Polls for Our Souls discussion

How do you guys organize your books? Do you use bookshelves? If so do you like to organize them by color or would you prefer to have an entire series together? Do you not use bookshelves? How do you keep them if you don't?

I only have 2 shelves for my books so to maximize the space I use, I have the books in piles - at the back of the first shelf is alphabetical by author series books, with the first book in the series going down to the last book. Author name A will be at the top of the pile going down to B, then C will be at the top of the next pile etc. At the front of the shelf I have them sorted by author name again, in piles until the end of the shelf where I have my hardcovers stood up normally. I've run out of shelf space now though, so while I wait to be able to buy and put up a new shelf, I have three piles on my windowsill, a pile of my desk and three boxes full of read books that have nowhere to go.

I have one bookshelf and I organize my books by grouping the series and the standalone together. Then I order them by my favorites to my least favourites (and the hardcovers are also separate)

I've realized that I can fit maximum amount of books on bookshelf by going by height...also that there are at least 100 different book heights!

I still need bigger/more bookshelves...

The top shelf is for my favorite books and favorite author. After that they have no rhyme or reason. One day I’ll actually organize them. Lol

Organizing???? What's that?

In all seriousness, the real shelves that I have are full, and so are the cardboard-box shelves I've made. There are books everywhere. I do keep series ones together, and I TRY to organize them, but there are. so. many.

The ones on my bookshelf are either organized by colour or by series. All the other ones that I can't fit on my shelve are pretty much all over my room. So it looks a bit messy, but I love the idea of having books everywhere around me!

So basically I arrange them in genres (classics, contemporary, fantasy, non fiction & poetry and greek). Then I usually put them at random places (unless they belong to the same author - then I put them together).

I have two bookshelves, so I had one shelf for books I have read and one for the ones I haven't. The read one was sorted by genres and language and the not read one sorted by the likelyness I am going to read them. But then I had space problems and it didn't look as good.
So then I just put them all together and sorted them by size (which you can't even imagine how annoying that is. There are a million sizes). I tried to put authors together, but usually books with the same author were a series so they go together anyway.
Lately I have taken out all the ones I don't want to see anymore and put them in a box and in a closet somewhere.

I have three floor-to-ceiling bookcases. Two are for fiction, one is for nonfiction (although fiction has spilled over to the top half). I put them in genres (science fiction, fantasy, and everything else), and then they are alphabetical by author's last name within each genre. (I'm amazed that no one else here so far has said this—it's classic library organization!) Nonfiction gets grouped by topic/subject, although I haven't gone as far as researching the Dewey categories! And I have a separate bookcase in my living room with three shelves for my gardening books, and another in my studio for my art and writing books, and a china cabinet in the second bedroom with all my YA fiction in it. Everything else is in piles on tables (and some on the floor). I have a lot of books.

i have two bookshelves and they're kind of organized. i have my classics section, nonfiction, reference, and then ya books which are all organized alphabetically except for the very end of the ya books because i ran out of room on one bookshelf and didn't want to reorganize everything bc i'm lazy. i also have a shelf of my absolute favorites and i also keep my asoue books on their own shelf and my david sedaris books on their own shelf. oh and i have a shelf of fairytales and a shelf of scary books. i'd like them to be more organized but it's just so much work!!

I organize by genre horror,distopean,new adult,young adult,thrillers,fantasy,paranormal/romance eta.

I have three bookshelves although two out of three are just books (the biggest has my cds, dvds/blu and tv show collections on it as well). My smallest and oldest book shelf is about half of my romance collection with one shelf just for my favorite author. The rest of my books that are shelved are mostly by genre then I keep the series and books by the same author together except for the books on my favorites shelf.

Then I have massive piles around my room of to-read books and they're by author alphabetically.

I organize my bookshelf by series and authors, and then there's a smaller bookshelves filled with my TBR, organized by height :D

I only have two shelves of books. The top is favourites/fantasy & thn bottom shelf is contemporary ....mostly arranged by genre and author

Series, then author and genre. But the shape and size of the bookshelves is a big factor.

