Odd Book Shelf Neighbors

[Eric]

I was staring at my bookshelf as any bibliophile is want to do, and I discovered some rather odd (and disturbing) neighbors. One in particular was my wife's copy of Multiple Bles8ings: Surviving to Thriving with Twins and Sextuplets by Jon and Kate Gosselin of TLC and tabloid fame. Right next to the aforementioned book was Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris by Ian Kershaw.

Does anyone else having any interesting book shelf neighbors?

[Micah]

I currently have 2 "I Love Lucy" books (they are my wife's and have really cool behind the scenes photos from the show) sitting right next to a copy of The Forever War, which isn't the classic sci-fi book but actually a memoir of a New York Times reporters experience in Iraq. And right next to that is The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature. I don't know how they ended up right next to each other but now that you mention it that is a very odd setup.

[Jlawrence, S&L Moderator]

Haha, from a glance at my shelves my favorite odd neighbors are Mr. Bean's Diary next to In Pursuit of VALIS: Selections from the Exegesis of Philip K. Dick.

[Katie]

I arrange my shelves by genre, and within that by author's last name, so neighbors are usually related...am I too nerdy for words or does anyone else do this kind of thing?

[Eric]

I used to do that, alphabetical by category. When my wife and I moved into our new house, she put the books on the shelf and I am quite amused at how they turned out. The little devil inside me that cries for order is subdued by the humor in randomness.

[Katie]

Eric wrote: "I used to do that, alphabetical by category. When my wife and I moved into our new house, she put the books on the shelf and I am quite amused at how they turned out. The little devil inside me t..."

My husband watched me combine and arrange our collections with a "You're so adorably neurotic" look on his face hahaha

[Rob, Roberator]

Katie wrote: "I arrange my shelves by genre, and within that by author's last name, so neighbors are usually related...am I too nerdy for words or does anyone else do this kind of thing?"

I need more bookshelves to do that. Mine are double and triple stacked in some places, so I mostly just have them grouped by author and series.

Not to mention most of books at this point are either sci-fi or fantasy. Most of the stuff I've read over the years from other genres were borrowed, not bought.

[Noomninam]

I seem to be lifestyle-conflicted. For some reason, I have "Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever" by Ray Kurzweil snugly nestled against a Barefoot Contessa cookbook!

[Katie]

Rob wrote: "Katie wrote: "I arrange my shelves by genre, and within that by author's last name, so neighbors are usually related...am I too nerdy for words or does anyone else do this kind of thing?"

I need m..."

Biggest genre is fantasy, then military fiction and military non-fiction, then sci-fi, then my saved college texts (mostly Greek, Hebrew, and poetry)

[Joe Informatico]

Katie wrote: "I arrange my shelves by genre, and within that by author's last name, so neighbors are usually related...am I too nerdy for words or does anyone else do this kind of thing?"

My girlfriend just moved in, and she's pushing for non-fiction to be organized by Dewey Decimal (we're both librarians). Part of me protests but offhand I can't think of a more intuitive system that would make sense to both of us.

[Katie]

Joe wrote: "My girlfriend just moved in, and she's pushing for non-fiction to be organized by Dewey Decimal (we're both librarians). Part of me protests but offhand I can't think of a more intuitive system that would make sense to both of us."

Do it. I find the image of dating librarians with ultra-organized shelves too adorable for words!

[Noomninam]

Katie wrote: "Joe wrote: "My girlfriend just moved in, and she's pushing for non-fiction to be organized by Dewey Decimal (we're both librarians). Part of me protests but offhand I can't think of a more intuitiv..."
Of course, single people can play that game, too. Remember the lonely protagonist in 'High Fidelity' who spent the weekend organizing his albums 'by girlfriend'?

[Stan]

Ok - this topic made me go up,and look at my bookshelves and I did see some weird pairings

"The Magic Book" (a book about stage craft magic tricks) sitting right next to "Teen Study Bible"

Stardust right next to "Political History of Texas"

Robin mickinley's Sunshine right next to Matt Reilly's Ice Station

[Laura]

Katie wrote: "I arrange my shelves by genre, and within that by author's last name, so neighbors are usually related...am I too nerdy for words or does anyone else do this kind of thing?"

I can't imagine it any other way. :)

[Eric]

Noomninam wrote: "Katie wrote: "Joe wrote: "My girlfriend just moved in, and she's pushing for non-fiction to be organized by Dewey Decimal (we're both librarians). Part of me protests but offhand I can't think of a..."

I love that movie. Another odd pairing: Calvin and Hobbes next to 501 German Verbs.

[Raphael]

"Carpentry and Building Construction" next to "Side Jobs" by Jim Butcher

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

Katie wrote: "I arrange my shelves by genre, and within that by author's last name, so neighbors are usually related...am I too nerdy for words or does anyone else do this kind of thing?"

I've moved about in the past few years, so my books have been all over the place and I don't always have the time or ability to sort them, but before all that, I tended to organise by the general 'feel' of a book in some strange domino style order, so authors and series would be grouped together with 'sympathetic' books at either side, so my bookcase could flow smoothly from horror to thriller to romance and back again, for example. Within that lot, however, there would be no real order. Sometimes I would randomly switch books because I didn't like the way they felt in their places.

To answer the original post, I went to look at my disarray of the few books and dvds I brought with me on my last move a couple of weeks ago which I flung into a book case with no attempt at order (which you can tell because I would never normally mix books and dvds) and yet...a series of vampire novels sits next to a vampire movie, next to general horror leading into sci-fi horror next to sci-fi leading into a manga series about robots.....wow, even without trying...!

[Alex]

Noomninam wrote: "Of course, single people can play that game, too. Remember the lonely protagonist in 'High Fidelity' who spent the weekend organizing his albums 'by girlfriend"

""yep, I can tell you how I got from deep purple to howling wolf in just 25 moves"

"oh man"

"and...if I want to find the song landslide by fleetwood mac I have to remember that I bought it for someone in the fall of 1983 pile but didn't give it to them for personal reasons."

[Kris]

I do the genre sub organized by author just so I can find stuff. I guess I am a victim of the book stores methods of organizing...

[Valerie]

I follow in Katie's footsteps...but out of curiosity I checked. We did end up with Calvin and Hobbes "Something Under the Bed is Drooling", followed by Glenn Beck's "An Inconvenient Book" to be completed with a book collection of "articles" from The Onion. I blame my husband...

[Cory Day]

I shelve non-fiction in loose categories by author's last name, so I used to have Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama next to On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting for by Rick Perry. I got rid of the Perry book, which I had taken from my cousin's house out of morbid curiosity, but the dichotomy was funny during the primaries.

[Eric]

I happen to have the second part of Ian Kershaw's Hitler biography, Hitler, Vol. 2: 1936-1945 Nemesis next to Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife and I think I need to move them apart. That just isn't right.