Do You Organize Your Books?
by andye
I am NOT an organized person. I really, really wish I was. I want to be organized. Organized people seem so together, and....shiny.
But I am not. And I kind of hate all you methodical freaks! Kidding....really.
Although I did like this definition from UrbanDictionary.com
I am NOT an organized person. I really, really wish I was. I want to be organized. Organized people seem so together, and....shiny.
But I am not. And I kind of hate all you methodical freaks! Kidding....really.
Although I did like this definition from UrbanDictionary.com
1. organized
a word used to describe people who are too lazy to look for things"Did you clean your room?"
"No...organized people are too lazy to look for things."
Even though I'm not organized, that doesn't mean I'm messy. I like for things to be clean and look nice. That just means I throw everything away. I don't keep anything. Pictures the kids draw? "Aww, honey, that's so cute!" *trashed* Yep, I'm that bad. BUT! Now that I've become quite the book hoarder, I've had to come up with a system for ALL THE BOOKS!
As I mentioned before, my house is kind of a library. I like having books in order so that when people come over, they can easily spot books that they might like. I know some people like to organize in alphabetical order, by author or by title. My older daughter has her bookshelves sorted by color, which I love. But both of these ways make it hard for me to easily find books to recommend.
So I organize my shelf by genre.
All my rom-coms are together, my time travel, dystopia, fantasy. Then, within those categories, there are often sub-categories. Like in paranormal romance it's divided into vampires, werewolves, angels, etc. And then to further complicate things...or make things exciting, depending on how you look at it, each section is sorted by color.
The reason I like to sort by genre is because when people come over, they tell me they really liked Divergent, or whatever, and I can say, "Here's my dystopian shelf! If you like Divergent, you'll probably like the books in this section!" The other day one of my good friends was over and she said, "Oooh, this is my section! I can tell by all the pink and blue books." Heehee. Chick-lit!
Of course this does not include my shelves of unread books or ARCs....but that's a whole different post!
So, what about you?
How do you like to organize your shelves? Or do you just toss books into the air and hope they end up in the right place?
How do you like to organize your shelves? Or do you just toss books into the air and hope they end up in the right place?
+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteI also organise my books into big groups by genre, but after that, each section has its own special rules. For example, classics are arranged first by the year of the author's birth and then by year of publication (which means that Jonathan Swift comes before Jane Austen, while Pride and Prejudice comes before Emma); so the shelf looks like several historical timelines crammed into one. Middle Grade and YA books usually get grouped by the author's last name unless they won some award and I'm collecting all the award winners--and then they get split up. The exception to this rule is if the books are part of a series. So The Grey King by Susan Cooper isn't with the other Newbery medal winners, but with the rest of her Dark Is Rising sequence. And yes, I know exactly where everything is. ;-)
Yay! A genre organizer like me!! I love all the extra "rules" you have. I also like that you call them rules. Haha!
DeleteI intend to have larger shelves sometime, but right now my current shelves are quite small and overflowing with TBR books, which I keep grouped by series where possible to find them all easier, but I use Goodreads to keep track of the actual reading order, so I don't always sort them very accurately. I give most of the books I've read away and keep only those that I absolutely loved and intend to read again. These I store in boxes for when I finally get those larger shelves. When I finally get them, I intend to arrange the books by author's name (first or last, I haven't decided yet) and then by book's title, unless it's a part of series, then I'd keep them in the series order. I also have lots of books that are a part of a multi author series, like Star Trek or Star Wars novels, so these will probably make more sense to keep sorted by series order and titles only. And there would have to be a separate section for non-fiction and various 'making of' books.
ReplyDeleteI don't and will never lend my precious books, so I think it's the quickest way for me both to arrange them and later find them.
I feel like I just keep adding more and more shelves to try and accommodate. I'm going to have to think of something soon, or I'm going to be sleeping on books!
DeleteI organize by genre and then series! It does make it hard when there are books that can be a toss up of genres. It really bugs me when people separate up a series on their shelves. I feel like a series is like a little family and belongs next to each other. I feel like the books organization needs to have reason which is why I go by genre it can't be random for me
ReplyDeleteI like for series to be together too, though I have to admit, I recently divided some up based on color so that I could take a picture of them, and I never put them back....don't hunt me down!
DeleteWell, I married a literary historian and more or less the only thing he insisted on when we moved in together (some 10 years ago) was that our books had to organised alphabetically by author's surnames!
ReplyDeleteSo, we go the library route in my house even though about 3/4 of the books are mine - and while at first I thought it looked messy, I actually can't really imagine having it any other way now :)
I'm not organised AT ALL and normally am not very good at remembering facts, but when it comes to books and authors, I know every single book I own (right now about 900 of them) and who the author is and then it's so nice to just be able to go to the letter and there it is :)
And while it is a lot of work to add new books, I usually wait until I have a couple and then make a project out of going through all the books (and usually dusting a lot as well!) while I "move the shelves".
This seems to be the common way to do it. Which makes sense :D
DeleteWith all the books I have, there is no way to get them organized. And I keep bringing in more, lol! I would constantly be reorganizing. Wish I could though:)
ReplyDeleteHahaha, yes, this is such a problem for me too! I started leaving intentional spaces on each section so I could add more easily. But I'm seriously running out of room!
DeleteI'm very OCD, so everything has to be in some kind of order for me (although my room is very messy at the same time. I call it organized chaos). With my books, I have them in chronological order. I get a new book, it's next on the shelf. It's really nice to look over and see how my tastes in books have evolved over the years and it's like a walk down memory lane. The only exception to this rule is series. When get a book from a series I started years ago, it goes in order with that series. Just can't break up a series (which is said for my walk down memory lane, but it just makes more sense this way).
ReplyDeleteI organize by favorites (5 shelves!), to be donated, to be read! I keep books organized by author, but not alphabetized. That would be too orderly. :D
ReplyDeleteI'm an organized person... but my bookshelves are so unorganized. I have a colour thing going on, but then again I also have an author thing going on, and a size thing? So all the tall Michael Grant with dark colours could be on the top shelf, and the small light ones on the third and the small dark ones on the fourth xD Everyone finds it so confusing but at least I know where all the titles are! So if anyone needs help I just like, right, just step over here....
ReplyDeleteLoved the kids drawing *trashed* example lol
http://olivia-savannah.blogspot.nl/2014/04/how-to-write-poem.html
Haha, at least YOU know where everything is! :P
DeleteI recently put together my library in the new house, and I have been putting books on shelves based on genre, then alphabetical by author. I have 7 bookshelves right now, and very little space left for more. I also hate splitting a series between shelves so I try to make it fit.
ReplyDeleteYes on the splitting of a series between shelves! And wow....SEVEN bookshelves?? That's awesome!
DeleteI organised my books alphabetically in the beginning but after a year or two I decided to change it up.
ReplyDelete1st shelf: Classics (I have multiple copies)
2nd shelf: Books I've read and LOVED.
3rd shelf: Books I've read and liked/ books I've read.
4/5th shelf: Books I haven't read (my TBR list hahaha)
6th shelf is at floor level so I put the children's books there so any cousin wanting to read just sits down and reads :)
I like this system! Though I'd still want to organize by genre within the books I love.
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