Ooh! I just found out how to include polls on here! It’s pretty tricky: I go over to the thingy over there and click “insert poll.” No, I don’t know why it took me this long to figure it out. Next thing I know you’ll be telling me that there’s some automatic way to underline text and I don’t need to do it with a mechanical pencil and a straightedge (no, no, the technical drawing kind of straightedge, not the “I’m a person just like you / But I’ve got better things to do” kind of Straight Edge).
Anyway: polls! Let’s do one. How about… let’s see…
[poll id="3"]
This poll provided as a service to real estate stagers everywhere.
Found by: me
Loveliest comment, by PapaSloth: My books are sorted by geological epoch. Most recently read are on the top near the bed. Least recently read are buried under a mound of clothing in the corner. True collectors will relish the authentic patina.
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Not only are they organized by color, but the colors then adhere to the Roy G. Biv standard. Brilliant!
Iu, thue officual representuative ouf thue brituish parliameunt, approuve ouf thius polul. Anud Flavouur (=P) ius thue besut wauy tuo arranuge anythinug.
mine are organised by subject (each shelf one subject) then by size
I thought I was the only one this nuts. Do you also go large-small-large in the size sorting so that the lighter books are in middle of the shelf, thereby reducing bowing?
Hey, that’s a really good idea. I should do that. Mostly my books are crammed onto the shelves wherever they fit. They’re loosely grouped by subject and/or author, but that’s about it.
Holy crap I do this too. Book organizing twins!
I have nothing to add except to say I would have never expected to find a Minor Threat reference on a (strange) real estate blog! SSDD
Whatever happened to plain old alphabetical by author, then by title?
That works perfectly for fiction and sci-fi…which is what all my books are.
I go chronological within author rather than alphabetical by title. Unless there are several series of books by the same author, then each series in order. I have friends who come round and mess up the order just to upset me.
However, I did do the colour and size thing (dvds and cds too) to sell a house once, it looked prettier and seemed to work. As soon as the house sold (the first day fortunately or I’d have had major angst about the book order) they were back in the proper order and I felt much better.
Do you group the series in the order they were written, or in the stories chronology?
Currently I have one small bookshelf, too many books, and not enough room for a larger shelf… sigh… I’ll be glad to have a steady income enough to rent an apartment
I prefer the ‘random pile’ method of organizing my books.
Mine aren’t organized. I think I need to go do something now.
Ditto. One of those things I’ve been meaning to get to…
The color method sure is pretty, as long as you can remember the color cover of the book you’re looking for!
I’m a chronic re-reader, though, so some of my favorite books are falling apart and not really presentable for public shelving in my living room. (Frayed-out spines on hardbacks and broken-in-two paperbacks with loose pages falling out are not really attractive.) Fortunately I have big bookshelves in my bedroom.
My books are organized by subject without consideration for size. Additionally some are inserted upside-down so that you can read all titles on their spines without having to flip your head repeatedly from side to side.
They should be sorted by how much the smell like old books. Unfortunately I have more books than shelf space, so I have 1 shelf with books I really love, and for the rest it is something that approaches alphabetic sorting by author.
I… Can’t decide if my OCD is liking the organization by color, or if I hate it because there’s no rationale to the organization other than by color…
I think it would be a perfect Idea to make my own book covers, make them the colors I want based on subject… then I can organize by colors, then authors and series…
My 6-year-old recently organized her DVDs by color. It drives me crazy because I never know where to look for anything. It seems to work for her, though. She can’t read yet, but she can recognize all her DVDs by the cover.
I organised my CD’s by color – it made sense because similar types of music had similar covers. All the dance, Ibetha music would have blue/white covers. Heavy metal and disco would have black covers and techno/rave would have red covers, while classic music would seem to have white covers.
I had an employer who used to have me arrange all the books on the shelves by height. I never understood how he knew where to find the book he needed…
Mine are organized by type (horror, smutty, etc.), which is alphabetized, then by author (alphabetized), then either by date of release or if it’s a series, the series together, then by the next not in the series book’s release date. I’m not OCD. I swear. Just don’t look at my perfectly organized closet or spice cabinet. Please? I do like the color organization though. Very purty!
But how do you decide what to define a book as? Do you put Isaac Asimov’s detective books in sci fi just because they’re based in space, or are they detective? I can’t divide mine up into genres because there is too much cross-over. Except the comic books/graphic novels which are seperated as much for their bigness as being than just text. Oooooh, this whole subject is making my hands itch to sort the books out more, too many choices of how to do it all!
