LEGO Ideas and CUUSOO

Books Are My Passion

A little shelf of stacked stories that punches way above its piece count.

Brick Rated Score

3.8/5

Set 40698 · 2024

Pieces285

Minifigsn/a

Year2024

Set number40698

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The verdict

I built this one in an evening with tea going cold beside me, and it still got me, this is a set built for people who love the physical object of a book, not just the story inside it.

It leans on the same warm, cluttered-shelf charm that made the Ideas Bookshop such a hit, just shrunk down to a single vignette instead of a whole street corner. The catch is that this was released as a gift with purchase tied to Ideas buys rather than a normal retail set, so getting one meant timing a promotion, not just adding to cart. If you already have one, or you can track one down secondhand, it is a genuinely lovely little display piece for a shelf full of other book sets.

Best for: Ideas theme collectors and book lovers who want a small shelf-display piece

The full review

What it is

This is a small, book themed display build that LEGO put out in 2024 as a companion piece to its Ideas lineup, the kind of set built purely to make a shelf of books feel a little more alive. At 285 pieces it sits in that pocket-sized Ideas category, more of a vignette than a full model, and it reads exactly like what the name promises, stacks of books, cozy reading-corner details, and the sort of texture that makes you want to leave it out on a windowsill instead of boxing it back up.

The catch

Here is the honest part, this was not a normal retail release. LEGO used it as a gift with purchase tied to spending thresholds on Ideas sets, which means you could not just walk up and buy it on its own. That makes the piece count and detail level look generous for what it is, but it also means the real cost of owning one is whatever you paid to open up it, or whatever a reseller is asking now that it has left circulation. There are no minifigures here either, so if you were hoping for a little librarian to go with your bookshelf, that is not what this set is for.

Who it's for

Get this one if you already collect the Ideas book-themed sets and want the matching small piece to round out the display, or if you stumble across one secondhand at a fair price and love the concept. Skip it if you are chasing play value, minifigures, or a big satisfying multi-session build, this is a quiet accent piece, not a centerpiece.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

The build itself is fast and calm, closer to assembling a diorama than following a big set of instructions. You are stacking small book-shaped elements, layering in shelf framing, and adding the little clutter details that sell the reading-corner feeling, there is no dramatic hinge moment or tricky sub-build, it is steady, satisfying, low-stress construction from start to finish.

What stands out are the book pieces themselves, the small printed and shaped elements that read as spines and covers when stacked together are doing most of the emotional work here, and they are the parts you will actually want for other book-shelf MOCs afterward. For a 285 piece set there is decent part variety packed into a small footprint, it just will not read as strong value if you are pricing it purely against retail sets you could buy off a shelf, because this one never was one.

Fun facts

0140698 was distributed as a promotional gift with purchase tied to LEGO Ideas sets in 2024 rather than sold as its own retail item.
02Its book-shelf theme echoes the larger LEGO Ideas Bookshop set, making it a natural companion piece for that build.
03Because it was never sold standalone, it has become one of the harder small Ideas pieces to track down after the promotion ended.