Thursday, October 3, 2013

A Cocktail & Conversation: Bookshelf Organization

 

Every other Thursday here at the Broke & The Bookish is  A Cocktail & Conversation time. One of the TBTB members will pose a question to 2-3 of the other members of TB&TB crew about books, life, music, etc and then they'll answer and we can converse about it. So grab a cocktail & cozy up for some conversation. It's 5 o'clock somewhere, friends.

 

Julia asks: Do you have a favorite/specific way to display the books in your house? Like color coded spines? Alphabetical? Wherever the book fits on the shelf?




Jamie says
: I'm kind of boring about my shelves. I have an adult fiction/non-fiction shelf, an ARC shelf and a YA shelf and they are all alphabetized by last name. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to do color coded because aesthetically it's so pleasing and what a conversations starter that would be! However, I don't have time and I really think I'd get irritated if I forget what color a book was. lol



Tahleen
says: My husband and I spent the better part of an afternoon a few months ago organizing our entire library. It is now arranged by genre, then alphabetically by author. We have sections devoted to young adult, children's books, science, religion, textbooks, travel, graphic novels, and Christmas books, among others.




Lori says:  At my parents' house, where most of my books are, they are basically organized as follows--nonfiction (which is broken into history monographs, biographies, bookish topics, and some other categories), poetry, drama, Russians, British, Americans, French (other countries), and popular fiction.  At mine and Zach's apartment, I have far fewer books and not much room for them, so I have some classics on top of one case that are organized by author, and the books on top of the other case, on my nightstand, and in my closet are a total jumble.  I very much look forward to the day that Zach and I consolidate collections and organize them.  I miss having my books all together!  Like Jamie, I think that color-coded would be interesting, but it would be difficult to find books, so I'll stick with subject and author classifications.



Paula says:
I have two shelves. My to-read shelf and my read shelf. Both are organized alphabetically by author. Although my to-read shelf is spilling out on the floor as I buy new books and are in no order at all (I blame Jamie! I never had this problem until she introduced me to the concept of library sales a few years ago @_@)  And my read shelf is filling up- I have to be super picky about what books earn a spot of honor on it.




How do YOU organize your bookshelves??

24 comments:

  1. My bookshelf is annoying in the fact that it has different sized shelves. So my books are organized by smaller books and larger books. Then each of those are organized alphabetically by author name. The other two shelves are dedicated to school books, reference books, and whatever else didn't fit. Any other books are just. . .anywhere. Unorganized. Lying on my nightstand or my floor. Sometimes under the table my record player is on.

    I've always wanted to do organization by color, but I have to agree that it would confuse me. That, and I get way too annoyed if my alphabetical order is screwed up and if my series aren't together. So I color coordinated the closet instead. -Kelsey

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  2. All of these sound so organized! Mine are just organized by how I associate them in my brain lol So books that were bought at the same time are together. And authors that remind me of each other are together. I've tried to do alphabetically before but I always come back to putting books on the shelf in reference to how they are linked in my mind. It sounds crazy but I know where every book I own is this way!

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  3. I also organize my books by genre and then by author (aphabetical order), like Jamie does :) I just wrote a post showing my readers my bookshelves haha

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  4. I have...well...essentially four shelves. Two are at my place (my boyfriend loooves that, haha) and the others are at my mom's. All the books there have been read. One of the shelves is full of books I've already read. Some I adore (a lot of series are there...Jessica Darling, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Anne of Green Gables, etc.) but others are only so-so. I recently culled a lot of them - handful went to my sister, a big stack went to my boyfriend's mom and her friends, and another handful is in the donate section. Then, also at my mom's, are all the books I've read that I found super duper amazing and think she should read. At my own house is a shelf of all the books I want to read asap (organized in no particular order other than having a non-fiction section, but authors are all grouped together) and a shelf of books I'll get to...eventually. I'd love to have all my books together in one happy little house but that won't happen for awhile!

