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Organizing Bookshelves
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When I had a bookshelf (it sadly got sold when we moved), I liked to organize by author. It helped so I could find the book I wanted to read right away. Good luck!! Pinterest also has fun book shelf ideas :-)
I like to organize by size. Paperbacks together, hardcovers together, etc. Just looks neater on the shelf.
I go by size (hc and trade separate from the paperback) then by author. Only read books are shelved.
My real bookshelves are a mess. I had sorted them by not read on the top shelves and finished on the bottom shelves. But, there is no rhyme or reason now. The books now go wherever there is a slot available.
Thank you, everyone. I went crazy -making a spreadsheet and organizing my bookshelf by alphabetical order by title. I thought to go by author but realized I remember the title often and not the author's name. So now it's easy to find any book amongst my collection of 200! I am pretty happy with myself. It's been a long day.
Here's my bookshelf - empty
And all full here -
Thank you, Janice.Though organizing by size or paperback/hardback would have looked cleaner. This is more easier to operate. :)
And you have space for more books too...
Yes, I do. Lots of space. :D More reasons to buy books. *Grinning away*
Yuppers.... I must do something with my bookshelves.
We have bookshelves in most rooms of our house. No single room as a dedicated "library."Our larger, pretty, artsy books are in living room, shelved in a treasured antique, family bookcase. The rest of our books are distributed around the house according to our own idiosyncratic logic in mostly functional bookcases.
Very nice job on organizing your books, Pragya.
I went with alphabetical. you have to leave space though on each shelf otherwise you have to move all the books along. I plugged gaps wIth knIck knacks but a large binge is tricky (like buying all of Jim Butcher's books). Lexx has now decided he can't find books he wanted to read so is proposing the small cabinet in our room should have our to be read pile on it. problem is that's most of my shelves...spreadsheet wise I just add to my own shelf (or Lexx owned) as soon as I buy and make sure I add by isbn. means it's all online when we get burnt down by a bushfire and it's one less thing I need to grab out of the house. I also take photographs of the house every summer for this reason so the shelves get photographed too
they are gorgeous shelves!
I would definitely start out organizing by author, and then by book length and maybe topic :).
I organize first by fiction/non-fiction. Then by sub-genres. Then by authors. That works best for me.
Thank you, Melissa, TJ, Rusalka and Paakhi.@Rusalka. Yes I got that later, to save some space on shelves and then twice, I found books in different corners of the house and had to shift them all. Arggh.
LOL about the TBR. Oh wow, I didn't add isbn. You are so smart, clicking it all.
@TJ. OOh, I love pretty, artsy books.
@Dorottya. Wow, that would be a lot of work.
Those shook shelves are beautiful! Impressive.
Years ago, when I was studying English lit, I organised my shelves by time period - Middle ages, Renaissance, 18th Century, 19th Century etc. Then, years later, when my book collection consisted mostly of contemporary books bought from charity shops, and I had way more books than bookshelf space, I organised my books by size, very carefully, so as to easily and neatly fit two rows of books on each shelf. Now I have an eReader and have given away many of my paper books to charity shops, so I don't pay much attention to my bookshelves - they are quite haphazard now.
As for cataloguing my books, I use Goodreads to record each book as I read it, but I often forget, so it's a bit haphazard. I tried using LibraryThing to catalogue every book I've ever read, but soon gave up that project as impossible! I like the idea of a spreadsheet, although I imagine it would soon get unmanageable. I have actually lately been trying to think of some way of cataloguing them. I've just started recording books I read in a Moleskine notebook - a very old-fashioned way, but I kind of like it. I did this years ago and found the notebook recently, and it was fun to read. I had jotted down my thoughts on each book, and any new words I'd learnt.
This topic made me curious about how people organize other things... for example like food in the pantry and what about spices & herbs?Long ago I did it alphabetically. But when I started cooking more, I started just grouping like with like. So cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, etc. together. Thyme, oregano, basil together. And so forth.
@Gail. Wow, shelving by time period sounds so different. So far the spreadsheet is working out. We will see. A notebook sounds cute and oh finding one from earlier, so nostalgic, huh?
Pragya, it was because that was how we studied the books at uni - by time period. So I had a lot of books from each time period, and it made sense to categorise them that way.What I found really interesting about finding the notebook was that most of the new words I'd noted down are now quite familar to me. I figured I'd probably have forgotten them, and that I wouldn't have had much chance between then and now to increase my vocabulary, but for some reason I now know these words that I didn't know then.
Ah, I get it, Gail.Reading does build up vocabulary really fast. :)
Books by themes.Spices by likes AND frecuent use
Themes, wow. Hadn't thought that way, Mariab. Interesting.
That's how I organize I do themes, authors and series. I also go by size because I have two different bookshelves
I wish I had more. But for now, I will suffice with one, Tasha. Going by series sounds good. I don't have too many of those.
I just had the chance to get a lot of books, a local bookstore just had to close its doors and sell all of there books, it was neat they would buy and sell tons of books. I bought a whole bunch they were selling by boxes $5 a box
It looks beautiful, Pragya! I always love to see so many books when visiting someone (and I like even better to take a look at what sort of books there are)!
Elsbeth wrote: "It looks beautiful, Pragya! I always love to see so many books when visiting someone (and I like even better to take a look at what sort of books there are)!"Me too. When I come thru the door, I can't help it. I just automatically start wondering about where's the cat (or dog) and where are the books?
@Tasha: Wow, that's a great deal.@Elsbetg & TJ: Oh, I love to see bookshelves when visiting someone. I am tempted to see what titles they have and if they might allow me to borrow something I'm interested in.
Title - Alphabetical Order
Author - Alphabetical Order
Color
Shelves (Tbr, read)
How do you arrange your bookshelves? Would love to get some ideas. :)
Also, do you catalogue your books? You have a spreadsheet? What are the columns? I am guessing title, author, when purchased, got from where and status (read, TBR). Anything I am missing out on?