What books would you put in the front room?

[LadyIsabellaWrotham]

We're reorganising our house and putting a bunch of shelves in one of the alcoves in the living room: about seven foot high by three foot wide, so a decent slug of space for books which have been left homeless by other elements of reorganisation.

Genuinely befuddled as to which books to put there, and I need to make a decision in order to decide how to space the shelves.

Which sort of books would you put there for the best aesthetic effect/efficiency?

A) Fiction authors A:G, in strict alphabetical and/or chronological order, including full-size hardbacks alongside the scruffy second hand paperbacks (so less space efficient)
B) Non-fiction hardbacks and trade paperbacks classed by general subject in a vaguely Dewey Decimal orientation (why yes, I did intern in a library, how did you guess)
C) Carefully collated high status novelists/poets/playwrights only: pre-1930, Nobel Laureates and Booker nominees preferred, in order to give a highly somewhat misleading view of our highbrow literary tastes
D) A few selected writers of whom we have a critical mass: starting with Georgette Heyer obviously.
E) Classic children's literature
F) Rainbow order by colour of spine (obviously this is a joke, I'm not a monster)
G) Other, all suggestions welcome
H) Declutter them all and buy a Kindle (this option included for the convenience of the Kondo-minded posters who always say this)

As they’re going into a ‘public’ room, you should think about (1) aesthetics and (2) utility beyond permanent residents of the house. What would visitors like to pick off the shelf and leaf through while you’re making a pot of coffee?
I’d go for art, interiors, gardening; poetry; local interest; and a smattering of Modern Firsts, ideally with dust wrappers. Plus the odd wild card - a volume of Latinised hymns, say, a QI compendium, your favourite Jilly Cooper novel, and a Viz annual.

I'd restrict the living room to your collection of French surreal poetry (Apollinaire?) plus Russian post 1850 literature, all in the original language of course. If you wish to let people know you have a lighter side then the Swedish Män som hatar kvinnor

I like a bit of colour co ordination

So I’d declutter and then co-ordinate a nice broad selection

I like my books by colour so f ! I have a visual memory and o find them
easier this way. I only have my favourites though…I like that colour matching brings interesting combinations together

@MittenstheMurderKitty will you be my best friend?

I'd be honoured. 🤣

I have poetry and reference books and essays in the living room. (I really hope I don't sound like a wanker.) I have those things because I have a lot of fiction and really big reference books but the bookshelves in the living room are smaller so the other stuff wouldn't fit. I have fewer poetry books and they tend to be slim so they fit all on that shelving and then the reference books are handy for homework or crosswords or whatever. I would tend to read the essays - Clive James, Dorothy Parker, Tim Harford, Madeleine Bunting etc. - on the odd chance I have 10 minutes so the living room feels like a good place. Ditto the poetry. It's a browsing, flicking, 10 minutes free sort of space.

In summary, whatever you are likely to read in that room.

Are you aware that you sound like a right pretentious twit?
Or is this a wind up?

Just put the bloody books on the shelves.

I'd do A) as I enjoy looking at a random selection of my fiction books while I'm in the lounge and it can remind me of what to lend out to people.
I'd also consider C) if I thought it might make me pick them up more & I liked reading them
I love having books out - makes the house feel friendly to me.

I do have the recipe books colour coded.

Am I a monster?!

Loving the sound of the occult botany collection. Sadly our books are tragically monoglot, so no Apollinaire, not even in translation. I'm letting the side down, I know.

Even more bizarrely, I don't possess any Jilly Coopers. I think I must have read them all from the library, or bought them from the charity shop and recycled them back. So I'm not a complete stranger to the declutterer's art.

I do have four feet of Terry Pratchett, a fetching rainbow assortment of Wodehouse and more books about Lord Byron and Ada Lovelace than anyone reasonably needs. And, of course, the complete works of Georgette Heyer apart from Simon the Coldheart.

I’d think about it as a whole thing with all your book storage. Books you are likely to use most go on the most accessible shelves in all rooms. Books you use least go on the top shelves in all rooms. Possibly make a spreadsheet so you know which books are where.

