Forget about eyes being the window to the soul, I think you can really get the measure of a person from a quick glance at their bookshelf.It goes without saying that books bring a huge dose of atmosphere and personality to a room, especially when interspersed with other things tucked in amongst them.   
I like to hang a picture or mirror from an eye-level shelf and lean smaller pictures, objects, postcards and invitations against the books to bring depth and interest. How you choose to organise your books, be it alphabetically, by subject or even colour is up to you, but step back and take in the form of the whole effect when balancing heights and so on. Stack both horizontally and vertically to add interest, with larger books on their sides to create a platform for decorative objects.
 

Whilst most of us can’t dedicate an entire room to what would rather grandly be called a library, it is possible to put up some floor-to-ceiling shelving without a great deal of expense.It can house all your household books, including novels, photo albums, cookbooks and even children’s books all in one place, rather than having them dotted around the house on various smaller shelves which can look a bit, well, bitty.   If you have a dining room, this is a very good place for this, especially as the dining table can have flowers and piles of books and magazines on it when not in use.  Shelves behind a sofa makes for a far lovelier back drop than sitting against a large, blank wall and is less formulaic than the standard either-side-of-the-chimney-breast approach.