Before I jump into this, I just wanted to give a shout-out that at last bookowly has also joined the bookstagram, so you can check out that here.
The best way for book organisation for the easiest access for books has always been nagging me, especially since my second grade when our class had an excursion to a library and we got this big story of how you have to take a marker and, if you wanted to take out a book from a shelf, you had to mark the place, then take the book and afterwards put the book back, if you weren’t interested.
And of course the order – there were shelves for topics and all the books (as in most libraries), organised by alphabet, based on author’s last name. That is all beautiful and wonderful for a library, yet it is not how I manage my shelf and I think it could never work for me.
In my opinion, people who do not often touch their bookshelf, organise their shelves a lot different than those who do. I have many relatives who pack their shelves, but never pick up a book, which means that they don’t actually need to know where their books are (with rare exceptions, of course). Opposed to people who read and buy books regularly.
I have always been very curious about people’s ways to organise their books. Many do it by alphabet, but some use author’s name or the book’s title instead of the author’s last name. It definitely helps to find book you have in mind, if you know the attribute very well. I tend to forget author’s very often and sometimes book titles start with “the ” or “a”, which is not very helpful, if you forget that tiny little word. I do not use this method, because I am very forgetful in these matters and somehow feel like it is too organised – like I need some artsy chaos in my books to make myself feel good.
Some organise their books by size (and alphabet), basically putting books of the same size in one shelf and organising them in that shelf by one of the methods mentioned above. I find this method to be organised chaos, yet as I am bad with names and titles, it’s not very good for me.
I don’t think I actually know anyone who does it, but some prefer to organise their books by colours. You might think that this, although a beautiful solution, doesn’t offer much organisation and help in finding a book when you are searching for a particular one, yet I disagree. I don’t use this technique, but I think it might work for me, because it fits well with people who have visual memory. Which means that they might not know the title or author, but they know the cover. This can be turned in an interior design element and with enough books make the flat or house more interesting, but as I tend to give away books I don’t want to keep in my collection, I don’t actually own that many books in that many colours.
Then there’s the genre (or should I say mood) type of division, which is quite straight forward – put romance with romance, mystery with mystery etc. and your shelf is ready to go. And then there is of course the one where the books are organised by unread and read or favourite (and most re-read) and not so favourite ones.
Probably I missed some of possible organisation ways and types, so be sure to add them in the comments, maybe I will discover a new way to organise my shelves! So… my shelves…
I organise my books by few criteria, I want to be able to find a book easy, if in need, and at the same time have my shelf to be easily maintainable. So, first of all, all the books I’ve purchased in the last month are not really in the shelf, they are separated from their comrades, so I could always see my newest books. Second – all book series I own have separate shelf or shelves (depending on how many series I own at the time). Which means that A Song of Ice and Fire,The Lord of the Rings + Hobbit, Harry Potter, have to share a shelf with Fifty Shades (yeah, I have that trilogy, don’t really know what to do with it). It doesn’t matter to me if I’ve read the series or not, they are all series, so they all stick together. So when I have put my series away, I am still left with a bunch of books, which I also organise. So, first I go by type, usually it is classics, science, chic-lit etc. and then I organise the books in that category by size (unfortunately some of my shelves are not high enough to accommodate books of all sizes, so I have to check, if they will fit) and when that is done, I also organise them by read and unread books, which helps me orientate in my bookshelf. And that’s all, put that all together and you get the shelf I have!
So is there a perfect way? Are some better than other? What are you doing to organise your bookshelf? What ways I didn’t mention?
July 23, 2016 at 14:09
I never thought people actually organized their shelves by color until I started by bookstagram account and now I see all those gorgeous pictures and I think I should do that, then my husband threatens to take away all the books if I do. As it is I do something very similar to you except I probably need more shelves because I have piles of books everywhere somehow.
