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 19, 2016 at 17:17
I buy most of my books on Kindle these days. Super easy to organize.
I setup up collectiona by genre, if I haven’t read it yet, and then by how much I liked it once I have read it.
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July 19, 2016 at 18:57
I am doing both – buying real books and electronic, but somehow I just don’t seem to care about the ones in my tablet. 😀
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July 19, 2016 at 17:30
I’m a mix of organizing my books by color and by to-be’read or not shelf! Never by title LOL I DONT KNOW HOW PEOPLE DO THAT. I can’t. -Trang
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July 19, 2016 at 18:58
Oh, that is so nice, I really love the idea of organising books by colour! :))
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July 19, 2016 at 17:32
My book shelves are organized by hardback / size order then paperback / size order. I like the way all 4 book cases look organized like that.
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July 19, 2016 at 17:35
I organise mine by Series and to separate a series from each other I will put a stand alone in between. But when I am using my kindle then it is again into series and a separate folder for stand alones
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July 19, 2016 at 21:11
That’s quite interesting. I usually separate my series by having vertical/horizontal arrangement – for example, Harry Potter – all the books in a pile one on the other, next to them – vertically all LOTR books, Hobbit, Silmarillion – next to each other, next again, GoT series in a pile. I try to save some space like that with extra large series, plus I find it to look a bit more obvious! 🙂
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July 19, 2016 at 17:52
For most of my personal books at home, I shelve them in similar manners to you. I always have a pile of recently acquired or “currently being read” books near by the bed or on a shelf near my family room couch (and even a couple of cheap paperbacks stacked near the bathtub). Other than that, most of my books are organized by “genre” or subject, with philosophy/religion, classical literature, GLBT/sexuality, and social theory all having their own shelf or area, and history books grouped by specific time period or theme.
For fiction, especially popular fiction, I generally group things by genre (fantasy, urban fantasy science fiction, paranormal romance, historical fiction, heterosexual romance, GLBT romance, historical romance all get their own areas). I do keep books within the same series together, and they often take up considerable space. My series are usually found within their genre (e.g. the Tolkien books within fantasy). Some of my bigger series (Harry Potter hardbound, Star Wars pulp novels, Thieve’s World, Forgotten Realms) are so important or large they get special places which may be outside of their genre shelves/area.
Most of my current books are now ebooks, and I love how easily they can be grouped in so many different ways. I have titles on many platforms (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBooks, and other readers) so I use Goodreads to apply genre, platform, and content tags to books I own, which allows me quick access to similar types of titles (e.g. all fantasy/science fiction books featuring GLBT themes).
More technical/tedious/boring library stuff below:
As a librarian and library worker for over 30 years, I have seen a wide variety of ways to organize books. You are correct that most libraries organize their fiction by author’s last name, but non-fiction is usually organized by some sort of call number system that arranges books by subject (putting books on the same topic near each other for easier browsing). Libraries and others also use plenty of other organization methods for specific types of publications (e.g. government publications are often shelved by agency, long series can be shelved chronologically, etc.)
As far as space is concerned, the most efficient way to shelve books by size. If one has too many books (o.k. – I don’t really believe in that concept) and/or limited shelving, organizing in some way by size maximizes the number you can shelve. (For example, there have been times in my life when my very large books like atlases, over-sized photographic, coffee table, and game books are on the bottom shelf, large books on the next shelf, “normal sized” books on a couple of shelves up, and mass market paperbacks all on the top shelf. This allowed me to adjust the shelving heights to maximize the space, and also keeps cheap shelving more stable by placing the heavier books and the center of gravity very low.) Library mass storage systems (often where machines retrieve books rather than people browsing and pulling books from the shelves) are sometimes organized by size of the book to maximize storage. (When a library has millions of volumes, this can be very important, especially for technical volumes that don’t get touched for years at a time.)
Books are usually shelved by color for aesthetic purposes, especially in the movies or television (and for some people, too). Lawyers’ offices on film often have rows and rows of a legal set like the “United States Reports” Supreme Court decisions filling up the shelves, as they look neat and officious (and are all the same size and neutral color) – and reflect the actual placement of these volumes that formerly was found somewhere in almost every law office (in the pre-computer/Internet age). While I normally don’t worry about the color, there have been times I’ve shelved my more attractive books “for display.” For example, I had a twenty volume set of Proust bound in red leather that looked really nice on the shelves in my formal living room.
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July 19, 2016 at 21:25
Wow, thanks for your comment, it was really interesting to read!
I usually, as I described above, keep series vertically and horizontally, meaning that HP + Hogwart library’s books are a pile, then LOTR, Silmarillion, Hobbit a row and next GoT a pile again, I find this to save space for me and I kind of like the organised chaos that I have going on.
When I studied history, I also had full shelves of history books and well, I had a hard time letting go. And as I moved to a different country, I had to pick just a few. Now, I have just a small pile about Napoleon and some WWII things. I also have learned to let go, especially as I am reading so much YA or similar genre, last year I gifted popular books, which I didn’t wanted to keep in my collection to school I used to attend, my English teacher was really happy about that. I guess I have grown up a bit and don’t look at quantity as much anymore, but more at – ‘are you going to read this again ever’?
I haven’t been to a library since I finished my degree, to actually take fiction home and read. A lot of things have changed, but I guess, the old school way with library cards and stamps, and interaction with my librarians grew on me when I was a kid and as the libraries got more modern, I stopped going to them. So I’m probably not up to date with the ways books are organised there.
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July 19, 2016 at 21:29
Forgot to add that the big books on bottom and smaller – lighter ones on top is brilliant! I had done that before, but it wasn’t a conscious decision to save shelves, more because it looked better! But I will definitely keep that in mind!