My local public library drives me nuts. It sorts the fiction books by genre, then alphabetical. So that means that some authors books are in different areas of the shelves, just like your Asimov example. Don’t have any idea why they do that, I’ve never seen any other libraries shelve books that way.
A whole bookstore by color! http://architecture.myninjaplease.com/?p=1568?23a58da0
huh, kinda like a real world stumbleupon. the sort of place you go to browse, or find something new, not because you’re looking for anything in particular
The TV facing backwards doesn’t strike anyone as odd?
I like the rainbow effect for the books. So pretty… it’s almost shiny.
Nevermind…
My books are shoved on the shelves wherever they fit, except most of the kid books are on one set of shelves. I can’t ever find the book I want, but it’s more fun that way.
First by subject/genre, then alphabetic by author name, interspersed with teddy bears, random pieces of paper and ornaments.
Note: Only half your shelves should actually be used for books. The rest should be used for things you can’t fit into cupboards!
To be fair, the IKEA catalog does the same, but they’re mostly all white books, or light colours that matches the carpet. Not sure I can find a carpet that matches all my books though…
If you go to an IKEA store, they put all identical books on the shelves. And of course, they’re in Swedish, so no one will be tempted to take them (unless you can read Swedish!)
Huh? Well then, I’m off to raid my local IKEA store for books that match my carpet (no inappropriate meaning there, you perv).
I’m a librarian! Get me out of here!
I’m a book indexer, can I come with you?
I see this organized-by-color thing all the time in shelter mags. Drives me nuts.
My non-fiction books are organized by Library of Congress. Dewey is too unwieldy. (Mind, “oversized” is its own section).
I dare you to suggest going to the color method at your next meeting.
You probably shouldn’t look at the pictures from an art-project at the main branch of Oslo Public Library : http://www.kjefta.org/mathias-faldbakken/
They left it like that for several weeks.
I can only assume that the books on the floor were not part of their collection. How in the world would you find anything in that mess? That would definitely make me crazy!
The books WERE part of their collection. The artist had just pushed them out of the shelves on to the floor.
And the patrons had to look through the mess to (hopefully) find the books they wanted.
So that’s what’s passing for art these days?
There’s a used bookshop in my city that ALWAYS looks like that. It’s a mess.
Black Books? Don’t bother the proprietor, he’s am utter arsehole!
I vote dewey decimal within size within colouerssss
I’m gradually replacing my hard copy books with computer-readable text versions, so the actual books are going into bins in my (finished) garage, on a wherever-they’ll-fit basis.
The text versions are on my computer, alphabetical by author, then grouped by series (where appropriate).
You could just get an organizing program, and use a tagging system, so you don’t have to worry about order
Those people haven’t got enough books to need to organize them. On the other hand I have a house full and they aren’t organized either, except a couple of subjects sort of together.
As to the house I’ve never seen so much stark white. A couple brown couches and some decor (and the books) are all that breaks it up.
You have obviously not seen any Scandinavian real estate listings. At least 50% of them look like that. We really like our whites!
Don’t you get enough of it outside in the winter?
No, white makes the homes as light as possible, which is very much needed during dark winters.
It reminds me of the Absolutely Fabulous christmas special “White Box”.
Eddie decides to remodel her kitchen for the umpteenth time and hires her psychotic friend Bettina to do it. The end result is basically a sterile, white box.
A brilliant jab at our Scandinavian design aestethics.
I’m not a fan of this “sort books by color” theme that I’ve seen lately. It just seems too “contrived.”
We sort our books by size, by what fits on the shelves of each book case. Some cases have room for tall books, some have room for only short books. We have a few book cases, but it never takes more than a minute or two to find what we are looking for. Works for us.
I organize my books by height – similar to a teacher lining kids up for a class photo.
Tallest in back, shortest in front?
Yup! Just like the kiddies.
Since I’m a librarian I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that my system at home is called “Random”.
I sort of have mine organized by size/height. My shelves are full and any extra books go on top of books on the shelves or on my nightstand.
What is the Chunk method? As a Southerner, I picture someone throwing (“chunking”) the books onto the shelves. Which would be rather hit or miss if done from a distance and would certainly be messy even if done from up close.
