I'm in a bit of a quandry. I'm moving house, and I'm in the process of moving all my books. At present, I have three bookshelves in my living room, one for fantasy/sci-fi, one for classics and one for everything else.
My problem is that now I'm moving, one bookshelf has to go in my room, and all the old set-up goes out the window. I'll want books near me that I like reading, and it's the 'everything else' bookshelf that is going in my room ... but I also like my books to be pretty, so I don't want all my shelves to be a mess (I'm a rather eclectic reader ...)
How do you organise your bookshelf - do you have a system? Or do you (like my current flatmate) like your shelves to be unexpected?
What should I do?
Wanderer Guilden
12 years ago
Wanderer Guilden
Mage
Well, I have two book cases and a box. :P All of my Non-fiction are in the box, both from moving and because I have no where else to put them, and all of my fiction I have sorted in my book cases.
The non-fiction is sorted by subject, author and sequence in which they were released.
My fiction is slightly less organised. :P I keep buying more almost every week, so I generally have a massive sort-fest once every three or four months.
They're organised by author and title. Nothing fancy. But I have everything written down in digital and hard coppies so that it makes it a bit easier to keep track of where everything goes.
I have everything double stacked, so it's even more dificult to find books when I'm looking for them... but I have no more space in my room to put another book case and my mother won't let me put another one out in the loungeroom, because she thinks it will encourage me to get even more books.
Okay, so she may be right, but still..! :P
Maybe you could try and organise them so that the books that you're meaning to read/love to reread are all in one bookcase and the rest are in the other two? Like a mini library. :P
I have two big double-stacked bookshelves which hold most of my fiction books. One of them has the series by my favourite authors grouped together, with fantasy/sci-fi taking up most of the shelves, and other genres taking up the last couple. My other bookshelf is half fantasy/sci-fi and half other stuff. Each genre is mostly sorted by author so I can find things. My non-fiction books are single-stacked on another bookshelf. They're sorted by subject, only.
Perhaps you can do something similar, much like Hell suggested above - all your favourite authors on the bookshelf in your room, then the rest split amongst the other two shelves? Say fantasy/sci fi on one book shelf, classics on the other, and residual books split amongst the two, but still sorted by author so you can find them, or by appearance so they look good?
Wanderer Ward
12 years ago
Thu Feb 09 2012, 06:06pm
Wanderer Ward
Mage
I have three slightly over-stocked, large bookcases.
And several boxes that live at my parents' house.
Two and a bit of the bookcases hold my fiction books, organised alphabetically by author's surname, and then alphabetically by series within the author, and chronologically/in reading-order within that. The third bookcase (excluding where it's been taken over my fiction over-spill and manga) is for non-fiction. This is organised in the dewey decimal system (subject and then alphabetical).
The boxes that live at my parents contain a large-ish collection of picture/children's books, and the rest of the non-fiction - mainly my encyclopedia collections and such stuff. The only stuff out of order is the bottom shelf of the non-fiction, where I store the "coffee table books" - the giant picture-type books too big/tall to fit on the shelves normally.
I really need a new bookcase or two, but haven't the room in my tiny house to fit more!
I have a full catalogue of all the books (for insurance purposes), but as you probably know, I'm rather OCD, so you needn't copy my insane organisation!
So will it be one shelf in your room, and the others elsewhere? If so, which will be in the more accessible/frequented place? Do you want your prettiest books on display? Do you want your To-read list most accessible? Work out what will be the best solution for you - it'd suck to be forever be looking for a book on the wrong set of shelves!
Mostly my books are just arranged however they fit. I have 5 and a half shelves plus some bokks in mum and dad's bookcases. The bottom shelf is all my bigger and nonfiction stuff, the next one has all of my single and 'other' books aranged alphabettincally by author. The rest are all my bigger/favourite series, double stacked however the sizing fits and with series by the same author together but not alphabetical. I also have a small pile of books net to the bookcase of ones that I haven't read yet.
I guess the things to look at would be making the best possible use of your space (inculding keeping books of the same type together) and making sure you can get at the ones you read most often.
I have some books at Mum's still because I don't have enough bookshelves. Most of those are books I have kept from childhood though.
At my house I have my bedhead which is a bookshelf (how cool is that!?) with some favorite books and stuff like my birthday book etc in it.
The other bookshelf is organized by category and size. So the bottom shelves hold photo albums and large reference books, and above that are reference and texts from uni etc sorted by subject.
