Thursday, May 14, 2009

I don't know what to do with myself

Ah unpacking. How I love thee. Everything that comes out of the boxes is a little decision to be made, which ends up being a LOT of little decisions and it wears me out.

So, I come to you to help me make one of those decisions.

How should I organize my bookcases? In the past, it's been rather haphazard. I had a Harry Potter shelf, a historical fiction shelf, a music shelf, and a genealogy shelf. And everything else just went wherever it fit. Did it make sense? Hardly, but it worked.

So what now?

Should I organize my books by

Color?

Alphabetical order by title?

Alphabetical order by author?

Not organizing them (the old way)?

Other (please elaborate)?

You have until Friday at 7:30 PM (the earliest I anticipate being able to start the setting up of the bookcases) to answer the poll on the right!

I hereby reserve the right to completely disregard the results. :)

Thanks!

8 comments:

Giggles said...

This is how I've done it.

I have twelve shelves of books on four book cases. Three shelves are my church books, they are organized alphabetically by author.

I have a Harry Potter shelf.

The rest are organized by audience (adult, children) with no other order to them.

Kristi said...

I actually like to organize my books by size - all mass market paperbacks, medium sized hardbacks, oversized, etc. together on their own shelf. This way you can adjust your bookshelves accordingly and everything looks all nice and tidy. It also ensures that the books in a series (such as Harry Potter) stay together, as they should.

Sorry, my camera battery died so I can't take a picture. OK...the truth is that my kids have temporarily destroyed the tidy nature of my size-organized bookshelf. But it works I tell ya!

Me said...

Size. That way you can fit more books on the book case. I'm a fan.

Emily said...

I voted other.... mostly because I think to myself "You're the freakin' librarian!! Why are you asking me?!!".... I guess that thought is not really to myself anymore... oh well :) love you

Cali and Brett Smith said...

Mine are organized by category and then by author. It seems to work for me pretty good. :)

Lala said...

I really like the colour. A LOT but I just can't see it working well (this is may only be a personal problem though; I once spent several hours looking for my copy of Sense and Sensibility and when I found it I realised the reason it had taken me so long was because I was looking for a book with a white spine and it had a black spine)Mine are done by category and then by authour it's a very satisfactory system. That's all though, it's not exciting, just satisfactory.

Heidi said...

Alphabetical by author's last name, and then by title. That's how my books are (just like a library, if you take away the genre aspect of that organization), except for my reference books. My reference shelf is done by size because it's just easier with limited space. One day, I will have several bookcases and have many MANY reference books. I will also have a sewing/craft library.

Also, my security word is "hypthn", which needs to have a definition.

Katie said...

By kind (fiction, non-fiction, etc), then by size, then by prettiness. And also, sometimes, I do by if I think that the books would get along. Holden Caulfield, and Scout Finch totally would be friends. But for some reason, Ayn Rand and Jack Kerouac need to be on completely different shelves.

I did have a friend who organized by color. It looked awesome, but it took her forever to find the book she wanted.