Bookshelf Quandary

[Nellie]

I have been pondering this for some time, it's perhaps not the most desperate decision the world has faced, but nevertheless it is causing me some worry... :sad:

I have a set of books which have the same lovely binding... however, they are by different authors. They look lovely all lined up together, but then that means my books are no longer in alphabetical order. What should I do??

 

[libri vermis]

I went for the first option, but I am obsessive compulsive about the order of my books.

Don't you be like me.

 

[SFG75]

Organize them by genre.

 

[Disenthral]

I organize but what I like the most, best in the middle easiest to get to worst at bottom.

 

[fluffy bunny]

Varies - to start with, went alphabetical. Things change when you get overspill from 1 set of shelves to the next. One shelf has 2 rows of books, one in front of the other.

So one set of shelves has all my fantasy and sf masterworks (same binding). Another has a load of hardbacks, another has a load of graphic novels, another with a load of mysteries, yet another has books where I've just plonked em (with no order). That said, I can find most of the books in my collection if I was looking for a specific book.

Go for whatever looks right to you. On the other hand, if you're struggling to sort your books, I'm sure good homes can be found for them if you ask around on here Every 2 or 3 years, get culling (if like me you end up buying a load of books then find they're no good later on down the line).

 

[Occlith]

They look lovely all lined up together, but then that means my books are no longer in alphabetical order. What should I do??

Get rid of the set! How about putting all your other books in "order" and keeping the set together.

Here's my "system".
On my own bookshelves it depends on how many books I have at the moment; if there are a lot (all shelves filled) then I do the following -

I use separate shelves for PB and HC.
Then I divide each by fiction and non-fiction.
I group the non-fic by subject matter - for example, all the reference together, art related books together, health, and so on.

For fiction, I usually group books by the same author together in no particular order.

 

[velocipede2288]

I try and keep all the thrillers in one shelf, classics in another, books on books in another and so on, it only works up to a point, then I find a large book won't fit in this shelf so it goes in another, and I need more shelf room etc but I can usually find what I want.
But now that it has been mentioned, I think I will spend some time re-organising....see what you have done now!

 

[Nellie]

Well, I did it.... I put the set together... the world doesn't appear to have ended and it does look lovely.

 

[The Mythwriter]

I used to do it aesthetically. Then eventually, it got harder to find books, and the chaos began to irritate me so I switched to alphabetical by author. Eventually I'll have to break up fiction and nonfiction too.

 

[velocipede2288]

I am now keeping a list of books on www. Librarything.com It will take a long time before I have them all catalogued.