The non-fiction is organized by author in series groupings or alphabetically for single books. it looks like a mash to anyone else, but I know exactly where to find a book I'm looking for.
Also I have a shelf in my workroom with all my craft, jewellery, woodworking etc references and magazines in it.
My book shelves are organised???? Wow, news to me
In my room, are all the books that I alone read. I have one floor to ceiling bookshelf, on the top shelves are the classics and books I don't read much anymore. The rest of the shelves are my favourites, and the books I plan to read. We have two huge shelves in the 'play area' full of books me and my brother read, sorted by author, but not by genre - we have Roald Dahl next to Dianna Wynne Jones. The rest of my books...are in boxes....and crates...and piles...in my cupboard...and under my bed...and in the study....
I have my very own library at home. My hubby converted the spare room into a library with shelving built directly onto the walls on three sides with the bed against the fourth. It's pretty epic.
I have one section dedicated to my favourite authors arranged in order of preference. Then the fiction shelves are arranged in genre and then author alphabetical with series in chronological order. The non-fiction is arranged in true dewey decimal, being a librarian I actually catalogued my books and have them sorted down to 4 Dewey decimals.
I then have a separate shelf at the bottom for my magazines. Then a separate section for my study guides and uni books.
The husband has told me that I need to have a cull as I am starting to overflow and have just asked for a new bookshelf for the lounge room :P He's not impressed...
Nataaliya - your own library? I am officially green.
Hmmm, I suppose my problem is double stacking - I double stack books that I'm not too keen on reading, mostly on the third bookshelf that is going in my room (the other two are matching ones I got my grandfather to build - each shelf is just big enough to fit a hardcover book) the third shelf perforce has to take the brunt of my double stacking as well as holding any book bigger than a trade hard cover (such as my grandfather's encyclopaedias from 1911), so it isn't as neat as the other two.
I just wish that there was a way of magically making all my books the same size - it would make stacking sooooo much easier
I have to keep all my books on a bookshelf in a seperate room as my room's way too small.
The first two shelves are smaller than the third so they hold the more standard sized books. The first shelf has paperbacks and the second has hard covers, then they are divided according to series/authors etc.
The third shelf has larger books (encyclopaedias, dictionaries, larger picture books that I can't bare to throw out =P)
I have a thing where I like to be organised and its just way easier to find everything that way.
12 years ago
Thu Feb 09 2012, 11:10pm
I have three shelving units, one long shelf, and other assorted places where books are stacked and piled. I have a classics corner on the long shelf, a Japanese lit. corner at the end of the other shelf, a specific shelf for my encyclopedias, dictionaries and textbooks, and most of the books on my dresser that are sandwiched between a bookend, and several kitschy items such as a cat figurine, ceramic jar and vintage print can are fairy and fairytale related. I also have books stacked in piles on my desk, on my dresser, and everywhere. And books are balanced horizontally on books stacked vertically on shelves. I, of course, know where everything is. My room is my library, my library is my paradise. It probably looks like chaos to everyone else.
I also have to live in the room... but when I move out there will be a room for my books. A whole room, that I don't live entirely in.
It's pretty awesome :D Alyse, Can you tell my husband that! haha!
My library is my retreat from everything else. There is no TV, no radio, no electronics of any kind (other than a light and a fan/air-con) to distract me. I even leave my phone in the lounge room, which is adjacent, so that i am not tempted to sit there and play with it or look at facebook etc. I can go in there and leave the rest of the world at the door. It's my little piece of paradise.
Could you swap the books on the shelves? For example, the books on the case that has to go in your room, are they small enough to fit onto one of the cases your grandfather built? Could you just do an entire swapsie?
You could then have all your fantasy books in your room on one case, all your sci-fi on another and all the "other" books on the other case. Or sci-fi in your room etc etc. So it would be the same system, you would just rotate the shelves that they are on..?
Do you have many books that are larger than a standard trade hardcover? Could you perhaps lay them horizontally on the bottom shelf and stack them? That can look quite fetching if you put, say, a book end or some other decoration between the stacks.... or lay them horizontally with books that fit vertically in between the stacks... Or, do you have too many large books for that to work?
God I'm so jealous. My mum keeps saying that when we movve out she's going to turn my room into a library and my brother's room into a sewing room...which is all very well and good...except I'm not there to enjoy it!