The Chunk Method is when you organize your books in chunks. Maybe it should be called the Clump Method. It’s what I use for the few books that aren’t in plastic tubs in the garage. A bunch of cookbooks here, all the Jack and Stephen books here, books about photography here, etc.
Whoa, that’s a lot of White in every other area of the apartment. Given the color scheme of the rest of the place, I wonder if the books are huddling together in a “Safety in numbers” stance.
I’m a librarian and my books at home are organized by color. It works for me because I don’t actually have that many books (a few moves sure helped me weed my collection and I borrow tons from the library). It also really helped ease the visual clutter in my small apartment. I thought I would hate it, but I actually really like it. I get enough of Dewey at work anyway.
What is this “sort” you speak of?
Fiction: by genre (general, scifi/fantasy, children’s, mystery), then alpha by author.
Poetry, plays: ditto
Nonfiction: by subject, then sub-chunked as necessary: e.g., arts all together, then broken into photography, film, etc. Politics all together, then sub-chunked into different issues.
It works pretty well–we can lay our hands on a book very quickly most of the time. Still, I often fantasize about subjecting the whole thing to Dewey Decimal, or better yet, LoC, because those odd books that I don’t know how to categorize drive me crazy. Crazy! I can’t stand it! I know–I’ll sort them all by color instead! Hahahahahaha! But what do you do with those awkward pastels that don’t quite fit in a rainbow arrangement? Argh . . .
Some day we’ll find it, the Rainbow Connection, the lovers, the dreamers, and me.
Thanks I love that song, and will now have it with me all day.
My husband and I had to merge our vast collections 15 years ago, with surprisingly few duplicates. We lived in one house that had enough built-in shelf space for all the books. They were in order by genre, the author, and chronologically after that.
We left that house about 9 years ago, and the books are in boxes in the garage, except for those purchased since we moved here, and those we couldn’t live without.
otheur… ROTFLMAO. That so much reminds me of those boring tables to be learnt in 12th grade about differences between American English and British English (German high school). Not that I remember much in detail though.
BTW my books were sorted after topic (Scifi, Maths books, BA/law books, travel, fiction…. with a Terry Pratchett section on its own) when I moved in a few years ago, since then whenever I took out a book I put it back in where I found a gap. By now I can see quite well which books I virtually never touch because those still fit the original scheme… Should box them and bring them to the attic, to get some room in my cupboard for those books stacked on top of it for lack of board space.
I have a Pratchett section, too.
I also have a Pratchett section, and a Harry Potter section.
(And on the film side I have a Disney section, with under-sections of pixar and studio ghibli. I also have a dreamworks section, which is part of a larger animation section)
German high schools teach the difference between British and American English? Wow, American schools don’t teach that. Most of what I know about it is from reading British lit. Most Americans don’t have a clue; they just think Brits don’t know how to spell!
I have a Scottish friend who’s living here, and while he and my American friends and I understand each other well most of the time, occasionally hilarity ensues.
“Walking on the pavement” is one phrase that confuses everyone. “Hey, did you see that video where that guy who was walking on the pavement, when a car skidded and missed him by inches?”. “Well, what do you expect if you walk on the pavement. He should have been on the sidewalk.”
Hands up for another Pratchett section here. They sit all on their own below the shelves of DVDs that I can’t fit into the holder in the entertainment unit. Otherwise, books are sorted by approximate subject and I own so little fiction that it either gets sorted with the non-fiction by subject (historical novels go with the history books for that time period) or it has it’s own little dumping ground on the back bookshelf in the office.
Someone once told me that if you organize your books, it looks like you never read them. I had been a staunch alphabetical-ist until then, but I’m just vain enough to never have organized my books since.
Erm… I do this with my CDs. I think it’s perfectly rational – it’s much easier to refile them, and I can generally remember which colour the spine of a given CD is.
It should be ordered by the biblical system!
“Whats that?’ you ask.
Seek and ye shall find!
OMG!!! I’m a librarian & my DH is a deacon (soon to be priest). That would be the perfect system for us LOL
…but what if your husband is unable to find that copy of “Crime and Punishment” and starts to question his faith?
This so reminds me of the difference between the way my wife and I organize things. For books, I organize by type of book similar to the Dewey Decimal System. She likes to organize them purely based on size. God knows we love each other because the whole house is a kludge of our two different styles. We never complain about it and try to find ways to accommodate each other.
The colors in this one look nice, but I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to find the book I was looking for very quickly if they looked like that.