I organize my books, first by genre (fantasy, YA fiction and everything else. Then I alphabetize by author (and series have to be in order). And I have a fifth bookshelf, not in any particular order of books I haven't read yet

I organize my books by the author's last name, but I separate the nonfiction history books, biographies, atlases and other informative books from the other books and put them on my other bookshelf, but I organize these by smallest to largest books.

Generally I organize by author, but some of my books are placed by color. I am very OCD and my shelve always has to be organized.

i've only got about 50-60 hard copy books so i put the series together and then the random ones just by height or what looks ~aesthetic~ lol

Each room of our house is a different genre. Our living room contains most of our non-fiction, organized by the Dewey Decimal System. (What is really scary is that other people who have walked into the room have noticed this!) Biographies and memoirs are in our bedroom on their own bookcase. Our guest bedroom has poetry, drama, and short stories, which overnight guests appreciate. Long fiction (novels) are in my home office, alphabetized by author. Also in my office are all of the books about writing, reading, linguistics, and literary criticism, so that I can refer to them while I work.
As our book collection has grown, we have invested in Amish-made, solid oak bookcases. Unlike cheap particleboard furniture, the solid oak cases are built to hold the weight of books. In the living room, we have a 14 foot wall of floor-to-ceiling built-in shelves, also very sturdy. Of course, we could not immediately afford this arrangement when we were first starting out, but once we were able to afford quality book storage, we definitely felt it was worth the investment.
I should add, there is always the unruly pile on each side of our bed, which is my husband's and my "currently reading" stack!

I just buy more book shelves.....and weed out books I no longer want or to read....then that justifies buying new books, about the only ones I organize are my series ones.....having no real organization is like a treasure hunt when looking for anew read, lol.

On here, by the year I added them.

At home however, they’re a hot mess. I have a bookcase full of books I've read that I determined were worthy to keep and then I have a bookcase full of TBR which I'm slowly getting through.

By series then by size and genre.

rainbow style 🌈

By author, then series. Not that they EVER stay that way for more than a week.

Bookshelves with the author's last name and if a series in order! :)

First come first served.. I organized by date of purchase.

I moved house a couple years ago and still haven't properly organized things yet, so don't have any permanent bookshelves up yet, but I fantasize on a daily basis about what I'm going to do with them. I'm thinking genre and broad theme, mostly, then by author within that - not alphabetically, though, just similar authors together. Also target age group, having a separate small case for favourite children's and YA books.
Really looking forward to having all my classics together in their pretty editions. <3

Nyla wrote: "Each room of our house is a different genre. Our living room contains most of our non-fiction, organized by the Dewey Decimal System. (What is really scary is that other people who have walked into..."

*_*
You live in my dream home!

By author's last name alphabetically

My main bookshelf is organized according to the colors of the rainbow. It is very visually appealing :)I ran out of room on that shelf so excess books are in little wooden crates that flank both sides of the main shelf. The books in crates are not organized in any way unless I call it the new book sections.

It's a variation of color of the spin \ the author \ how they rank with me. My favorites are above my bed, the one's I need to read have various spots around my room, and then the romance and other stuff like that has it's own spot as well. But it all sticks with the color\ author\ rank system.

Punkie Punkie wrote: "My main bookshelf is organized according to the colors of the rainbow. It is very visually appealing :)I ran out of room on that shelf so excess books are in little wooden crates that flank both si..."

Yes! I love home decor and reading so I wanted to display my books in a way that was visually appealing as well as practical. I love the look of rainbow shelves!

If I had unlimited resources, I’d get multiple copies of all the books, then arrange one set by color, one set by author name, and one set by genre.

Peyton wrote: "How do you guys organize your books? Do you use bookshelves? If so do you like to organize them by color or would you prefer to have an entire series together? Do you not use bookshelves? How do yo..."

I have to organize them by subject and proximity (to me).

I always change the way my books are organised, just the way I feel in that moment❤❤

I've contemplated implementing my own Dewey Decimal system to catalog my collection, then, obviously, sort the books in ascending dewey. A robotic silo would magnify the cool factor a hundredfold.

