in thinking that a bookshelf on which the books are arranged by the colour of their spines

[Alliwantisaroomsomewhere]

...is one of the ponciest and twattiest things EVER?

I saw a pic of this in a magazine today - it looked lovely but WHY WHY WHY would you do that?

It screams pretentiousness and poncetwatickness. Or AIBU?

[purplehouse]

I've seen this in a friends house. It actually looked very nice!

[AgentZigzag]

Was it just a staged photo though?

Doesn't sound like they read them if they were.

Mine were ordered a bit in size to start with, now they're just a jumble with books stacked wherever there's room (and that's after a clean up of them)

[SuperTressy]

They probably got the idea from Silent Witness.

[AgentZigzag]

Would you buy them to fit in with a specific theme or just make patterns with what you've got?

Who would have the time or motivation though?

[BrianButterfield]

I did it once with mine. It was easy and very pleasing to do.

[trixymalixy]

I quite like it too. A couple of friends have done this. I'd like to, but my books aren't poncy enough.

[Alliwantisaroomsomewhere]

Sorry... it was not in a photo. A friend told me that her friend had done this. Said how lovely it looked, but I thought it sounded fucking ridiculous.

Stupidly said I saw it in a magazine in case I outed myself.

(AZZ, I've not read your thread for a day or two - hope all's well.)

Mine are arranged by type - kids, cook books, job related, novels and all other shit. Works well.

[BestIsWest]

I sorted all our CDs by colour once . It looked lovely but it was a bugger to find anything!

[PatsysPyjamas]

Hmm... I do love an orange Penguin spine. To be fair, mine are a complete jumble (how I like it) so any kind of colour coding wouldn't make any difference.

[SuperTressy]

I do think it looks good if you have enough books to cover a whole wall. Not sure how you'd go about finding a particular book though!

[Celticlassie]

That's rubbish - a well loved bookshelf should be haphazard. My sister arranged mine according to author - I was very upset.

[BestIsWest]

I'm trying to remember who it is on here that has a photo on her profile with all her books sorted by colour. It looks bloody lovely too.

[lashingsofbingeinghere]

I do this with my Penguins and Persephones .

I am not poncey but I do like an orderly book shelf .

[PelvicFloorClenchReminder]

My hallway books are arranged in tone rather than actual colour, just a spurt of whimsy I had one afternoon brought on by fretting while waiting in for an important phone call. I have an unsightly gap in the blue section though, and am ever so tempted to go into waterstone's and ask if they have anything in a nice azure.

[BrianButterfield]

I always had a vague idea of the colour of the book I was looking for anyway, so I never struggled to find it. And unless your books are arranged alphabetically, which is just as time-consuming an arrangement, you'd still find it hard to find one, surely?

[PatsysPyjamas]

Maybe it makes it easier to find the books, if you can remember the publisher? I guess it's fine so long as all the colour sections don't have to be the same size (ie you have to go out and buy books with a pink spine)

[Viewofthehills]

Fiction/non-fiction, alphabetical order or history in chronological order, but colour of spines? Arghhh.

[AgentZigzag]

'I did it once with mine. It was easy and very pleasing to do. '

How long did it stay sorted Brian?

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&biw=1146&bih=711&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=oPGeQOR0f_2kOM:&imgrefurl=weburbanist.com/2008/04/28/20-brilliant-bookcase-and-bookshelf-designs-creative-modular-and-unique-urban-furniture/&docid=bP-kzp-hif7fbM&imgurl=img.weburbanist.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/color-bookcase.jpg&w=468&h=347&ei=-gxmUO70KMPC0QWio4GYDg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=129&vpy=159&dur=974&hovh=193&hovw=261&tx=129&ty=131&sig=112379514407926695039&page=1&tbnh=153&tbnw=198&start=0&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:71" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">It does look really nice, but there's no way my second hand eclectic collection would look anywhere near as attractive

(just playing the waiting game Alliwant, thanks for asking )

[BestIsWest]

All our CDs are now arranged alphabetically..the books are all over the house. I would love one huge bookcase so I could sort them

[Iggly]

I like this idea myself. Might try it. We've got the silver penguin classics altogether so may as well do the rest.

TBH I rarely read "real" books now (have a kindle) - they're more for show

[TraineeBabyCatcher]

Mine are like this. As are my DVDs. The Wii games. All CDs. DVDs are in order of picture colour, in categories of box colour.

[PatsysPyjamas]

Oh, I dream of a wall of shelves, lined with books. Colour-coded or whatever.

[FriedSprout]

Dewey library system for non-fiction, alphabetically for fiction. There is no other way

[TheLightPassenger]

I've been in a charity shop where they did this! Nightmare to actually browse the books..