My dvds are arranged by: Theme, production company, release date/number in series. And of course tv-series and films have different shelves. My books arn’t that organized. They’ve been put in based on size (have one small bookshelf and one big) and theme and the series/authors are put together.
Hey Sara, what’s up with the tweet about the Hazmat guys? Did you get a picture for us?
Ok, I know it’s not from a listing…
Heh. No, just me rambling. But it really did happen… and they’re still there.
*cough*
*cough*
*thunk*
Wow… any idea what the “hazard” is? That’s not something you see every day! Your neighbor’s not a crazy cat lady, is she?
I think they’re just remodeling, and wanted to keep their clothes clean… that’s what I’m hoping for. They didn’t have full face masks, so I guess they weren’t really hazmat suits.
Mine are organized by size,genre,and alphabetical by author (I work in a book store).
Wow. That photo is really OCD. Fiction: A-Z by author (don’t have a lot of that, actually). I group my non-fiction books by subject and sub-subject.
One bookshelf has all my fiber-arts books on it. They’re further grouped according to what technique they reference. All the knitting is together, the dyeing together, the weaving, etc.
Within a genre, I’ll have subgroupings. All the sock-knitting books are together, all the color-work together… it works for me. I can put my hands on any book I need in an instant. Now if I could just do this with papers…
I used to work in a library, and they would actually have people coming in and asking for a ‘red book on [insert topic here]‘. How do you answer that?!?
I just purged about 75% of my books. The midwifery/birth/babies books went to my office library for lending and reference. The remainder are organized by color, then size. It really does look nice. There’s only 6 shelves of books so finding anything is easy.
Getting rid of so many books really is freeing. It’s been 10 years since college, and if I haven’t cracked it since then, out it went. So much of chemistry and microbiology is available on wikipedia or other online resources – no need for the 1999 version on my shelf. I can always hit up interlibrary loan for a real updated text if I need one.
I live within walking distance of a very good public library, so I just think of all the library books as being MINE (but I share) and I got rid of most of the ones I owned. I kept ones that I know I’ll read over and over (Jack and Stephen, Lord Peter), some small press or otherwise hard to find ones, and a few with sentimental value, but anything else I know the library can get for me.
Ahhhh! The couch and (cool) purple table are out of place! I need wood and white! I can’t say much about the books when I used to organize the clothes in my closet the same way. It definitely would make it more difficult to find a book, though, unless you memorize the covers. But that book on the lower left corner is throwing off the whole scheme by just lying on top of the other books.
I organize my books in clusters. Some by series, some by author, some by genre, some by colour. Whatever feels right.
Just LOVE the way the proper spellings are included too…
I go by a variation of the Chunk method that I call the “Ironic Chunk method”. For example, I placed a book about the history of the devil in popular culture next to some of my folks books on various interpretations of the Bible. My hope is that someday they’ll come to life and fight it out.
I voted for the Chunk method, whatever the hell that is.
I admit that I organized one of my bookshelves by colour. It adds some visual interest to the room. My husband got used to me saying something along the lines of “look on the green shelf” when he asks where a book is.
I want this.
My books are sorted by geological epoch. Most recently read are on the top near the bed. Least recently read are buried under a mound of clothing in the corner. True collectors will relish the authentic patina.
This! LOL!
And paleontologists will be able to deduce so much about your life history.
See first you organize it into non-fiction and fiction sections. Within each of those sections it is alphabetical by author’s last name. If there is more than one book by that author, it is put is order by original publish date/order of the series.
Books? People still own books?
They’re good for building a fire or to balance that wobbly coffeetable.
…I arrange my books by color, too.
Books should be arranged by size.
Agreed. All books of the same height go together. Looks nice that way.
I never would have guessed that the organization of books would be such a hot topic. When I saw “92 responses” I figured there was evidence of a double murder or something in the picture.
Passionate topic, I guess. I have tons of books, and they count themselves lucky to make it to shelves. No system, no order, stacks around the house (but I do dust them).
When I need to find a book? It’s something of a grueling task, but then I usually have whatever I’m reading on hand, and it goes to the shelves when I’m done with it. It’s fairly rare that I have to search my personal stacks.
I’m sad that polls don’t show up in my GoogleReader. I had to actually click the title link and come over here and then click my poll choice and aaaaah the inefficiency….*dies*
My wife, the visual artist, organizes her art books by color and then size. I couldn’t find a particular monogram if you paid me, but, with her visual memory, it works out well for her.
