Never too Late to Read Classics discussion
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What Order is Your Library?
Lesle wrote: "Mind gets crazy when I have run out of shelf space and start stacking them in front of the others..."I thought I was nutty for wedging the overflow in front of the blocks of wood between shelves !!
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Haha! We do our best to take advantage of every nook, cranny and 1/2" space to put a book in!
John wrote: "Penelope wrote: "Im a bit chaotic in my organisation too . And I worked for 25 years as a librarian. Not sure what happened there. 😳"For those of us lucky enough to get our first library cards as..."
Im glad your granddaughter enjoy her vist.
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Lesle wrote: "Stuart wrote: "I thought I was nutty for wedging the overflow in front of the blocks of wood be..."Haha! We do our best to take advantage of every nook, cranny and 1/2" space to put a book in!"
had an issue this winter with water in the house so my books have been all over the floor since then. I need to find time to fix my shelves.
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Oh how devasting Stuart. Water in the house no matter where is rough. You never know where it really comes in at. I hope you were able to save your books?
Sounds like some handyman chores coming up!
Best wishes Stuart!
I read the books I have to read in order of addition. Thus, for all the books in my next-to-read list, the older they are (in order of acquisition), the more likely they are to be read. This also takes into account the various challenges and literary marathons that are posed to me.
I put books I haven't read yet right in with my other books.If I stacked them by themselves I fell awfully intimidated and forced to read. The way I see it, this way when I look for something to read it's like I m in a library and I just pick whatever I m in the mood for. I
I know I all get all my books eventually, if I live to be about 300!
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Donna I must say it sounds like a lovely plan! I like just sitting and looking at them and reflecting on the ones I have read.
I agree 300 sounds about right!
Stuart wrote: "Lesle wrote: "Stuart wrote: "I thought I was nutty for wedging the overflow in front of the blocks of wood be..."Haha! We do our best to take advantage of every nook, cranny and 1/2" space to put..."
I've had the same thing happen in dry California, so I feel for you. I hope most will survive intact. Right now, my books are all over the place. Some are in storage, some are in the basement in boxes, some are on shelves, some on tables. It's not as messy as it sounds, but it is hard to find anything. I've had to go to ebooks only as I've run out of space.
Stuart wrote: "Lesle wrote: "Mind gets crazy when I have run out of shelf space and start stacking them in front of the others..."I thought I was nutty for wedging the overflow in front of the blocks of wood be..."
Oh, you aren't. My bookshelves are only meant to hold one row of books on each shelf, but I have them stacked two rows on each shelf. The shelves are beginning to bow because of the weight. And those are just the books I haven't read yet. I have many more boxed and stored in the basement. I only buy ebooks now because I just don't have the room for more. I tried to give away the ones I've read, but no one would come pick them up, and I can't take them anywhere myself since I'm recovering from surgery.
Donna wrote: "I put books I haven't read yet right in with my other books.If I stacked them by themselves I fell awfully intimidated and forced to read. The way I see it, this way when I look for something to re..."I read that way, too. Just whatever I feel like.
My weeding project, started in 2020, continues. Most shelves are now decluttered, and all books can be easily seen. I may not see the end of the project, but I have enjoyed the journey.
I have about 350 physical books, down from closer to 600, but have been working to pare it down for a while now. My husband and I were evacuated for two weeks in 2015 due to a massive wildfire. We had a short time to pack up what we could (including clothing, documents, sentimentals, valuables, animals and classic vehicles) and our books were one of the many things that had to be left behind. We were lucky and our home was spared, but something like that changes your perspective. Also makes you appreciate your Kindle more. Since my husband's death and my subsequent retirement, I decided to read or re-read every physical book in my library and then take any that weren't my 4 or 5 star books to the used bookshop for credit. Yes, that means more books and so my library is not depleted as fast as simply selling, but it's a delightful process. I am creating a library that I want to re-read! Many of my books were actually my husband's and quite a few of which I still haven't read yet. In fact, he was the one who introduced me to amazing authors like Octavia Butler, Issac Assimov, Milan Kundera, Douglas Adams, and Kurt Vonnegut. My library before him tended toward philosophy and non-fiction, with some historical and philosophical fiction.
One bookshelf is exclusively non-fiction:
The three top shelves are philosophy, with first multi-author volumes subdivided by subgenre (metaphysics, ethics, logic, epistemology, religion) then with works by individual authors shelved after those volumes but still within their subgenre and shelved by publication date. (It makes sense when you consider the chronological progression of philosophical thought!). Yes, I majored in Philosophy in college. The bottom two shelves are all other non-fiction and reference, shelved by genre and sorted by author. The only variation here is that I put my biographies and true crime on the fiction shelves because while they are technically non-fiction, they generally have a creative element that lends them more similarity of feeling with fictional literature than they have with geology, anthropology, sociology, and my other miscellaneous non-fiction. I know, I need help.
