Shelves!

[Peggy]

Being all excited about starting the new challenge in January and wanting to do something bookish until then, I thought I'd organize my bookshelves a bit better, especially to separate the books I really really want to read soon from the books that would be interesting to read at some point in my life.

So I figured it would be nice to hear about your shelve structures, it might give me some ideas and prevent me from organizing them three times because I think of better ways in the process.

Right now I have the three basic exclusive shelves, a favourites shelve, and I sort books by genre once I've read them. I don't have my TBR sorted in any way (I do have bookshelves per genre on my ereader though, for the books I have on there).

Perhaps I could make an exclusive 'Read as soon as I can' shelve for the priority books.

Do you ever use the sorting-numbers for ordering your books?

[Sarah]

I have 6 exclusive shelves - read, currently reading, abandoned, to read (these are books I own), maybe, and wishlist.

Like you, I have various shelves for genre and I also have a favourites shelf.

I also have shelves for the various challenges that I do, e.g. YLTO-topplers or YLTO-chunksters etc. plus ones for group reads and buddy reads.

The only shelf that I order is my "to read" shelf so that I can put the ones I want to read sooner at the top. I've recently been contemplating making my wishlist sortable too so that I can place at the top the books I want to buy soon - perhaps that will give me something to do over christmas.

I hope you find a good structure for your shelves - and I wouldn't worry if at some point you reshuffle it.

[Peggy]

Oh right, I have separate shelves for the challenges too :) and one for books I never finished, and one for books I read before goodreads and don't remember well enough to rate.

[Travis]

I multi shelve. It is easier to find a title because it will show up in multiple places. Shelves for specific groups some genre both conventional genres and some I invent. Since the shelves are my own I am very free. For instance maybe a book turned into a movie it was kind of aci fi and fantasy with a female lead. It could be shelved under books to movies , strong female lead, sci fi, fantasy and read. Some people also shelve by stars putting all their 5 star reads together etc. Some people shelve by year grouping all books read in 2013 together. The sky is the limit really

[Janice, Moderator]

I added 3 additional exclusive shelves to the three we automatically get. To Listen To, Abandoned, and Wishlist.

I generally wait until I've read the book to put them on the non-exclusive shelf unless I'm planning a challenge. Sometimes I will create a temporary shelf for the challenge like "possible chunksters".

Recently, I started two new shelves - Priority and Series to Continue. I use them for books on my wishlist so they don't get lost.

I use the sorting numbers for my audiobooks. I leave the numbers so they are in date added order, and that is the order I listen to them.

[Lisa]

I only have one exclusive shelf aside from the three we automatically get which is wishlist (books I want to read but don't currently own). I also have various genre shelves, a favourites shelf, a first-reads shelf, shelves for books read in a specific year (2013, 2014), a shelf for books I did not like (I don't have an abandoned shelf because I always finish a book once I start) and a shelf for books that I own. Like Travis, I multi-shelve. Each one of my books goes on several different shelves.

I also have some challenge shelves consisting of a toppler shelf, a monthly challenge shelf and shelves for the year long challenges. I also have a buddy reads shelf.


The only shelves I really organise are my exclusive shelves which are arranged alphabetically. I don't bother to arrange my 'to read' shelf in a numerical order because I never stick to it. I just read whatever book takes my fancy at the time if it is not being read for a challenge or a buddy read. I might starting arranging my wishlist shelf in a numerical order so I know which books to buy first.

[Casceil]

I don't have a lot of shelves, though I do have one called "try again later" for books I started and wanted to finish but just couldn't at the time.

I use my TBR list to keep track of books that sound interesting, that I might want to read, or give as a gift, or nominate for discussion. I often use the sort features to change the order there. The list will sort by any field, if you click on the field name at the top of the list. When I heard about the 2014 challenge, I added a field for number of pages and sorted by that, so that all of my 500+ page books were together.

[Sarah]

Janice reminded me that I too have a shelf for series books that I have left to read.