Isn’t the Bible the only book you need? Arranged by author: God, Almighty.
AS a librarian, I have to say there are a lot of good ideas out there, but whatever works for you and that you actually use…is the best for you.
Gypsye L
MLIS, ( and a Certified Archivist)
don’t suppose you’d care to stop by my place and whip ‘em into instant order? they’re taking over the place!
nah, didn’t think so…..
Frankly, I don’t care how you organize your books, I’m just so relieved that there are still people on this planet who own them (and obsess about them)!!!!! I went to a furniture store (huge store, local chain) and THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE FLIPPING BOOKCASE FOR SALE. Asked the sales clerk – “There’s no demand for them”. I nearly sat down on a lazy-boy and cried right then & there. Hell in a handbasket, sigh. BTW – mine are hardback/paperback separated, then fiction/nonfiction, then by genre, then author by publication date….
Antique shops? Second-hand stores? Surely there must be bookcases out there! I have some installed directly onto my wall.
My books are arranged according to age/interest and then within that either by author’s last name, size, or randomly (usually according to last read). Does that count as “otheur”?
Toadhole, seeing as I had to conduct the exact same search recently — believe it or not that Home Decorator’s catalog has a ton of them. So does Ikea.
Also, and don’t drop from shock, freaking American Furniture Warehouse had them also. Office Depot, and other office outlets also have them.
I know your pain. They are great bookcases, although the ones at AFW weren’t actually that bad (in terms of closer to solid construction). We moved an I had wanted to replace bookcases. Didn’t know I was searching for the Holy Grail or anything, but apparently, I was.
Also, you can generally hire someone to make you some. Run a search for your area
correction: They are NOT great bookcases was what I meant to say. That’s the mistake I made, I was thinking, “I’ll buy some really nice ones!” and that just wasn’t going to happen.
IKEA is the answer. We found some nice ones with glass doors to keep the dust level down.
Organization for us:
Books to Read
Read Books to Store
My Books
Her Books
Reference Books
(We should have a Harlan Coben shelf, too.)
We just got bookcases at IKEA and love them.
They have tons of them.
Oh, Toadhole, marry me, will you? Mine are separated into British/French/American literature; and then the mysteries have a room [yes, a ROOM] all to themselves. All of these are separated by author and publication date. The children’s books have their own shelf, as does the travel literature [which also holds the dreck I own on the Royal Family, I'm sorry to say]; and the humor and cat books are on a small bookcase off in a corner.
Yes, cat books. I’m single, 21 for the 7th time [don't ask], and I have two cats. (But only two!) So people give me cat books. I DON’T ASK FOR THEM!
And I will never own a Kindle or a Nook.
The rack of used books for sale at my library was organized like this when I went by last week, it was kind of pretty.
Alphabetically?
At the library where I work, one of the managers thinks it’s so clever to put out a color-themed book display, oh, EVERY OTHER MONTH or so. Books with orange jackets at Halloween, green jackets for saint patrick’s day white jackets during the winter (snow, get it?)…
It’s wonderful fun to drive myself crazy looking for a book that should be on the shelf in order by, y’know, call number, or even subject… only to realize, hey… it’s on the “color” display… i.e., not searchable in our system.
Books here are by subject..and we tend to have a lot of series-publications..so it kind of gives the appearance that they’re sorted by colour.
Weird, we have four bookshelves full of books all arranged in a rainbow of color at my house (plus one bookshelf of black covers and one of white). It has never taken me long to find anything, since it’s easy for me to remember what the bindings of books I’ve read look like. Yeah, everyone always thinks it would be impossible, though.
Alphabetical. Always alphabetical.
And lined up perfectly at the edge of the shelf.
Not entirely related to this type of book organization, but just had to throw this out there – at my library the Bibles are found in the BS section, and all the children’s literature is under C.Lit. Yeesh!
Flavour! Flavour! but only the non-fiction really. The fiction is alphabetical by author EXCEPT the ones I re-read frequently (or you could call them my “favourites”); they are on a shelf all together, no order except grouped by author.
Non-fiction is arranged by general topic (flavour).
However, it needs updating.
OH, plus there’s a shelf of Terry Pratchett books — partly because my step-son borrows them frequently. And a separate area for cookbooks, in no particular order, but the best ones where they are easiest to reach over the clutter.
Then there’s the stacks of books waiting to be shelved where they belong.