How do you arrange your bookshelf?

oblivion · Sun Mar 14, 2010 12:48 pm

Arrange?????????????????????

bleachededen · Sun Mar 14, 2010 1:24 pm

3amd5.Royo · Tue Mar 16, 2010 2:28 am

I organize the books in my bookcases first by size, then author. I sort of have them by genre, but very loosely, and I'm not too concerned on that aspect. All the shelves also have a theme, but the theme is mostly about the feel I had when I read them. The more serious books are at the bottom, and they get weirder and more light-hearted as they go up!

I have two bookcases, one is for the books in better condition, and the other is for older books, or ones I wasn't really thrilled by, although I recently sold three boxes of books to Powell's.

In my main bookcase, the bottom shelf has big heavy short story anthologies, photo albums, and a small collection of magazines (mostly National Geographic and Vogue).

The next shelf up has both old fantasy series I absolutely loved (Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time) and other fiction I've been meaning to read (Amy Tan, Alice Walker, and Jean Auel).

The third shelf up has my graphic novels (mostly Neil Gaiman's Sandman series) and some of my eccentric books, such as The Vagina Monologues and Clockwork Orange. Fantasy genre short story anthologies also go on this shelf.

The second shelf from the top has all the series and authors I'm currently interested in. Right now I have Anne Rice, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Catherynne M. Valente.

My top shelf is full of manga and anime series, which I find is becoming my new obsession. I also have a random assorment of prayer books and an antique copy of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, lol.

My other bookcase (and the shelf in my closet) have an assortment, with my old World Civilization and Women's Culture textbooks (which I love to read for fun!) children's books (which I'm also starting to collect!) my drawing pads, writing pads, and photography albums!

I really liked this thread! Lol, I enjoyed reading the responces more than I thought I would!

wilde · Tue Mar 16, 2010 8:44 am

I keep all of my graphic novels in my dresser. That way there's 0% chance of them getting knocked down and... bent (the horror!). :lol:

Not as bad as my dad though.. he collects comics and keeps them all in those white boxes. And you know where he puts those white boxes? My closet.

Pinkpaper · Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:52 am

Oh, I keep the books I've yet to read in my bedside table and books I have read but need to take to the Charity shop in a box under my bed. Its just photo albums and cookery books on my bookshelf

Kevin · Tue Mar 16, 2010 1:02 pm


	bleachededen wrote: I like the cat hair, that was funny. Does the cat like to read? Which books does the cat gravitate toward? That would be cute -- a cat who liked to read. Maybe I should write a children's story about it.

Yes certianly cats like to read. Frankie here is an avid Chomsky reader.

He does however find intracacies of geopolitical maneuverings exhausting at times.

I have four bookshelves. The first I'll mention is the "TO READ" Bookshelf. I place books on it in the order in which I intend to read them. I do allow myself the option of deviating from this scheduled order. At times in my reading I will be wild & unpredictable. An example: I might close my eyes, wave my arms around, and read the first book I happen to make contact with. It's almost like a mating ritual in some ways! As the bookshelf progresses along the path of being completely full to only partially full I will at some point add more books. This brings me to Bookshelf #2.

This one isn't actually a bookshelf. It is shelving and there are nothing but books on it. I'm including it. I recall now once being asked to answer the question 'What is a wooden desk?' It was a multiple choice question with answers such as A) wood B) a thing on which to place other things C) densely packed atoms and so on. So, this "bookshelf" has the purpose of being the place where I store the books that are waiting their turn to join the major leagues of bookshelf #1.

Bookshelf #3 is in the living room and is the one on which I place those books I figure I'll most likely want to refer to. I have various philosophical, political, animal, and religious works here. This is Frankie's favorite bookshelf.

Bookshelf #4 is in a spare room and houses books I doubt I'll want to refer to or even read again any time soon. And yet, I doubt it to the degree that I'm not comfortable with banishing them to a cardboard box or, more boldly still, selling them.

caseyjo · Tue Mar 16, 2010 1:22 pm

Frankie is adorable! Any cat that reads Chomsky is fine by me ;-)

I wish I had four bookshelves. In my adult life I've never had quite enough room for book storage. This can change now that I live in a one bedroom apartment without roommates, but I still have to find money to buy more bookcases!

bleachededen · Tue Mar 16, 2010 3:03 pm

Kevin, thank you for the photos, that made my day and answered my question!! I love it.

johnson1010 · Tue Mar 16, 2010 3:52 pm

I arrange my bookshelf(s) by book size. Some books don't fit in some spaces, so they end up by mass. Also, i get no small amount of help re-arranging my books from my cat Chairman Meaow, who likes to wedge himself behind the first row and push at them with his feet.

bleachededen · Tue Mar 16, 2010 6:54 pm

Chairman Meaow :lol:

I love it!

