Aussie Readers discussion

How do you organise your books and what does that say about you?

My type isn't mentioned - I just put the books wherever I can find a space on the shelf. No sorting whatsoever (but they're not dogeared and messy). Not sure what that says about me!

Height - colour - publisher... It gets tricky if there is an author with a few titles and they are all different colours, because I like to try to keep those together too. Aaaagh

This is probably why I have embraced the eBook so strongly!

My type isn't there either! LOL! I think we need to add a few Carolyn...

If I had to pick any of them I can't just go for one...I'm about 3 of them depending on the bookcase..LOL

Brenda wrote: "My type isn't there either! LOL! I think we need to add a few Carolyn..."

How do you sort yours Brenda?

I have one bookshelf with Aussie authors only - another with international - another with ARCs! Within those first two they are sorted by author :)

They are my unread ones - the read ones are the same! And they occupy 3 bookshelves which are overflowing...

I organise alphabetically according to author, then chronologically for each individual author.

I organised all my books alphabetically then I couldn't find books I had by the same author so I redid it all by author. Everytime I look at my shelves I wish all books were the same size. The small, tall, pushed in and sticking out annoys me.

My read books are organised by colour because that's really how I want all my books to be but its not very practical.

So. so far none of us fit into the certain 'shelves' they mention..lol

They're too restricted in their generalisation!

I think I'm somewhere between The Author Arranger and The Incredible Mess with a hint of The Height Classifier.

Elias wrote: "I think I'm somewhere between The Author Arranger and The Incredible Mess with a hint of The Height Classifier."

I'm with Elias!

I would have to choose three also, mostly because space limitations play a big part in this arrangement. Also I have to share with a DH who sneaks mine off a shelf to expand his next in a series!
Sideways stacker, Alphabetical orderer and Author arranger.

☼♄Jülie wrote: "I would have to choose three also, mostly because space limitations play a big part in this arrangement. Also I have to share with a DH who sneaks mine off a shelf to expand his next in a series!
S..."

Your three and also my three!

Laura wrote: "☼♄Jülie wrote: "I would have to choose three also, mostly because space limitations play a big part in this arrangement. Also I have to share with a DH who sneaks mine off a shelf to expand his nex..."

Oh same same! :)

For some reason I could never arrange things in alphabetical order for both my books and movies even though it would make them very organised. The reason I don't do it is because I'll feel like I'm walking into a library or a DVD rental place - something that isn't mine, rather than my own personalised collection.

I am with Carolyn. When I find some free space on my bookshelf in goes my book. My bookshelves aren't organised or messy.

For most of my books (my favourites) I organise by author then by height. So some of my favourite authors are split between 2 shelves as their books are in different sizes.

For the other books, its height then sideways as I triple stack the shelves. :-0

I'm a bit of a mixture. My Read books are sorted alphabetically by the author for the Fiction & the Non-Fiction is more by subject & my To Be Read is pretty much date purchased, the new one just gets added on to the end :)

Elias wrote: "For some reason I could never arrange things in alphabetical order for both my books and movies even though it would make them very organised. The reason I don't do it is because I'll feel like I'm..."

Yes, I cringe a bit at alphabetical arrangement. About 12-18 months ago my favourite Salvos store alphabetised their books for sale, and I was horrified. I don't go there as much these days. It takes no time at all to scan the shelves, and that takes the fun out of it.

I'm a height organiser. The tallest on the left and as you move your eyes right the books will go down in size to the small paperbacks.

This arrangement looks pretty neat and trippy at the same time:

That does look good..only I'd get annoyed at all the different sizes over time...Which is why sideway stacking can sometimes help...But I only usually do that on a small shelf.

It does look good although I imagine after a while I'd start to question whether or not I was under the influence of anything if I had to constantly wake up and see that.

I organise in this order:

Genre, Author; within each author group I organise by height and colour.

So like, Horror: Stephen King, tall hardcovers and then shorter softcovers. If I can then sub-organise with colour, dandy :D

Elias wrote: "This arrangement looks pretty neat and trippy at the same time: "

I generally like it, but I find it disconcerting that the Harry Potters are not shelved next to each other.

I actually went back to see if I could spot all the Harry Potter books!

I have three large bookcases and I organise my 'read' books where my favourite authors take up the top shelves and they go down in shelves depending how much I like the author and/or how many of their books I own from there.
Then, I organise the tallest books or large hardcovers at the outer edges moving in to the smaller books and paperbacks so that when I run out of room I can stack on top of the same author (theoretically) without having to move everything around to fit them in.
The bottom two shelves of one bookcase then holds my 'one-offs' as I call them (authors I only have one book of) and the other one has all my unread books so I can easily go to those shelves and pick a book I haven't read yet and then when it's read I add it to the read section.
My husband thinks I'm mad as I've had to move them all so many times (whenever we've moved house or renovated) and they always end up in the same spot without me having to really think about it.

I have three large bookcases and I organise my 'read' books where my favourite authors take up the top shelves and they go down in shelves depending how much I like the author and/or how many of their books I own from there.

This is the exact same way I organise my movies, with my favourite films of all time starting at the very top and working my way down from there.

Michelle wrote: "I've had to move them all so many times (whenever we've moved house or renovated) and they always end up in the same spot without me having to really think about it. ..."

Haha last time I moved, I took photos of each shelf just to make sure I could get back up and running very quickly.

