Thursday 30 September 2010

Book Shelves


Excuse the random post but I've been wondering about something. How do you arrange your books on your shelves/bookcases/wherever?

I've never been able to organize alphabetically because I have to keep all my faves together. And size matters as well! Until a couple of weeks ago I mixed YA/adult books on those top faves shelves. Then I ran out of space and split them because I could fit things better that way. Now I'm thinking about yet another change and having one of those top faves shelves become my signed books shelf (right now signed books are just with their correct series on the faves shelves, no special place).

In my room I've got two tall bookcases (only half of one is dedicated to books, the other half holds my TV and dvds), one short bookcase and two wall units, which have two shelves each. Those wall units are my faves shelves (really, it's a wonder the walls haven't fallen down with the weight on them) and as it stands right now this is what they look like:
Adults faves - (my walls are not that bright! Silly flash)

YA faves - (...also deeper red than they look here. *sigh*)

Very neat and I was very happy with the sort out I last did. But. It can't last because as you can see, there is not a lot of space to play with. It will take very little time for them to be full. So if I'm going to have to do yet another sort out, should I be switching how I organize by books?

How do you all organize books? What matters for you? Size? Alphabetically? Favourites? Genre? Comment away!

7 comments:

Angela Kulig said...

I have my faves book shelf which is in my room but I also have a whole hallway of bookcases, and those are in alpha order by genre.... yeah it's intense.Most of the kids books are downstairs or in their room I dont let them on my pretty bookshelves lol

A Story Untold said...

Ugh!Every time I try to organize them, it leads to frustration and disaster!They are too many!I just lately placed them horizontally, on piles, on my bookcases because they didn't fit otherwise!There are also some piles on the floor and on the desk,total chaos!
I try to sort them by author, though, when I can,but it's nearly impossible :)

Jessica @ a GREAT read said...

Well I'm really one of the other perfectionists where all my books have to be in alphabetical order according to author's last name. If an author has multiple series I generally put them in order as to how I came across them, like with Richelle Mead I have VA first, then Eugenie and then my one Georgina book. So that's how I organize them after the alphabetical part!

I had pictures of them once in a presentation I did, so they're fuller now, but even then people thought I was OCD or something because they were all neat and organized because a LOT of them are MM paperback with a few TP and HB in the mix, so they were seeing all the MM's together and calling me OCD or something like that!

Lale said...

We have way, way too many books in our house, which means that I get about a meter of shelf space for my YA non-contemporary stuff. I organize within that- vampires, werewolves, lighter teeny stuff, dystopian, sci-fi, etc.

Anonymous said...

hehehe...funny to see my twitter frustration/vent turn into a whole blog post! lol... I'm now leaning toward the seperated genre then alpha within route... Or maybe just alpha them all with faves on top shelfs. Gahhhh I'm still torn! *sigh* We'll see how it turns out! BTW I totally love your shelves! I want those ones! They do look nice & sturdy, no warping for you! =)

Claire (Cem) said...

@Nikki, they are awesome aren't they?! I want another set like them, but Ikea don't sell them anymore :(

Michelle Fluttering Butterflies said...

Erm. I separate my books into adult fiction (paper back and hardgback, unread and read), non fiction and YA fiction (unread and read) and then alphatbetise each individual section!