I went to Lowes today and actually found 2 options. A nice satin nickel finish one for 24.99 and one that was more chrome colored with plastic brackets for 12.99. I liked the nickel one but the brackets seemed to be a bit large and I was concerned that my children wouldn't be able to close the shower curtain all the way to the wall - increasing the liklihood of a flood with each shower. So I ended up with the cheaper one. Not the best quality, but hopefully it will last long enough for me to find some things to sell on ebay so I can afford the one on Homeclick :-).

Fori, I talked to a lady a long time ago that bought the 47" shelf and shortened it. The rods have a plug in the end that is threaded in the center. To assemble the shelf, you put a screw into the end from the outside of the bracked into that hole in the end of the rod. She cut the rods to the correct length and then knocked the threaded center plug out of the cut-off end from the inside. Then she put some epoxy into the end of the shortened rod and inserted the threaded center plug. She said it worked like a charm! My hood is 36" and I used the 32" shelf. So there is only 2" between the ends of the shelf and the cabinets.

I would not put books on the IKEA shelves. I have pottery on some IKEA shelves and they seem to be holding up well -- but they also don't get the contact, on-and-off action that a bookshelf would get. But this photo will give you an idea of whether they (or other shelves of their thickness) look substantial enough for your needs. \ I don't know that there are many floating shelves that "off the rack" can support the weight of books. You may have to look at getting something custom-made. I saw some interesting metal shelves once in dwell. Very thin steel metal was fabricated in an "L" shape with one leg of the "L" fastened directly to the studs of the wall, and the other leg sticking out horizontally to form the shelf. Then the drywall was applied BETWEEN the shelves. You could then attach a chunky shelf to it. But that would entail tearing your house apart! Barring that, I'm not sure how to do it. There are these from PB that have up to a 100# weight limit. (I think IKEA's are only something like 15-25#). Here is a link that might be useful: PB floating shelves

there are lots of different ways to do this. check out etsy for pictures....take note of how much (how little) weight most of these shelves are supporting: https://www.etsy.com/market/floating_shelf check out ikea - the downside of these is that the shelves are mostly (all?) not adjustable width: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/living_room/20660/ check out rubbermaid closet systems - you don't have to use their shelves, but they have a horizontal stud-attachable bar, from which you can hang vertical rails to support brackets - the vertical rails don't have to be over a stud. not the most aesthetically pleasing option, but you could make it work (for example, position the horizontal bar so it will be hidden by the top shelf). finally, customfloatingshelves.com seems to sell a quality, beautiful product (but I have not seen it first hand).