It a depends on who you anticipate being in that room and which of them will take an interest in your bookshelf. If it was me, I'd put the books I love the best there. I would have a selection of my most beautiful larger coffee table / hardback type books at about waist height, textbook type things lower down and paperback novels / biographies / non-fiction stuff above that. Alphabetized or spine coloured or genre organisation as you see fit!

Caveat: I have a whole large wall dedicated to shelving / book storage and it is an utter mess largely because I did not think about each shelf properly before it was built. Although I could do much better given a few days of dedicated re-organisation. The only comments I get are "can I borrow some books" (which are never seen again or "why have you got two copies / "that book"/ take some of these to the charity shop"

I have in my living room random paperback novels, from Len Deighton to Marion Keyes, most of my non-fiction/coffee table/reference books, cookbooks, a few old travel books, some of the kids' books, lots of old Ladybird books, and a collection of old annuals, all in no particular order.

Yes this is why I needed to think and hear thoughts from you lot before ordering shelving. If I'd just gone into it willy nilly I wouldn't have realised that the graphic novels would be good there, and now I know I'll need a shelf that size.

I have floor to ceiling shelves full of books on six walls (it's an odd shape) and they started out in alphabetical order and vaguely categorised: fiction, non fiction, science fiction. I had subsections too, but that didn't last.
It's all got a bit out of hand and overspill has migrated upstairs to the landing, other landing and end bedroom, often two deep on more floor to ceiling shelves.
I like books about the place. I convince myself that they are good insulation, too.
On the other hand all my occult, folklore, etc are very organised, in one room.
DH has a small bookcase of his own.

Our living room has shelves in the alcove which has "beautiful" books e.g. clothbound hardbacks mainly.
Then there's a little bookcase tucked away (same room), very tall and thin. This one is in rainbow order, sort of. A row of white, grey, black. A row of green, blue, purple. And a row of pink, red, orange, yellow. Then some series/sets of books underneath. Then at the very bottom I have some reading books for the children that they can't actually read yet which is a bit random but I couldn't find anywhere else to put them and we had a spare shelf.
Children's books are in the playroom and their bedrooms. Work and hobby type books are in the spare room.

Ha, I do this too! And I did a joint language and social science degree so I have loads of French and European classics alongside British and American ones, alongside loads of history, politics, philosophy etc. haven’t touched them in years 🤣
I keep light fiction plus my entire childhood book collection (mainly Enid Blyton) in another room!

I'd do C, but I am a pretentious twat...

Yes! My shelf actually looks like this 🤣

Other.

Hardcovers in Dewey order on lower shelves. Paperbacks in loosely Dewey formation on upper shelves.

If you spend a lot of time in that room reading, then keep books you're likely to read there and stow the rest elsewhere.

If you want to use the bookshelves for broadcasting your personality or education, then choose what you think will be most impressive and arrange hardcover below, paperback higher, in Dewey order.

H and get rid of the shelves!

Start by disposing of all of the Georgette Heyer novels OP.

After I'd sorted that urgent business I'd just lay some books out into sizes, prioritising those that either looked nice with my lounge decor (colour or aesthetic match) or those which were intended to sit as a set (matching book sets often look nicer on a shelf). Give the piles a head count to work out the required shelf space and heights for what I had and the job is done. Any other considerations along the lines of feeling a deep and visceral need to demonstrate to others how clever and well read you are, are best kept for the therapist and not the lounge decor.

For what it's worth I keep everything I own but am yet to read ( AKA almost all of it) upstairs; in the spare room or my bedroom. It's generally sorted by genre as I'm a mood reader and traditionally find that works well for me when picking my next book.

Downstairs I keep a lot of non fiction- the covers are often nicer, and any coffee table/hardbacks of the type you'd absently flick through if you were bored, or a guest (probably one and the same here as I hate hosting).

Sacrilege!
Terry Pratchett, on the other hand…