What's your book count btw? Approximately how many books do you have in your house total?
book count? I don't know ... On an estimate, I have 250-300 on each of the the two main bookshelves, then 350-400 ish (it varies a lot) on the third set of shelves - i did a cull recently of about 40 books, but I'm fairly certain that I've bought that many over the past few months ...
I stopped actually counting a while back - counting makes you think about the number of books you have, rather than the content of the books. I'd give myself goals to reach as to the number of books i needed to get to ...
12 years ago
Fri Feb 10 2012, 09:29pm
What is this "organise" of which you speak?
I wanted to do all the books alphabetically by author and then in reading/publication order within author, but I lost that argument (the opposing view being that it looked too messy).
So our books are grouped by author but the authors aren't in any particular order other than to put sci-fi and fantasy in one bookcase and girly books and "classics" in another. Textbooks on the bottom shelf, and other genres wherever they happened to fit.
Of course it ended up messy anyway once we ran out of space and had to start putting books on top of others. Then we ran out of room again and had to start stacking books in front of others.
It's just, at our house we keep a database, and everytime we go to a booksale (Brisbane Lifeline Bookfest is the biggest sale of it's kind in the world) We print off lists so we won't double up on books (sometimes it doesn't work). But I believe our total at the moment is somewhere up near 5000 books...
I do regular culls - I don't keep books that I won't read again. It's not worth it - and there's always someone who will want to read it - so I send them to charities.
I should use the library more often ...
Mystic Guilden
12 years ago
Mystic Guilden
Mage
I didn't think I had a system, considering I don't have many books and even less room to put them, but then I saw this thread, so I took a look at my book collection.
I have one shelf for my books, but it's deep enough to have three rows of books (depending on size). For the most part my system involves grouping books by author, less read books go to the back (So I don't have to dig them out as often), less popular of my more often read books go on the left and when you reach the right side it's the most often read books. I currently have a few lying on their side on top of the other rows because they are either too big (i.e TSK, TS) to stack normally, or I plan to read them soon. The latter reason goes for the books in the very front row.
So....more complex than I first thought ~:| Can't wait to have my own library at home! :)
I have 2 bookshelves in my room. Luckily, my parents figured that I loved reading when I was a kid and built the bookcases for me so that 1 sits on top of my bedside drawer, and the other one sits on top of my desk. As I got older though, I ended up having to cull a lot of my books and I ended up giving a lot of books away to the Salvation Army, or to younger cousins/nieces/nephews.
At the moment, I usually group it by author and keep all the books in a series together, but for some I group it in genre (e.g. cooking/foodie books are put together). I also like it when the artwork on the book covers are all in the same style for the whole series. Maybe it's just me, but I love how it looks on a bookshelf.
12 years ago
Sun Feb 12 2012, 06:42pm
I look forward to the day where I'll have actual bookshelves! I live at home and basically have no space for my books. I also share a room with my sister, and my books are literally hidden in all sorts of areas: under the bed, under the desk... just everywhere.
So it's hard for me to actually have any ordering for my books. When I do look for a book, my room kind of looks like a bomb hit it!
I hope to move out some time this year and will have my own room filled with bookshelves!
We don't normally cull our books, but every once in a while we do. We had a big clear out at the beginning of last year. Nothing like a flood for putting things in perspective. If we didn't care about it enough to put it up high, it wasn't worth keeping.
I have somewhere around 350-400 at the moment, but I tend to buy a book a week on average, so by the time I move out I'll be at 500 at least. I'm currently trying to restrain myself and not just binge buy all the time. I'm a bit addicted to the Book Depository, and all of the workers at my local bookstore know me by name.
12 years ago
Tue Apr 17 2012, 12:51pm
I have one massive bookshelf and one slightly smaller one. Everything is in alphabetical order. I don't care if a taller book looks odd next to a shorter book - if it's in alphabetical order then that's the way it goes. I made a catalogue last year of my books but since I bought more I probably need to make a new one. I don't know how many I have but I'm guessing a few hundred. I also buy copies of books if the editions are older or rarer. I'm a bit CDO with my books :P
I live in two places, so I sorted my books into two categories: those I cannot live without, and those I don't mind seeing occasionally. The first category is about three times the size of the second...but all of those are kept where I can happily see them, sorted alphabetically by author surname. Where the author has written a series, they're in series order, and where the author has written stand-alone books, they're in alphabetical order. A little bit OCD perhaps, but it means I can easily find the book I want to check something in!