All my other bookshelves are fiction: here I lightheartedly mix my subgenres willy-nilly (philosophical fiction, classics, historical fiction, science fiction, modern fiction) and just opt for a simple sort by author. Those authors with more than one book are subsorted by publication date because I like to see how an author's work progresses over time. I do have a separate bookshelf for a few particular authors for whom I have many (or all) of their books. Each author has their own shelf or group of shelves, sorted by publication date. Douglas Adams and Christopher Moore live there among others, however Kurt Vonnegut lives on the top shelf, because my husband told me once that Vonnegut should never be on the bottom shelf simply due to an alphabetical accident of nature. How can I argue with that?
I have every book that I own or have read since retirement (paper and Kindle) listed on Goodreads (I think) and I always try to accurately identify the exact edition in my private notes so I can find it later, particularly paper vs Kindle. I also note if I have taken a book to the used bookshop or borrowed a book from the library so I don't go mad later trying to find it again! My accurate goodreads library has kept me from accidentally purchasing a duplicate copy many times!
Too much? Sorry, but you did ask. 😁
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I am still downsizing, with occasional lapses. I mean, if somebody offers a book for a pound, what am I supposed to do? My ordering/classification system is my own variant of Dewey. Well, it works for me .....
Rosemarie wrote: "That's a wonderful response!"Thanks!
Bernard wrote: "I am still downsizing, with occasional lapses. I mean, if somebody offers a book for a pound, what am I supposed to do? My ordering/classification system is my own variant of Dewey. Well, it works ..."I agree, downsizing can be difficult when books jump off the shelves at the used bookshop and beg to follow you home!
Pam wrote: "I answered this question 2 years ago but I’m rethinking how to organize my books and planning to downsize again......I have ~50 books that I want to read next year so I’m thinking of putting all of them on one small bookshelf..."
Sounds like you have a good process. I especially like the idea of a physical to-read list in the form of a separate bookshelf. I might try to incorporate something like that into my system.
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I love this idea. I have never considered this. I often just put their books in order of size or coloring! Ha! :)
Since I own many books from one author I think this would be an interesting idea to see how they progress. Daphne du Maurier. Alexandre Dumas, Graham Greene just to name a few.
Lesle wrote: "ForestGardenGal wrote: "Those authors with more than one book are subsorted by publication date because I like to see how an author's work progresses over time..."I love this idea. I have never c..."
Try it, you'll like it!
Pam wrote: "ForestGardenGal - Theoretically, I think my idea of a TBR bookshelf sounds good but it hasn’t proven to be effective for me the last few years. I’m going to try it ONE more year (2024) and make an ..."I don't know if it will help, but my theory on books TBR is:
1. Always have several books of very different types in progress simultaneously. I'm not always in the same mood.
2. If I find myself consistently avoiding any particular book, remind myself that I have no obligation to finish reading it, and life is too short to read things I don't enjoy. Not every book is meant for every reader.
Give yourself permission to remove things from your TBR shelf.
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Pam wrote: "Thanks ForestGardenGal for sharing your story and your ideas! I’ve already decided on 10 books to set free. It’s a start and I feel better just making that decision!..."It just occurred to me I didn't mention to you one more trick I have up my sleeve: In addition to the normal exclusive shelves on Goodreads, I added a shelf called "currently-reading-but-paused" where I can set aside a book I don't even want to look at for a while, but I do want to finish eventually (e.g. Gulag Archipelago is there currently). It gives me the extra mental space I occasionally need when going through a particularly rough book, and I can always put it in DNF if I change my mind, but it allows me to entirely clear the clutter while not worrying about remembering to finish it or forgetting it together.
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Sounds like you might be leaving books there that you really aren't interested in finishing maybe? Life is too short to worry about finishing books you aren't enjoying.
Right now, it's separated by genre, then that is further stratified by subgenre or franchise. There's also a pile of unreads, and a pile of books I read this year. Does it look good? No.
Does it make books easy to find? Also no.
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I try to put them by genre and author and still cannot locate books!
