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How do you organise your books?

murphyz

murphyz

New Member
My books are mostly contained in a random order in a few bookcases, but now that these are full, and for the last few weeks I seem to have been buying circa ten books per week, they are now being piled up on top of CD racks and anywhere else that they can fit.

Of course none of the books are in any sort of order, with the Harry Potter's scattered in various places and such like, the only ones that do seem to be together are my 'Everyman's Library' classics which look superb.

What do you do for yours? Alphabetical order by name or author? Perhaps lining them up on the bookshelf so that the spines of the book create a rainbow effect of colour?

I also use the collectorz.com book database (as featured in the directory on this site) to note my collection, whether or not I have read the item, and who and when I have lent a book out to someone.

How do you keep up to scratch with it?

Mxx
 
I tend to drop them wherever I can find a spot. On top the armoise in the bedroom, up on the bedroom closet self, on the living room side table. I try to box them up occasionally to make room for more.
 
I used to have them alphabetically by publisher, then by author, now they're just alphabetically by author, but I'm thinking about changing back to the old system.
 
My books are arranged alphabetically by author, - er, sort of.

I actually have 4 separate bookcases: 1 for reference books; 2 with mostly fiction books I've read; and 1 for books I plan to read or re-read.

On top of these shelves, I have assorted non-fiction books (travel books, essay collections, anthologies, etc.).

They are all chock full. Therefore, I also have books piled in front of and on top of the books already shelved (which kind of messes up my attempt at shelving alphabetically).

Oh, and I almost forgot the teetering stack of books on my bedside table (about 5 deep now) and 2 or 3 on the floor by my bed.

Like I said in another thread, I need a separate room with wall-to-wall built in shelves!

Murphyz, I started entering my books with the collectorz.com data base, but haven't managed to finish, yet. How are you doing with it?
 
Luckily I don't seem to have as many as you as I have recently moved so had to get rid of them. It's only recently that I have started to rebuy books and add them as I buy them. I only have one small bookcase left to input and should result in just under 200 books altogether.

That's why I bought it now, instead of waiting until I had too many books and tried to input them all at the same time.

Mxx
 
I have a shelf of original MS's and a shelf of books (mostly comic paperbacks: Andy Capp, Peanuts, BC, The Wizard of Id, etc.) Agatha Christie, Nero Wolfe, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clark, Vonegut, Mailer, etc. that I will read again, and a few that I might read again if I get incredibly bored. The rest I give to the Elks Club thrift store.

My other shelf is technical and factual work I use as reference in the writing.
 
How do I organise my books?

All my books are piled high in my closet. :rolleyes:
books.jpg
 
I have all my hardbacks and newer paperbacks in a bookcase in the lounge, not in any particular order.

The paperbacks are in the bedroom bookcase, and some are piled in the bottom of the wardrobe!

I'm going to give Book Collector another try. Murphyz, have you found any problems with it so far?

Darren.
 
I'm just starting out with it really but so far there are now problems. They kindly let me use it from two PCs within the house, so that's nice.

I want to be able to fully customise the look of it to fit in with a website, and they say it is possible, but I need to have a decent look at it first to figure out exactly how, otherwise it should be good.

For the books it has managed to look up, I find it astonishing the 'total price' that it has given - I haven't put in all my books yet and can't believe how much I have spent on them.

The only thing I do wish is that you could change the index/id numbers to go in numerical order with the a-z - but I don't think this is possible without inputting all books in order.

All in all, a database could be set up by yourself in ten minutes, but that makes it all very easy and quick and highly convenient so it is, IMO, well worth the €40 it costs.

Mxx
 
Book Collector

How did you set it to be run from two computers?

Uploading to a website would be great. It'd be interesting to have a browse through people's collections.
 
2 PCs - you can either have it on a network (although only one PC can write to the database at a time) or you can do as I did and just download it onto each PC and then use the key you get when you purchase the product to unlock it twice.

I checked with them and this is okay as long as you own both of the PCs.

Mxx
 
Well ... they started out roughly grouped by type then by author, but I've moved so many times they're now in glorious disarray. I have three book cases (sold two when I moved) so the books that are currently on my shelves are the ones I like the best or use most often. The rest are in boxes.
 
I have a bookcase of my own. At the bottom of the bookcase, there are hardback books and other 2 shelf are order of the authors paperback!
 
I'm in the midst of sorting and purging my bookshelves due to the disorganization. I'm sorting by topic...as in the libraries and bookstores by topic gives you some leeway. For instance general biography takes up a few shelves, but I have several more shelves of music bios, so they get their own category.
 
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