Please settle an argument, am I odd?

[sashh]

So my carer has just come into my office and made a remark about my 'eclectic' book collection.

I responded that they are organised by Dewey-decimal system.

He claim this is odd.

In order not to drip feed my cookery books are in the living room and in spine colour order and fiction is kept on my kindle.

I do not think I am odd. I think it is completely sensible to have text books organised this way.

Sorry I should have said :

YANBU - organise your books how you want

YABU - yes it's weird and creepy

I think it’s odd. Most people don’t organise their books they just shove them on the bookshelf 🤷‍♀️

I take my hat off to you OP. I'd save so much time hunting for a particular book if I had a system in place. They're your books, your house, your business.

Surely "eclectic" means of a wide interest, which is nothing to do with the Dewey Decimal system? .

So your answer was not related to the question, which in itself could be seen as odd.

With regard to the rest, everyone puts their books where they want and it's no one else's business .

What does it matter to anyone how you have organised your books, if it makes you happy then that's all that matters

Not odd- makes sense if you have large collections of non fiction books. But most people don't have those books in the first place so it is unusual/uncommon in that sense but definitely not 'weird 'or 'creepy'

@emilyfrost

I think it’s odd. Most people don’t organise their books they just shove them on the bookshelf 🤷‍♀️

I dont think it's odd whatsoever

Some people colour code their underwear drawer..

I don't understand.

Carer says you have eclectic book collection.

You say they are arranged by Dewey-Decimal.

He says odd.

Then you say on thread that they're arranged in colour of the spine?

The whole conversation is related to books but not related to each other.

Anyway, who gives a shit, carer likely making small talk and you're overthinking.

Nothing odd about it. All my books are organised too.
Sod what other people think, it's about what makes you happy in life not other people.

I think it's odd but I don't organise my books. Apart from trying to keep all the Harry Potters together.

DH won't entertain a Dewey Decimal system in our house. To be fair, we only have five major categories of nonfiction so it's not a big deal. But we organise our fiction by birth date of author. I thought he was mental when he suggested it, but it's actually really nice to have it in roughly chronological order, from Beowulf to Laurie R King! What I'd like to know is, do you have little stickers on the spines??

@PerspicaciousGreen

DH won't entertain a Dewey Decimal system in our house. To be fair, we only have five major categories of nonfiction so it's not a big deal. But we organise our fiction by birth date of author. I thought he was mental when he suggested it, but it's actually really nice to have it in roughly chronological order, from Beowulf to Laurie R King! What I'd like to know is, do you have little stickers on the spines??

That’s bloody genius!

Maybe he doesnt understand what the Dewey Decimal system is and was trying to cover that? It's a perfectly reasonable way to organise books.

We categorise by non fiction type: modern American, classics, modern British, foreign language, gothica, etc...

Then we order by author, then colour, per category. Always slightly dismayed when the same author has too much spine colour variation.

Doesn’t everybody keep all their non-fiction books together in categories. How else would you know where else to find a book? Ok, I don’t use the system to ensure I have the categories in a certain order. Cookery books are all in the kitchen for example.

You say they are arranged by Dewey-Decimal.

He says odd.

Then you say on thread that they're arranged in colour of the spine?

Cookery books are by colour, text / non fiction are DD.

@PerspicaciousGreen Love that, but my fiction is on my kindle.

Why did you say they were organised by dewey in response to being complimented on your eclectic collection?
Surely "Thank you - yes I like to read widely" would be a logical response.

So basically, you think you’re a little bit quirky and cool to use a library system for your books, and you thought a faux AIBU would be a good way to get positive attention for that? 😉

Is it bad or mad to do it?
No - you do you.

Is it odd
Yeah - in the sense that it’s not the most common way to do it.

The carer was making conversation. But you know that. You could have started a nice thread in Chat about all the lovely way to order books. Rainbow for my paperbacks btw - which sone people think looks lovely, and others think looks like Instagram-wannabe shite. Each to their own. Stop thinking about it!

Odd - yes. Creepy - no.

And definitely organise your books however you like.

I don't understand why you responded to their comment with your ordering system. They were commenting on the books, not the order. Two different things altogether.

@emilyfrost

I think it’s odd. Most people don’t organise their books they just shove them on the bookshelf 🤷‍♀️

And everyone I know, including me, has organised bookshelves because if we didn't it would be impossible to find what you wanted. We even organise our Kindles. So I think you are odd.

I wish I were so organised. I have hundreds of books and try to keep them grouped by author but I buy so many (charity shop charges 25p per paperback) I just tend to shove them into any available space.
I either need to buy another bookcase or have a serious declutter.

Not odd to organise your books, a little odd to use the dewey decimal system

But its just unusual, not weird or creepy..You sound a little upset about the comment and I really wouldn't be!

I assume you have a fair amount of text books on different subjects. If so not really that strange I'd have thought. Once you know the system would make it a lot easier keeping tabs.

I agree with pp. You misunderstood what he said.
Eclectic is, if anything, the opposite of how you have your books arranged (if arrangements were the topic)
He was saying you have lots of different books.
As for organization of textbooks, I'd have thought most people follow a system.