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  5. Like Paula, I have a read and an unread bookcase. The read-case is organized by color and it's the focal point of my living room. The unread was arranged alphabetically, but now it's all higgledy piggledy because someone in my household can't remember to put things back.

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  6. I love this topic, as I think you can tell a lot about someone by looking at not only what is on their bookshelves, but by how they arrange --or don't arrange--their books!

    I have many bookcases throughout my house, and I shelve by theme--especially my nonfiction books--and then by author. When I come home from the bookstore with a bag of books, I would never even consider putting all of them together in an empty space on one of my shelves. No--they need to be shelved with their correct theme!

    I have areas for nonfiction books on education, politics, sports, food(cookbooks and books about food are found in the kitchen!), African American history, books about books, biographies. . .
    My fiction shelves are a bit looser, but I do keep authors together, classic fiction together, etc.
    Books that I haven't read yet are either on a special multi-shelved corner table in my bedroom, or in a stack on my coffee table in my living room.

    GREAT question--I'm looking forward to reading more responses!

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  7. My husband and I organized our nonfiction books by topic, but our fiction is all thrown together. This isn't too bad, because we don't have too many fiction books. What really needs organizing is my ebook library.

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  8. I organize my books by size. However, all of the sequels go together as well as the authors.

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  9. I organize by genre and then by author.

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  10. My organization is almost non existent at the moment. We're planning to put in some custom built shelving so for now everything is stacked by type (hc, tp, and mm) to accommodate my currently not so useful shelves. Then I have more books in my office and bedroom that are basically organized by how soon I should read them :) It's really awful.

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  11. I need to start organizing my books. After moving most of mine ended up at my parents' house and they're in stacks on the floor since there is absolutely no room for them. I have a bookshelf at my apartment, but I haven't boxed them all up and transferred them over yet.

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  12. Fiction books are alphabetical by author. Other books are by category (biography, poli sci, history divided by region) and then by author within the category. It sounds pretty nerdy, but my mom's a librarian, so the idea of sorting books by colour makes me shudder. :-)

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  13. On Kindle! :-)
    But seriously, but author.

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  14. At the moment they're all organised in categories, but it's getting a bit jumbled. I'm moving house in a couple of weeks and plan to arrange them by colour at the new place, because I think it just looks so lovely!

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  15. I have a couple of shelves of books I've read and want to keep, alphabetical by author. Following those are books I haven't read, alphabetical by author. Another unit contains picture books, writing books, and cookbooks.

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  16. This post has made me realize how much I really need to buy a large, reliable bookshelf...so I can organize it! Right now, most of my books are in boxes (from a previous move) or in piles. Also, filling the shelf will make for an excellent excuse to head back to the used bookstore near my house!

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  17. No method to the madness to speak of, I'm afraid. One of these days, I'd love to shelve them by author name.

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  18. Mine are just where they fit haha. I want to organise it but I never have any time. My TBR pile/ draw is sorted in the order that I received them. That way I'm not bumping things down the list forever and never getting round to reading them.

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  19. Haha you guys seem so organized and tidy! My shelves are like, OCD organized, especially with my new bookcase!! I can't even begin to explain..... I need a post with pictures HAHA :)

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  20. Ooh, hmm... my shelves right now are a mess. NOT organized at all. I've tried several times to do it... but every time I want to read a new book, they get un organized all over again. shame on me, I know. But this is why I am trying to buy books on my kindle and not on my shelf.

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  21. I have my adult books on one case organized by colour. Then on my tall shelf I have my signed books organized by colour, my YA books organized by colour and then the bottom is my TBR/review books in no particular order. And I have a drawer in a dresser filled with pocket romance novels (ran out of space for books).

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  22. I have a read shelf, a to read shelf and then a shelf of non-novels: plays, poetry and books I use for my creative writing course! :)

    Charl
    www.aplaceonthebookshelf.blogspot.com

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  23. also, I'm a new follower, yay :)

    Charl
    www.aplaceonthebookshelf.blogspot.com

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