How do you use your shelves?

[[deleted user]]

Whenever I see people with the default shelves I think, "But how do they keep track of all their books?" I only have the genres and a few other shelves, but I need to have each book marked something other than "read" etc. It's a pity you can't cross-reference shelves in gr!.

[Kathryn]

It's interesting looking at other people's shelves, isn't it? I have a 4th default shelf - not worth finishing (only 1 book so far!). I think my system is a bit different to most people's - my bookshelves are arranged for ease of finding things at the library. Books on my "to read" shelf also go onto a fiction or non-fiction shelf so I know which area to search for them in, plus I've got a shelf for copies of books available at each of the local branches of my library which I would be willing to drive to if I want to pick a book up. I've also got a shelf for books not available in my local library so I can easily check which books I can't borrow from the library if I'm browsing in a second-hand store!

[Michelle]

I've seen some people with hundreds of shelves and I think "How on earth could you keep track of all that?" and more to the point, "What on earth for"?
I've started to make shelves for any reading challenges I join to make keeping track of the books a bit easier and I also like to know which TBR books I actually own so I can just grab one when I feel like it rather than having to go out and buy one.
It's certainly interesting to see what other people do though.

[Jackmeister]

I like to keep track of how many books I read in a year, so I arrange my shelves chronologically and I keep a seperate shelf for books I've read on my kindle, also a favourites shelf.