Books, shelves, and posers!

[Cloud]

I'd like to know how you organize your books (or if you do) and if you have any clever storage solutions. My dream is to have an actual library with enough feet of shelf space to hold all my books!

I read this recently in a magazine: "Books look best grouped together by color or size." Who organizes their books for looks? POSERS who don't read! Who have pretty books sitting on extensive bookshelves with knickknacks interspersed. Bah!

At my most organized, I group them by fiction and non fiction, and try to keep individual authors and series together. I've tried alphabetizing, but that's just too anal for me.

At my worst, books, magazines and reading materials of all sorts are spread out in a semicircle around where I sit.

Why, oh why, don't they make bookshelves for paperback books? Most bookshelves are too deep and too high, wasting space for standard paperback book. I end up stacking them horizontally and in layers, which never looks right and makes it difficult to spot them.

Anybody have any good bookshelf sources or ideas?

[nixie]

Mine are A to Z of author.Paperbacks mixed with hardbacks.Books piled on top of others.Boxes, my mum's spare room.Top of fridge freezer anywhere I've space.I really do need need to invest in some more book shelves.

[Aes]

Mine are only sorted by series, (All Blahblah of Shannara books together, for example) as I don't really have enough to where I'd need to alphabetize or anything.

[carrie221]

Mine are sorted by some series like all Starwars together and all Harry Potter but most are in just a missmash of books on my shelves

[Adasunshine]

Mine are shelved by size, it looks nicer.

I try to keep series together if I can but I'd rather them look neat so, for example, I have 2 Erikson on one shelf, one on another and one on a different one, simply because that's how it's panned out. If they were all the same size, they'd all be together but they're not so meh!

It's this way no matter where in the house they're living, my children's books are also shelved by size, the ones in the downstairs bathroom are shelved by size, I just like it that way!

It helps that I have a good memory, I always know where a book is!

xx

[the smiling weirwood]

I organized mine by favoritism. My favorites are at eye level(easier to get to) the rest are in order of favor. They are all, however, grouped by author and series becuase I tend to like all of an author's work more or less equally.

[BookStop]

Everytime I get the re-arranger bug, I organize my books by preference, then height, keeping like authors together if I can. Of course, this only lasts a week or so, then it's where ever the little boogers will fit!

[littlemissattitude]

Well, when I had to leave most of my books behind when I moved last year, I ended up with just a little over enough shelf space to keep all my books. So, I sorted this way - one shelf for science fiction and fantasy books - plus other fiction as it fit, one shelf for books relating to beliefs systems, one shelf for other non-fiction, one shelf for library books rotating in and out.

Well, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I've still got the shelves as noted, but the library book shelf has turned into a shelf for hardbacks I've accumulated since I moved in (at 10 cents a pop, used, at the library, there's now too many of those to fit), and anything and everything is doubled shelved whereever it will fit. As soon as I can get another bookshelf in, the organization will go back to fiction area, belief systems area, and other nonfiction area.

Oh, and the library books? They now live up against the wall at the foot of my new bed. It's a little cubbyhole where no one ever steps but me, so that they won't get tripped over, and I got really tired of having them stacked on the floor next to my work table. But, I've still got a stack of my own books there. So, at least there's only one stack on the floor in the living room now, rather than two.

[mosaix]

Well I have one bookcase for chess books, another for astronomy and another for sci fi.

The rest are more or less split between fiction and non-fiction.

[mosaix]

Originally Posted by littlemissattitude

Well, when I had to leave most of my books behind when I moved last year, I ended up with just a little over enough shelf space to keep all my books. So, I sorted this way - one shelf for science fiction and fantasy books - plus other fiction as it fit, one shelf for books relating to beliefs systems, one shelf for other non-fiction, one shelf for library books rotating in and out.

Well, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I've still got the shelves as noted, but the library book shelf has turned into a shelf for hardbacks I've accumulated since I moved in (at 10 cents a pop, used, at the library, there's now too many of those to fit), and anything and everything is doubled shelved whereever it will fit. As soon as I can get another bookshelf in, the organization will go back to fiction area, belief systems area, and other nonfiction area.

Oh, and the library books? They now live up against the wall at the foot of my new bed. It's a little cubbyhole where no one ever steps but me, so that they won't get tripped over, and I got really tired of having them stacked on the floor next to my work table. But, I've still got a stack of my own books there. So, at least there's only one stack on the floor in the living room now, rather than two.

LMA - why did you have to leave most of your books behind????

[littlemissattitude]

You all have done it now. Now I'm thinking about how I can rearrange my books on the shelves.

Edit to answer mosaix, whose question I didn't see until after I posted this...

A couple of reasons for leaving the books behind:

1) I was moving from a house into a one-bedroom apartment, so they wouldn't all fit...I never counted, but I'm sure I had between 1000 and 2000 books altogether.

2) I didn't have anyone to help me move. I couldn't afford to hire a mover at the time. My mother had just gotten out of rehab after having had hip-replacement surgery, so she couldn't help. My best friend had just gotten a full-time teaching contract and so didn't have time to help. Even if she had time, she got sick right at the same time, and wasn't able to help. So, except for some people who I had to literally beg to help move the big stuff - chairs, television, bookshelf, a few other things - I did the whole move by myself.

Believe me, it wasn't a voluntary thing to leave so many good books behind.

[FelineEyes]

As a person who as a library (family, not personal, my parents are book fiends) there will never, ever be enough shelves or a room big enough to fit all of the books you have.
Terry Prachett's L-space doesn't apply in our house.

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by Cloud

Why, oh why, don't they make bookshelves for paperback books?

My husband built some of our bookcases, and he made sure to include some paperback-size shelves (at least in terms of height). Another bookcase used to be part of the platform for a water bed, and it's just about perfect for paperbacks.

As an ongoing project, he and our youngest daughter are slowly building more and more shelves, all shapes and sizes, wherever we can fit them in. We have them in every room already, but as somebody said, there are never enough.

[Tau Zero]

All my books are alphabetized by author and then by series or title. I can do this because i keep all my books on a spreadsheet, so it's easy to load them on shelves by just reading off the printed list. Some shelves are boards and bricks. But most of my shelves were designed for storing videotapes; paperbacks fit perfectly. Every hallway in the house is lined with sci-fi. According to my spreadsheet, there are 1,417 paperbacks.

[carrie221]

Originally Posted by Tau Zero

All my books are alphabetized by author and then by series or title. I can do this because i keep all my books on a spreadsheet, so it's easy to load them on shelves by just reading off the printed list. Some shelves are boards and bricks. But most of my shelves were designed for storing videotapes; paperbacks fit perfectly. Every hallway in the house is lined with sci-fi. According to my spreadsheet, there are 1,417 paperbacks.

You sound very, very organized. I am in awe of your powers...