I'll admit to being the slightest bit obsessive-compulsive when it comes to a few (just a few) things in life. One of them is the arrangement of books. Book lovers -- and most writers -- tend to have extensive collections of books and obsess over their arrangement.
My living room has a big set of built-in shelves that have been home to my "best" books since we moved in a few years ago. (By "best" books, I mean the ones I want other people to see on my shelf, as opposed to the ones I keep in my closet because they are college textbooks, or only for research purposes, or kinda nerdy, or by Max Lucado.)
I used to have my books divided into two categories: fiction and nonfiction. They were then alphabetized from left to right on my shelves, with fiction at the top. This is always how I've done it, and, yes, it's a little bit OCD.
I changed that this weekend. But instead of freaking me out, it's been OK, because I replaced that first OCD organizational system with another, equally obsessive system. I arranged my books by color. Yep, color. I was inspired by a few cool photos I'd seen on flickr of books organized that way, and I thought it looked cool.
So I did it. And you know what? It looks cool.
Anyway, thought I'd share. Here's a pic of the shelves now.
Here's a larger photo, if you want.
So now it's your turn. How do you organize your books? By author? By color? By coolness?
Please share.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Behold My Bookshelves
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10 comments:
By coolness of course...and that means Pocket Guide to the Bible is FIRST! Lol...actually since I moved 2 years ago, I haven't organized them at all. Old books are still packed up and new books are haphazardly stacked under my desk. I don't recommend my system, lol.
Currently, my books are arranged in moving boxes in my basement and in a storage facility in Melrose Park, IL. When we unpack, wherever that may be, I would like to have a select few books that I plan on keeping longterm, and a shelf of books I've really enjoyed to give to friends and visitors. These will be arranged in decending order according to the length of their first sentences counted by number of words. Ties will be resolved with preference to the greater length of the author's middle name.
Matt:
I think that's a very commonsense approach to organization. If the author's middle name is unavailable (which is often the case), I recommend dividing the number of first-sentence words by the number of chapters in the book. The lowest number gets preference. This number for Pocket Guide to the Bible, for instance, is a very low .75.
The Protestant Bible, however, would defeat the Pocket Guide with a minuscule .15 (10 opening words x 66 books).
Then again, the real Bible number wouldn't need to be calculated because we're uncertain of the Author's middle name.
I just wasted a lot of time with this comment, didn't I?
I only have 3 bookshelves. The top one has fiction. Do to the small amount of room, there is a second row of books hiding behind the first. The second and third rows are nonfiction.
Jason, we're like book-arranging soul mates ... or something. About a year ago, a graphic-design friend of mine suggested I arrange my bookshelf at work by color. I was thankful for a way to spruce up my otherwise drab cubicle. And I love the reactions I get from people who visit my desk for the first time. They act like they're the first person to notice. It's great.
My books are first divided between fiction and non-fiction. Fiction is arranged by height. Non-fiction is further divided by a combination of size and genre, followed by intermittent alphabetization (Boyett's PGTTB kicks off the Bible/Christianity/Religion shelf at B...no "A" authors yet). The tallest/biggest/heaviest non-fiction books go on the bottom shelf (lots of textbooks and yearbooks), arranged by descending height L-R, along with books of various sizes that I am slightly embarrassed to own and am glad are hidden by the end of the couch. Most of the books are spined out vertically, with a few stacks spined out horizontally for visual interest and space considerations. A deeply held though unarticulated reason for all of this exists in my subconscious, but I'd be hard pressed to explain the "system" to anyone else. But oh, there is a system.
That said, I like the color idea. Nice work, Jason.
We've got them organized by category - fiction: hubby's, mine, childrens and nonfiction: religious, cookbooks, craft/home, history & other, and then by author in each group. We've got probably 1500 at least, and so different categories are in different spaces/rooms. My hubby was an English major & a bit of snob about his books (by his own admission), so his fiction is separate from my fiction, as most of mine isn't "cool" enough for his shelves. Used to bother me just a little, but now I'm just happy when one of mine qualifies for his shelves :-)
Love the look of the colored shelves.
Ever see High Fidelity? Next in the OCD per HF is organized by chronological in relation to your life (purchased date, etc) - good luck!
I've seperated my fiction and non-fiction into different areas of the bookshelves. Then they are arranged by the height of the book- tallest to shortest.
your book collection makes me jealous. i'm a student living in london right now and i haven't been able to buy books all year b/c i have to take into account the shipping cost when we go back this fall. aargh. but your shelf looks cool :)
Even though you wrote this post some time ago, I just read it today (1/14/09). However, when we visited your house during the holidays, I did notice that your bookshelves were arranged by color! I was really impressed and you're right, it does look cool!
I might just do that with our bookshelves...except that would require quite a bit of work and I just don't see that happening! ;-)
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