. And seriously, the way these shelves are designed, the backs provide the shear integrity, and the backs are made of cardboard-- and not even the "good" cardboard like in the hated Sauder products, but stuff that's half as thick (about double the thickness of a cereal box) and held together with tape. And one shelf full of DVDs, that shelf is starting to noticeably bow; I can only imagine what it would be like putting actual books on one of these flimsy bitches. I used to hate the Sauder shelves, but these things make Sauder look like sound design principles. At least I never had a Sauder bookshelf collapse under its own weight.
Consider that I made my own version of these kinds of bookshelves back in 1981, and they survived through three moves, shelves full of books and sometimes mechanical components, and they're still in good shape today. It's not that freakin' hard to do, but you have to get past the cheap-ass mentality of disposable paper furniture.
I am strongly reconsidering the plan of getting oak lumber and building the DVD shelves that I want. It's weird that on a per-foot basis, the oak select lumber isn't really all that much more expensive than buying clear pine or a sheet of MDF that would have to be ripped into strips, and it stains and finishes beautifully. Much more aesthetically pleasing than either soft pine or painted MDF.
But there is another option that I find intriguing, and that is Cellular PVC lumber. Normally it's used for trim moulding in places where moisture is a problem, but the idea of using it for shelves is intriguing-- particularly since I could use a PVC cement to glue it and it would actually be welding the pieces together into a cohesive whole. From an engineering perspective, that's cool as hell.
Still, I like the idea of oak shelves. A lot of the interior molding in the house is oak, and that consistency is nice.