"Mr. Robot, give me 822.33-S7 please."
[Arms whirrs and spins, and 5 seconds later, the book in question plops into the bin]

Bad habit. I don't really organize my books. There just cluttered in boxes right now. Yes... I know... Im horrible ;)

Shawn wrote: "Bad habit. I don't really organize my books. There just cluttered in boxes right now. Yes... I know... Im horrible ;)"

Mine aren't really organized either, so don't feel bad.

Heather Codename: ♕Dutchess♕ wrote: "Shawn wrote: "Bad habit. I don't really organize my books. There just cluttered in boxes right now. Yes... I know... Im horrible ;)"

Mine aren't really organized either, so don't feel bad."

Oh good, I'm not alone. I thought for a moment that I was the only one ;) lol

Shawn wrote: "Heather Codename: ♕Dutchess♕ wrote: "Shawn wrote: "Bad habit. I don't really organize my books. There just cluttered in boxes right now. Yes... I know... Im horrible ;)"

Mine aren't really organiz..."

Haha. NEWP! I am, however, working on a Harry case which will house all my Harry Hole, Harry Potter, Harry Dresden, and Harry Bosch books. I try to put my books together if they're a series but after that, I can't really be bothered too much.

By size only. Hardback in one cluster and paperback in another.

Heather Codename: ♕Dutchess♕ wrote: "Shawn wrote: "Heather Codename: ♕Dutchess♕ wrote: "Shawn wrote: "Bad habit. I don't really organize my books. There just cluttered in boxes right now. Yes... I know... Im horrible ;)"

Mine aren't ..."

I don't even organize series books. Yep... I have a problem... ;D

I organize my books according to three things: 1) height of the book 2) paperback vs hardcover and 3) my love for the book. I am kind of maybe a little bit obsessed with the way I display my books, and probably twice a year I take them all off of my shelves and take three hours to reorganize them. I have three selves in my bedroom, one full of hardcovers, and two full of paperbacks. I put the ones I love most at the top (but if they don’t match the height of the others then they are shamed to lower shelves regardless of how much love I feel for them). The dozens of books I own that don’t fit on my shelves I stack carefully in a corner of my room where they glare at me and make me feel guilty for not filling my walls with more shelves. Honestly, I probably put more thought into my bookshelves than I should, but it’s totally worth it when new people come into my room and stare at my beautiful books like they’re seeing the gates of heaven for the first time.

Shawn wrote: "Heather Codename: ♕Dutchess♕ wrote: "Shawn wrote: "Heather Codename: ♕Dutchess♕ wrote: "Shawn wrote: "Bad habit. I don't really organize my books. There just cluttered in boxes right now. Yes... I ..."

Haha. I used to not but they just look so pretty together and I feel like I actually accomplished something when I put them all on my "finished" bookcase.

I order my books by the following list, with top being most important and bottom least

1: Series (My series are kept together in chronological order)
2: Author
3: Genre
4: Origin (as in where I get the books from ie all my book of the month club books are together on the same shelf)

A “Harry” shelf – that’s great.

i organize from size or time i read them haha

My books are like an organized chaos. I don't have a lot of shelf space, so they go like this:
The five foot tall stack next to my bed is my "read next" pile
The three foot tall stack next to the bookshelf is my "read after that" pile
There are three boxes labeled: Already Read, Eh (not that interested), and Currently Reading (I've finally gotten it down to 31 books!)
One book shelf is organized shelves of favorites, color aesthetics, and journals
The other book shelf is a mix of books I've finished and enjoyed, as well as books that I just think are pretty.

It's kinda crazy XD

I use bookshelves. I organize my books by genre first (classics, adult fantasy/Sci-Fi, adult mystery, YA contemporary, YA fantasy, etc.). Within genres I organize them alphabetically by author last names. This way, it's easiest for me to find the books I'm looking for. I do, however, love the look of arranging books by colour, though I'm pretty sure it would be difficult to track down a book you were looking for this way.