Books books books!!! (wwyd)

[Kayano]

I've got them coming out of my damn ears!!! Taking being on leave as a chance to sort them out now. I have took them all off shelves and cleaned shelves

However I now have a (very) hard decision that needs quick answers...

Do I sort them by genre (childrens/ fantasy/ reference/ general fiction) or just alphabetical by author.

Or just whatever looks best?

I have uncovered in my search of the house lots of old books I had forgotten I owned, such as my Grandads hardback dickens collection and old school favourites such as the worst witch and please Mrs Butler!!

Sorting by Genre however is confusing me. ESP re fantasy and children and classics! The princess Bride? Fantasy or children? George MacDonald - Back of the north wind... Children or classic?!

Gah!

Posting here for traffic as am about to get started

Wwyd? AIBU to have hoarded so many books?

Stupid paste function on iPhone! I had no idea that was all there!

I never have to look for books. I know exactly where they all are!

I'm holding out for a kindle fire lol I already have a Sony e-reader but sometimes you just NEED a proper book iyswim?

Elf! Good list

I sort mine by

'worthy literature that I am proud to say I have read'

'classics that I have been given at some point, have never read, but feel I ought to one day'

'trashy books I am embarrassed to admit to having read'

And

'reference that I keep going back to'

hth.

My books are just in a massive mess - just piles of them stacked any which way! Luckily I've been stockpiling less since I got a Kindle

Have looked at DH solitary shelf.

It is: Frankie Boyle, more Boyle, Clarkson, Clarkson, Clarkson, Hammond, Simon Pegg

He only reads on holiday and then only takes what I recommend from that years reading

I have my books divided roughly into genres then alphabetised by author, then in series order (would-be librarian emoticon!). The genres are split into:
fantasy / sci-fi
crime
classics
poetry
reference (Eng lang dictionaries, history, astronomy, etc)
modern languages
modern fiction
childrens
cookery

Problem is, that all the shelves are full, and I'm bringing up c 1000 from my mother's house in the summer. I suspect my wonderful system will be ruined!

Yay a book organisation thread! I have the same authors together and then very broad genres (children's, classics, other-fiction, political, history, travel, other-non fiction) but then favourites at the front, especially favourites on bedroom shelves and by height.

Oh the time I have invested wasted rearranging to keep the same author together but not disrupt the height aesthetic.

Lay in bed last night again staring at the top shelf of book which I can't reach without carrying a dinning chair up very narrow stairs thinking "why oh why has DH got to the point of putting that Terry Prachett book back on the shelf but instead of sliding it in put in on it's side in front of the other books." will have to carry a chair upstairs and sort that out.

Love this thread. I have tons.
Autobiography/biography
History
Essays
Fiction A toZ
Poetry
Plays
Gardening
Bird books
Cookery

We moved with over 400 books! We had no storage for books in this house so we now have a kindle and once small bookshelf for favourites

I kept my collection of cookery books though!

My cookbooks have their own little space in the living room :D

Oh yes cookery books live separately, they're a whole different species and live in the dinning room

valium-that's what I am planning , just one book case and a kindle.

Cookbooks in kitchen

DS and DD each have a full-sized bookcase. DD's is sorted so the top shelves are full of books she can't reach easily until she is ready to read them (YA books with subject matter that isn't quite suitable yet-DD is 6). Lower shelves are larger and stuffed with non-fiction, middle shelves are triple stacked.

DS has three shelves of picture books, two of toys and then books that DD is too old for but he is too young for at the top. He also has a small box with about 30 books which he chooses his bedtime stories from (so it doesn't take all night)

The rest are organised in series groups, so all the Mercedes Lackey for example are together in a big long row. At the top where I have to get a chair to reach them are the books I want to keep but rarely want to read like Classics, books from my degree and books with dodgy titles like 'A history of Phallic Worship' and 'The Orgasm' (so I don't get a million questions from curious DD). Books in the middle shelves/at eye level are ones I regularly read and want easy access to.

I can't sort more than that because of the varying sizes of books. My books vary from mass market paperback sizes to hardbacks and I can't fit all books of one genre together, so the majority of sorting is by size.

A few houses ago I had enough bookcases of the same size to alphabetise my classics which was a source of immense pleasure, looking at all the spines lined up and being able to pick out Euripides or Austen without searching.

Ours are by height then subject (because we have too many and they would not fit otherwise).

My ex husband made me sell over 500 of my books once as we were moving house and he refused to move them
My DH encourages me to buy books and refuses to get rid of any
We have books everywhere
Fiction by author
Non fiction by genre
Apart from the stacks which are currently free range

Our books are in this order:

History/Biography (chronological)
Fiction (alphabetical by author's surname)
Poetry (alphabetical by author's surname)
Plays (alphabetical by author's surname
Mythology & Religious texts
Psychology & Science
Languages, Dictionaries, Thesaurus
Encyclopedias
Other (one book on art and the yellow pages)

Cookery books live in the kitchen.

I organize mine in four different ways because I am a nutjob and have some serious OCD issues

Type of book (Hardback or paperback)
Size of book (A4/A5)
Author (in alphabetical order, going by the authors last name)
Name of book (discounting the word "the")

I have a lot of hardbacks, so all of the hardbacks are on one bookcase and my paperbacks are on another. Then it's by size - largest on the left, getting consecutively smaller as you move along the row to the right. Then it's by author (because most authors will have similar-sized hardback editions) and it's by last name so my Stephen Kings would be King, Stephen. Then it's by book name but you don't count the word "the" so you end up with things like Host, The.

It's a brilliant system that I absolutely adore. Everything looks so wonderful!

easy - I sort by favourite, most likely to read next, should read (but am unlikely to), ceramics (my passion), subject (eg travel), height (what fits on available shelf).

I file DS books (2 bookcases full) in the same way. I can ALWAYS find what I am looking for.

Oh, and YADNBU!

I still have my entire collection of Sweet Valley High books. Every single one that they printed. They are my trashy pride-and-joy.

OMG I found that last night,. I love that site.

There's one person who has made a Christmas Tree out of a stack of books with fairy lights wrapped around it. It looked bloody brilliant!