We didn't want the books to be décor. The shelves at the back of the room are populated with actual reading: poetry, short essays, a few novels, a quietly growing section of borderland writing. There's a notecard tucked in each one. If you want to take a book home, you write your name on the card and drop it in the wooden box. Bring it back when you're done. Or pass it on.
It works because we trust it to. About 80% come back. The 20% that don't are mostly out in the world, with new readers, doing what books are supposed to do. We figure that's a fair trade.
The reading corner has become the slow corner of the room. People take afternoons there. A regular Thursday group has formed without us asking it to. We brought them an extra teapot last month.