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July 19, 2016 at 18:01
I organise mine by author surname, very traditional! But my local library puts out selections of books based on their colour and I love it.
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July 19, 2016 at 21:31
Wow, that is really cool! I have never heard of a library doing that! 🙂 I know some libraries that wrap books up in wrapping paper with a quote from the book on top of it and, if reader doesn’t know or can’t choose what to take, he can go to the wrapped shelf and choose a book based on the quote! 🙂
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July 19, 2016 at 21:32
Ooh that sounds awesome!
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July 19, 2016 at 18:26
That’s a good way to organize. I’m still trying to find the perfect method. Currently my shelves (ok used to be) in order by size, but that has changed since I’ve tried to fit in as many books as possible. Plus I try to keep all my series together & for some reason some of those books aren’t the same size (go figure right). One day I hope to have beautiful shelves.
btw, I followed you on Instagram! 🙂
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July 19, 2016 at 21:27
Thanks, hope you won’t be disappointed! 🙂
I find horizontal piles and vertical rows mixed together to save me space quite often, plus give an interesting look to the book shelf.
I know… right? The perfect bookshelves with the perfect book covers seems to be everyone’s dream! 😀
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July 20, 2016 at 18:56
My shelf used to have books going both vertically and horizontally because I just had no room for them. It was the perfect way to save space. Now I have a new book shelf and I’m trying to figure out how to make it work. I think my problem is I need to buy more pretty books haha! 😛
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July 19, 2016 at 20:51
I organise my shelves by HB on top shelf, then all paperbacks are by colour. It’s so pretty and as I can spot a title very quickly it never takes me more than a minute to pick up the title I’m looking for. My only negative is that series don’t always stay together, but I guess I can’t have it all!
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July 19, 2016 at 21:32
Oh, pleeeeease show your shelf! It sounds really amazing! And yes, the series not staying together is a big issue, inner perfectionist doesn’t like it. 😀
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July 19, 2016 at 21:02
I tend to put the books I probably won’t read again on a shelf furthest from me. Whereas my favourites I put on the shelf beside my bed or television. New books I put on my chair to remind me to read them!
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July 19, 2016 at 21:34
I have started to let go of books I am not planing to read – last year I made a deal with school I used to attend – my English teacher was more than happy to have plenty of modern YA literature. Still haven’t found use for 50 Shades, but all in due time! 😀
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July 19, 2016 at 21:14
There’s so many ways to organize a book shelf!
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July 19, 2016 at 22:34
Minee are organized on a most-probable-to-be-read basis. Thar’s the to read pile, that has books that I haven’t ever read, and then the already read ones are on different shelves depending on how often I reread them – the ones I read the most are on the shelve that’s most confortable for me to reach. Inside of each shelf, they’re organized by language and inside of that, by author. However, I do really want to try organizing them by color someday ❤
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July 20, 2016 at 01:21
Mine is organized alphabetical by author for the books I’ve read. I have the books I need to read sitting in front of those. I wish I had more bookshelves/space to do this differently, but alas, it’s the best system I have.
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July 20, 2016 at 02:57
I would prefer to organize my home library by Dewey Decimal (I work in a library) but like you said there are height limits to the shelves and that changes where I can put things. So right now I group my books by category. Classics on one shelf, some shelves devoted to general fiction, and some to nonfiction.
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July 20, 2016 at 10:36
I organize books firstly by language then by category i.e. put poetry by poetry, romance by romance.
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July 20, 2016 at 12:44
Personally,I love re-organizing my shelves. And I don’t have any particular way in which I do it. Although series always have to stay together and usually, I keep books by the same author together. It’s really difficult for me to explain how my shelves are organized, especially that a lot of it has to do with maximizing space usage. Because i own more books than my shelves can reasonably handle. I need to get myself a new bookshelf soon. But the important part is that I know where to find a book if I want it.
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July 20, 2016 at 21:55
That is a nice way of organizing. I just go crazy and put things together as they go, I choose to put authors and series together since it makes it a bit easier to find.
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July 22, 2016 at 00:15
I organise my books based on categories like classics, contemporary, sci-fi (those are my hubby’s books really), etc and also by nationality a bit (Hungarian, British, Irish, American, and the rest). My big books also go to the bottom, they are too heavy for the kids to lift. Other low shelves hold only children’s books as they will take them from the shelves. My favourites go at my eye level and I have collections of my favourite authors grouped together. Also, special collections go together (I don’t think I have any series), and most of non-fiction sits in the home office, organised by topic and by size within the topic.
I’m a big fan of libraries, too. Just realised I don’t have to buy every book I want to read 😀
I also started to give away books. We have more than 900 at home and though I love most of them, I really need to decrease the amount of stuff in this house.
I can’t have enough ebooks though. They don’t take up any space 🙂 but I don’t like how I can’t look at them like physical books on the shelves. (The folders don’t look nice)
Books organised by colour must look wonderful (wouldn’t work for me)!
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July 22, 2016 at 05:02
All of my books, ebooks and printed ones, are organised based on when I bought it. Basically it’s not really visible on ebooks, but on printed books it’s much more gorgeous (according to me). I like the fact that my bookshelf (however small it is) looks sort of disorganise because of the different shapes and colours of those books set on my bookshelf, but i like a bit of some beautiful mess. 🙂
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July 22, 2016 at 21:46
I used to have a lot of books. Honestly I’ve been using the library a lot. Lots of borrowed ebooks. However, I typically organize mine by author. Like I said, my bookshelf isn’t as robust anymore because I’ve been giving our public library lots of love.
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