grahdenn66 · Thu Mar 18, 2010 2:32 pm

i arranged my bookshelf in 2 parts.in one parts there are only story and novel books and another the poems.
Both of the parts are arranged alphabetically of authors.
in the bottom part there are library and textbooks as well as my favorite books are also there

Theomanic · Mon Mar 22, 2010 12:47 pm

I'm a little OCD and I get antsy and upset if my books are NOT organized alphabetically. As such, I have my Fiction all alphabetically, then sorted alphabetically by title except in cases of series which are sorted as if the series title is the title of the book, and then in order of the series (not in order of publishing, like Narnia which was published in a wacky order). I have separated out series Fantasy (Dragonlance and such) which I have sorted by sets and then in order of timelines, and I have a separate bookcase for my "18 and under" books which are alpha sorted like Fiction. Any non-fiction books are sorted by category and then by author, except the computer books which are sorted by programming language and then by author. Graphic novels are sorted by title character/team, then by series order. Humour is sorted by author. .... yup! I guess the system is a little more intricate than I realized - it all seems really obvious to me.

I don't sort out my Fiction genre books because I feel often the line is blurry - for example, Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World is sort of a sci-fi novel, but sort of a fiction novel. But humour, nonfiction, and youth novels are pretty easy to separate.

I pretty much sort everything in my house. My DVDs are organized alphabetically, as are my blu-rays (they are not combined). My clothes are sorted by colour, as are my pens in my desk jar. When I see a bunch of anything that is not sorted but it could be, I really hate it. Gives me a gitchy feeling... hard to explain. Like I'm repressing a shudder. So it's much better to have it all sorted! If I ever remember, I'll take a pic of my bookcases. They make me very happy.

Theomanic · Mon Mar 22, 2010 12:53 pm


	Kevin wrote: I have four bookshelves. The first I'll mention is the "TO READ" Bookshelf. I place books on it in the order in which I intend to read them. I do allow myself the option of deviating from this scheduled order. At times in my reading I will be wild & unpredictable. An example: I might close my eyes, wave my arms around, and read the first book I happen to make contact with. It's almost like a mating ritual in some ways! As the bookshelf progresses along the path of being completely full to only partially full I will at some point add more books.

I know a lot of people who have "To read" shelves. Personally, it would drive me crazy to have those books pulled out and not where they belong. But also, I find what I want to read next entirely depends on my mood. So I wouldn't really see a point in having a "What to read next" thing going on because if I didn't want to read that sort of book next, I wouldn't. So I just keep all my books together - I know what I have and have not read. In a way it's fun like a bookstore, because I just skim the titles and think "Hmm... oh, that one looks neat!" and go with it.

Also, I have all my books in Delicious Library, so if I ever want to peruse and see only things I've not read, that's very easy to do.

caseyjo · Mon Mar 22, 2010 1:42 pm


	Theomanic wrote: Also, I have all my books in Delicious Library, so if I ever want to peruse and see only things I've not read, that's very easy to do.

I have Delicious Library as well, and I love it. I just found all the Library of Congress call numbers for my books, and I think I'm going to start organizing them that way. I used to work in an academic library, so library of congress in conjunction with Delicious makes sense to me. I'm not great with names so I often forget what a book is called or who wrote it, but I can usually remember the subject.

bleachededen · Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:00 pm


	Theomanic wrote: I'm a little OCD and I get antsy and upset if my books are NOT organized alphabetically. As such, I have my Fiction all alphabetically, then sorted alphabetically by title except in cases of series which are sorted as if the series title is the title of the book, and then in order of the series (not in order of publishing, like Narnia which was published in a wacky order)

Narnia was published the way it was because Lewis didn't write The Magician's Nephew until after he'd written all of the others, and I believe The Horse and His Boy was also written after the rest of the series was published, so there's a discrepancy in how they are marketed. Some publishers sell the series ordered in chronological order according to their place in the Narnia story, and some publish them in the order they were written. Anytime I own this series or look for it, I make sure to have the series arranged according to Narnia time, even though I originally read them the opposite way. Reading The Magician's Nephew last is actually kind of interesting, like watching the Star Wars prequels after watching the originals (except better written and not at all disappointing :-P

).


	Theomanic wrote: I pretty much sort everything in my house. My DVDs are organized alphabetically, as are my blu-rays (they are not combined). My clothes are sorted by colour, as are my pens in my desk jar. When I see a bunch of anything that is not sorted but it could be, I really hate it. Gives me a gitchy feeling... hard to explain. Like I'm repressing a shudder. So it's much better to have it all sorted! If I ever remember, I'll take a pic of my bookcases. They make me very happy.

I feel the exact same way. I can't leave my house if my bed isn't made and the couch and coffee table are all straightened and the ashtrays are empty. I have been late for appointments because of this, but it would drive me crazy all day if I knew my home wasn't going to be in order when I came back to it. To me, an unmade bed is like a sign that I'm not really awake for the day and leaves me scatterbrained and crazy. OCD girls unite! :lol:

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