I have all my shelves in my living room organized "by genre," but they're probably only "genres" that make sense to me as to why some things are shleved there hahaThey currently are in the following groups:
Graphic Novels/Manga
Mythology/folklore/fairytales
Writing/Language
Biographies
Science/Psychology
Cooking/Food Writing
Travel
Philosophy
Author Groupings for authors that I have a lot of works by (almost all are classic authors, plus Stephen King and Stephen Fry)
Classics
Children's
Contemporary fiction
Fandom-based novelizations (mainly Doctor Who and Star Trek)
And then the top shelves which are taller than the rest host a jumble of books that can't fit on the other shelves due to odd sizing.
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That is the best kind of shelf to have when you remember the book is oversized. That would be my problem lol
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Does that mean publication date Luis or something else?
Lesle wrote: "Luís wrote: "I have them by order of appearance."Does that mean publication date Luis or something else?"
Yes, that one. Publication date.
my physical books, the nonfiction are categorised by subject, fiction by authors but not perfect as they do get misfiled.kindle books are a nightmare to manage on eBook readers but easier with an app (for Android / pc). I can also do searches by title and author but this isn't perfect and there would be a lot of books I would never find without its virtual folders. It's simple but I can give it any name I want which helps. I can assign assign a book to as many folders / collections I want --- making it a lot easier to find it.
It's this that has helped me keep my digital library manageable, without it I would have stopped reading on kindle a long time ago, but with it I have 1000s of books.
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That is the best kind of shelf to have when you remember the book is oversized. That would be my problem lolIt's easy to remember for all of the ones that are reference-style books, but the ones that are just special editions or anthologies that are oddly sized I probably can't find quickly!
Lesle wrote: "That might be a great help for others Anisha!!"I'm not sure if this useful.
Sometimes the search results I ger back from Google include links to posts about cataloguing books for a home library, other links mention android / apple apps for book cataloguing that can also scan isbn codes.
I don’t use this and I haven’t looked that closely at the tech but I am seeing more demand for this.
Lesle, maybe members here are already using them, if they are it would be interesting to know how they find it.
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I will have to look into this. It sounds intriguing. Most of mine are done by Genre and than grouping all an Authors books together. But it never fails that I still cannot find one that I know I have!
Lesle wrote: "... But it never fails that I still cannot find one that I know I have! "yeah, same here, whenever I am ready to read that physical book it's always the one I have hunt down through my shelves - 😂 it's book goblin is playing with me
Lesle wrote: "I will have to look into this. It sounds intriguing. " if yo do, it will be good to know how you find it.
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I most certainly will!
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Organize by Authors last name (Alpha Z-A twist)
Organize by Authors first name (A memory thing)
Organize by Book length (thinner on top shelf, thicker on bottom)
Organize by Book height (aesthetically pleasing)
Organize by Book color (similar colors make for a very pretty palette)
Organize by Dewey Decimal System (a lot more time and effort)
Organize by Genre (similar titles among one another)
Organize by Country or Continent (your favorites from a certain geographic region)
Organize by Year, Decade or Century (a different approach can be when read by)
Organize by Purchase Date (according to their purchase or acquisition date)
Organize by Title (method works well if you easily recall books by their titles)
Organize by Type (paperback and hardcover books)
Organize by Purchase Date (according to their purchase or acquisition date)Definitely, this is the one!
Lesle wrote: "A converstation between Jennifer, Audrey and Samantha got me thinking.How many Books are in your Library? Consist of Hardbacks and/or Paperbacks? Do you prefer one cover over the other?
How do y..."
I have around 300 books and when they arent on my tbr piles, i have only 3 little shelves to store them on. books that i didnt care about as much go in the back (as the shelves are quite deep). The top shelf is more modern literature, my second is my classics and third is mostly hardcovers and a mix of the other two. I always keep the author together and absolutely despise organising by colour. I try to keep editions together like the penguins and oxford world classics but still try to respect the same authors together (i know this will fail me eventually). On my classics shelf i have my russian literature all together too as well as my poetry and plays. Series like the six of crow duology and agatha christe also stay together (obeys the author rule).
I hope one day i have enough space to actually store my books properly without having piles all over the place and having to keep books in the back.
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I think the books by color would look great but that is about it. I would never find a book.
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I have around 2,000 or 3,000 books around my house. I didn't have the care to count them, not yet.
Never too Late to Read Classics
Books mentioned in this topic
The Flight of the Falcon (other topics)In His Own Write (other topics)
On the Road (other topics)
The Dharma Bums (other topics)
Another Roadside Attraction (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Daphne du Maurier (other topics)Graham Greene (other topics)
Alexandre Dumas (other topics)
Daphne du Maurier (other topics)
Tom Robbins (other topics)
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Mind gets crazy when I have run out of shelf space and start stacking them in front of the others that are well organized!