I wanted to add more to my post
. If you don't have space or $ for extra bookcases you could also just buy one three shelf bookcase ($15 at Walmart) and make it his! Fill it with old picture books and board books. Also I suggest putting the ripping paper in a cardboard box, basket, or bin. This way you can redirect him to the ripping paper if he starts to rip something and it is clearly defined only paper in ripping box is for ripping. If he starts to pull your books off the shelf, positively redirect him to his books. My two year old dd loves to be read to. Because of this she understands books have words and words tell a story. Books have a function. They are too useful and wonderful to rip wantonly. She has ripped a few pages and I have shown her how I fix them with tape. Uh-oh, the book is broken. I'll fix it! She doesn't want the books to be broken because she loves them. She will spend a good amount of time on her own looking at books and telling herself stories. So if your toddler will hold still for stories, or even parts of stories, read, read, read until he sees the value of a book. My older ds wasn't one to hold still for a story at two, so this probably wouldn't have worked for him. I had most of my books in boxes when he was one and two, but at three he could be read too and didn't rip books. But my situation was different too, because we were moving pretty frequently and hadn't settled into our home yet.
You can usually borrow sturdy board books from the library if you can't buy any right now. But be forewarned they are still possible to damage if he is set on doing so and don't get any with the little flaps, those just beg to be grabbed and torn. I've bought most of our books very cheap, .50- $1.00 at thrift stores, .50- $1.00 at library sales, sometimes cheaper or same at yard sales. I once got a bunch of picture books at a library sale for a couple bucks per a whole grocery paper bag full!
You bet your bottom dollar I got several bags worth, lol. There is also a website called paperbackswap.com. Its pretty cool. You trade books with people. There are people on there who will do deals and send out a whole box of books for super cheap. 1 credit = shipping out 1 book to someone else. But some people will give 3 books for 1 credit or even more. 1 credit equals about $3. So you can potentially buy a whole box of books for $1 (or slightly less, or slightly more depending) per book! The books have to be in good condition to be listed, so no worries on getting junky books in the mail. There is also used books store, but likely expect to pay a bit more there. Our local shop does have a shelf with books for $1, but most of the nicer books are $2-5. They do take books on trade though and I have cleaned my shelves and traded books in for over $100 worth of credit. I mostly spent this on chapter books for my older kids, but I did buy some nice picture books I wanted too. I'm pickier now about buying for the little one than I used to be because she actually does enjoy the stories, so I want good stories for her.
It should work for DS until he gets better hand strength.