I lost organization years ago. If there's a spot and the book fits that's where it goes. I'm at the point where my shelves are full and now I'm working on stacks. I have all my - and my children's- books from infancy to adulthood.

As a kid, I organized by publisher to make it a cleaner look. Mom was a school teacher and that drove her crazy. She would organize my books alphabetically by author's last name and I would "fix" it. This back and forth went on for years.

The engineer in me has to bite at this bait!

"What requirements is this design/equipment/procedure intended to satisfy?" is the key to EVERYTHING in engineering.

An arrangement of a bookshelf should be preceded by asking 'What purpose is the arrangement intended to seerve?'

Is it to help find a specific title? Then arrange by title. Is it to find a specific author? Then arrange by author. Is it meant to look nice? Then first tell me what 'look nice' means, because there's no logical definition for that.

Bob wrote: "The engineer in me has to bite at this bait!

"What requirements is this design/equipment/procedure intended to satisfy?" is the key to EVERYTHING in engineering.

An arrangement of a bookshelf sho..."

I need a bit of engineering help to organise my bookshelves. I’ve sort of arranged by author so I can see what I have by a certain author but I want it to look nice too. I love the rainbow colour effect some people use on their shelves.

Jennifer wrote: "I lost organization years ago. If there's a spot and the book fits that's where it goes. I'm at the point where my shelves are full and now I'm working on stacks. I have all my - and my children's-..."

I had my children’s books here for years after they moved out in the end I said to them if you can’t take them I’m going to sell them. They have no emotional hold on their physical books. All of them now reading eBooks.

Bob wrote: "The engineer in me has to bite at this bait!

"What requirements is this design/equipment/procedure intended to satisfy?" is the key to EVERYTHING in engineering.

An arrangement of a bookshelf sho..."

The last comment cracked me up Bob!!

Firstly, I have to admit that my current range of shelving is not quite capacious enough to accommodate the 2000+ books we have! There is some double-stacking in places!
I think I must be a closet librarian, as I have:
- fiction and non-fiction divided;
- non-fiction arranged by subject matter (although not by Dewey system!);
- fiction arranged alphabetically by author, with some shuffling due to space constraints (I tend to stack smaller paperbacks horizontally and large hardbacks / paperback editions vertically).
Here's my A-G fiction section, featuring additional double-stacked books and sundry ornaments etc.

I identify with the incredible mess. However! I have one shelf thats my old children's books, one section thats my non fiction, and within the mess I have books by my favourite authors together, as well as some stacked on top of each other. Most of my books are wherever I can fit them.
My tbr pile is four stacks on my floor that have absolutely no order.

Lily wrote: "My tbr pile is four stacks on my floor that have absolutely no order."

Oh, yeah! I can identify with the stacks of TBR. Mine are split between my bedside table (library books) and the top of a small set of shelves in our bedroom (sometimes the pile gets so high it's hard to find the light switch).

Bob wrote: "What requirements is this design/equipment/procedure intended to satisfy?" is the key to EVERYTHING in engineering."

The logic of this really appeals to me, Bob!

Bob wrote: "The engineer in me has to bite at this bait!

"What requirements is this design/equipment/procedure intended to satisfy?" is the key to EVERYTHING in engineering.

An arrangement of a bookshelf sho..."

I appreciate the cleverness of this! I arrange by genre, and I have realised now it's because I'm a mood reader! So when I'm looking for a book it's usually because I'm after a certain genre, whereas I often forget titles and authors.

I do have to be a little flexible though because, like everyone else seems to, I have more books than shelf space!

I'm all over the place. A couple of little piles. Some colour coded within my IKEA cubes. Some genre. I will always put the same author together, and often non fiction together also. But, really when it comes down to it, no real method to the madness. He he! Oh, and a couple on each bedside table, and a pile of non fiction under the TV on the cute little unit. Do able for me!

Andrea wrote: "Elias wrote: "For some reason I could never arrange things in alphabetical order for both my books and movies even though it would make them very organised. The reason I don't do it is because I'll..."

As an avid op shopper I am not a fan of alphabetical shelving. I love random shelving and enjoy scanning the books. I am a huge fan of Savers book departments - non fiction sorted by area e.g. gardening, sports, craft and fiction loosely by genre. My fiction shelves at home are random but my nonfiction which is mostly craft books are sorted by area - embroidery, quilting etc.

I just saw a lovely picture on Instagram that made me think of another dimension - front or back?! That is, do you push your books to the back of the shelf (make more room for doubling up), or do you pull them forward so that they line up beautifully?

I do that Andrea (make them line up) until they will no longer fit, then others are put in front!!

I have to push mine back so I can do two rows on the one shelf haha otherwise I would be buried in books!

Mine are roughly by genre, stacked if I can fit more in, double- & triple-depth where necessary. I have a spreadsheet for my 20 bookcases, so I know which one a book is in, then I have to search :)

Well, well, well. I confess, I had no idea such a thing existed, other than left to right, tallest to shortest. I will certainly something from this thread!

Catsalive wrote: "Mine are roughly by genre, stacked if I can fit more in, double- & triple-depth where necessary. I have a spreadsheet for my 20 bookcases, so I know which one a book is in, then I have to search :)"

Wow that's a lot Kylie!!

I have started a spreadsheet too.. although if I was tech savvy I'd do a Microsoft Access database! Currently it is up to 700, with location, paper or hard back, any notes such as withdrawn library copy, gifts from GR friends.. lent to someone. It's a bit of fun!