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Friday, September 16, 2011
Bookshelves - A Lesson in Organization
In a struggle to make the bedroom in my parents house feel more like my old apartment I decided it was time to organize my bookshelves. Now, I don't actually have enough space for all of my books, but I just couldn't deal with shelf after shelf of Bronte next to Veerland and The Princess Diary books jammed against The Shadows of the Wind. Life's been out of control and my state of mind was being reflected through the haphazard placement on my bookshelves.
So I'm in the process of organizing my abundance of books, and remembering that in terms spacial things I'm just terrible.I could never be an interior decorator, or an engineer. My biggest accomplishment so far has been organizing books by genre and then alphabetizing. So far I have done classics, historical fiction and a very tiny YA shelf. My contemporary fiction sections is posing much more of an issue. This got me to thinking, is there a better way to organize my books? Is it simpler to Jane Austen and Dan Brown side by side? What about by spine color? How are your shelves organized? I'm dying to know! Extra points if you include pictures!
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5 comments:
Most of my books are in my parents basement because I have no room. I would organize them by genres. I love seeing them organized my color.
I organize mine by genre, then size, then author, though I think this organization system works only because I own so few books. I do most of my reading by way of library books, so I only have a few shelves to deal with.
First, I organize by genre or status. The groupings are: read fiction, anthologies and textbooks, nonfiction, poetry and plays, to-read, and things I'm currently using for my classes. There is a separate pile for books I want to get rid of. I guess this genre system works because I read so few genres, mostly literary fiction and classics. Since all of my "read" books are of the same genre, I don't have to distinguish any further. I might someday separate the science fiction from the rest of the fiction, but for right now I don't really own enough books for that to matter, and my literary fiction and science fiction sections overlap in people like Ursula K. Le Guin.
So once I've separate by genre I organize by size, from tallest to shortest. the only exception is that I put all the books by the same author together, even if some of them are shorter than others. My bookshelves look like a smooth diagonal line with the occasional blips where I'll own both a paperback and a hardcover by the same person.
I'm just now realizing how little sense this all makes. Maybe I should just organize them alphabetically within the genres instead of by height...
You should definitely do a before and after picture! That would be a great sight to see :)
I agree with Jillian...a before and after pic would be awesome! I definitely need to get more organized with my books! :P
My large bookcase in the library is arranged by color. Here's a link with pictures: http://www.bookhookedblog.com/2011/02/new-bookcases.html
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