Project for books in the basement

There are several piles of books in the basement that have been driving me a little crazy. The old table that we used to have them on doesn't seem to be holding up well and I have been trying to find something to put in its place. This week, I got intrigued by the idea of building my own ladder-style bookcase. I have a bunch of scrap wood so I can pretty much do it for "free". Typically, I like to come up with a very clear image of what I want to do and then sketch the hell out of it and then build it. For this project, I have a general idea of what I wanted but decided to wing it. I know I want a fairly light frame and then pins holding big fat shelves. I wanted to cur angles or curves in the wood to make it more interesting but any more than that I am not sure. I started by cutting the wood almost to size, cutting more, and then placing pieces together in the general configuration I wanted. I wanted the shelf to be close to the wall (there are often children running around the basement and I figure its best not to invite too much destruction. I have the frame assembled so far and it is pretty much as I was anticipating. I am not quite sure what to do with the shelves now. I originally wanted to use dowels, permanently installed, in pairs, at equal intervals, so the shelves could be adjusted to various heights.
Now that I look at the thing, I am having second thoughts on the dowels. They seem a little small and idiosyncratic. Hmm, maybe I can use blocks of wood, cut at slightly odd angles (similar to the legs) to support the shelves or maybe I can use some of the brass rods or even conduit I have left over to support the shelves. I think I'll sleep on it and finish it up tomorrow. I likely will end up "finishing" the wood to match the rest of the wood in the basement. Unfortunately, that will likely have to wait until spring.