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July 23, 2016 at 15:31
But it sooo pretty, how could one not like it? 😀
Yes, definitely you have more, I’m giving away books I decide not to keep and/or not to read again. 🙂
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July 23, 2016 at 15:14
I can’t begin to tell you how many hours I’ve spent trying to find the perfect way to organise my bookshelf. Lol. Years later, I’ve still not found it 😊
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July 25, 2016 at 12:35
I don’t think there is a perfect way. I think a bookshelf is a personal thing, so the organisation should also be personal. I currently have mine organised by genre, kind of. Right now these are the shelves I have;
Young adult X 2
Magic books
Fantasy books
Books with no supernatural element at all
Any book that involves sex of adult like behaviour
Then a shelf for anything that doesn’t fit with these, or books of that kind which I don’t like and have no room for on that shelf.
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July 26, 2016 at 18:55
Mine are definitely organised chaos! I have some organised by colour, some by language, some by edition/publisher, some by genre… and then odd piles here and there of recently acquired books and TBRs. I couldn’t begin to explain my ‘system’ to anyone else but it works for me!
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July 27, 2016 at 14:53
Woo! I’m the organized chaos person! :p Though, to be fair, I don’t have that many books and I make sure that every book in the series is the same exact cover/size. That way I can put each of the books in the series next to each other on the shelf (because my book heights have to go in descending order from left to right. >.> Darn you OCD.) Though, I generally like to keep them in genre order if able and care little for the authors or titles. shrug
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July 29, 2016 at 15:07
I’m forever rearranging my bookshelves! I love trying new ways but I have to admit my fave is grouping genres. Soon I will have to go by height, to fit in more books.
I have a whole bookcase for manga, which is arranged by title (because it is more memorable then authors)
I have another entire bookcase for romance, which is then organised by grouping an author’s books together, but the authors’ are placed on the shelf in preference of me liking them, not alphabetically.
Another bookcase is for children’s books with authors’ grouped in no order, just where they fit.
Then there is my borrowed books from friends and the library/ not sure if I’m going to keep/ didn’t fit on the other bookcases. They are just all over the place with the borrowed books clearly separate.
Then finally. My main bookcase. I have an Agatha Christie shelf (no order), Janet Evanovich shelf (series then height order), Harry Potter Shelf (series order), Classics shelf (divided into read and unread, no other order just where ever they fit), 2016 TBR shelf (all mushed in), Non-fiction shelf (height and topic), Signed books shelf (height and series grouped), then YA read (series grouped then height), YA unread (similar colours grouped). and then five read/unread general fiction shelves which I have arranged into a rainbow.
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August 3, 2016 at 19:14
I rearrange my shelves pretty frequently. They’re currently loosely arranged by subject matter: non-fiction, YA, epic fantasy, sci-fi are all on one side. Then on the other side of the shelf I have manga arranged alphabetically by title and other comics arranged by height.
I definitely didn’t think people arranged their books by colour until I saw the photos that proved otherwise.
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August 3, 2016 at 21:20
I feel like the books need touching and even if the bookshelf is not messy, still rearrange some time after time. I guess that’s something the bookish people do – they need to hold their babies! 😀
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August 5, 2016 at 20:06
I have hybrid system because I have book shelves everywhere! The biggest is alphabetized with some split by size because of a smaller shelf; but others are lumped together where I have a lot of a certain type (Jane Austen, foreign language, signed copies, Harry Potter); and I even have one shelf that is color based because it’s all of the orange Penguin books, but I’m slowly working my way through that and I very rarely keep books. 🙂
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August 10, 2016 at 20:55
With novels, I organize them by genre and franchise first. With non-fiction, I really should get around to organizing them period.
SInce I have a lot more comics and graphic novels than I do other books though, I organize them in a different manner. I have a lot of X-Men graphic novels organized in estimated chronological order. The rest of my Marvel material is split between solo titles and team books, and then organized by team or character, then in chronological order. And then there’s the one shelf with a bit of DC and all the smaller company/independent stuff, of which there’s not quite enough to bother organizing just yet.
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