[Esther]

I am like Travis an multi shelved so I can find something faster.
I added an exclusive "gave up" shelves.

I will have a "ylto chunkster" of course. I may use the numbers there so I have my unread slug books at the top.

I recently started temporary monthly shelves for books I plan to read for the upcoming months (buddy read, monthly read, monthly challenge, etc)

[Cherie]

I try not to shelve books by genre.

I keep a "to-read-audio" for books I want to listen to in audio. I also have a "started-but-not-finished" shelf for books that I abandoned but want to get back to someday. I have a "maybe" shelf for books, but very few actually go there. It depends on the review I might have seen for a book that I might not be inclined to read. I have a shelf called "neglected-classics" that I add for books that were published prior to 1938 (this is a completely arbitrary date for me but was set up to represent books published prior to 75 years ago - as of 2013 - for one of Rusalka's challenges and I just continued to use it) and a "published-after-2000" shelf. I also have a "series" shelf.

I create temporary shelves for projects and challenges as need and delete them after things get done. I recently added a "read-audio" shelf to keep track of the books that I finished listening to. I have been thinking of adding a "re-read" shelf for books that I have already read, but want to do over again but I am not sure I will actually do it.

Re-assigning books can get to be a full time job or mindless - it really depends on how much you want to dedicate to it - besides adding to them :)

I tend not to read things in any kind of order (except if challenges call for it).

[Laura]

This is a great question. I have a not-for-me, a maybe and a maybe-not, which are all exclusive shelves, along with the ones we have at the beginning.

And then I do a lot of genre sorting and that, because it helps me when I'm in the mood for a certain kind of read. Otherwise, my TBR is just way too long to ever find anything. I also have shelves for challenges, and my "brick" shelf really helped me figure out what I want to read for the chunkster challenge.

I also have "first of a series" and "series to continue" shelves, because I'm a sucker for a new series, always!

[Rusalka, Moderator]

I shelve all over the place. I have about 75 non-exclusive shelves, plus 3 more exclusive shelves (abandoned, books I think Lexx would like that I won't, and books Lexx owns as I now use goodreads in order to monitor all our books in case the house burns down).

I shelve usually when I read the books so I do it "correctly" according to my own rules. I tend to shelve to genre, place set, challenges, book groups, whether it is extremely overhyped, if I threw the book on completion etc.

If I shelve beforehand, it is usually on a to read list, or according to who recommended it to me - real life friends, my mum, tv shows, youtube/podcast book clubs.

I like categories and lists, and have a background in surveys and statistics, so used to coding things so I can find them later. I like being able to click on a link while chatting to a friend who likes say urban fantasy or lgbti lit and getting a list of what I've read and what i thought of it so I can recommend things.

[Dawn]

I only have about 50 shelves. I have added a few extra exclusive shelves, suspended/to-read-own/to-read-library/wishlist.
I've also created sticky shelves that tell me where I'm going to get every book on my TBR list. From eight different library sources, owned and to-buy. I have this figured out every time I add a book to my lists.

All the rest are genres and sub-genres. History and mysteries by 5 eras each, non-fiction by interests and I'm still trying to figure out how to split up my fantasy books into sub-genres.

I like to keep my shelves to only 3 or 4 per book, an exclusive & a sticky & a genre. The fourth is an extra like, favorite or short-stories.

[Dorottya]

I have a really small room, so I'm happy if I can fit all my books... I just can't organize them properly.

If I could do any structure I wanted, I would shelf my books according to series, author, height and then genre (not alphabet, because that would result in really varying height)... and maybe just looking at whether the spines look nice next to each other or not. I'm pretty sure I would have a separate shelf for all my theatre stuff (I'm studying theatre and obsessed with it) - so, theatre textbooks and dramas.

What I would never do is color blocking. I just couldn't cope with breaking up series and putting them away from each other, lol :).

[Janice, Moderator]

What about shelves on Goodreads, Dorottya? Have you thought about creating virtual shelves and how would you organize them?