“How do you arrange your books on your shelves? Is it by author, by genre, or do you just put it where it falls on?” Oh, my. If there is any one part of my life more disorganized right now than any other, it’s my books. Part of it comes from having some of my books in my office (which other people are using during my absence) and part of my books at home. Of course, this leads to the problem of never being quite sure where the book I need is—at home? at the office? lost? Who knows? Major stress.
My books at home are arranged (somewhat) by genre, or at least they started out that way. Downstairs in the office is my Escape Reading Fiction. Upstairs, where I’m working on my dissertation, is a bookshelf arranged by : Shelves One and Two: Works of Jane Austen, Austen Criticism, and Criticism relevant to my dissertation; Shelf Three: 18th Century Fiction Read for Comprehensive Exams; Shelf Four: Non-fiction, Poetry, and Criticism Read for Comprehensive Exams. It's a big bookshelf.
As I said, though, that’s how they started out. Now, there are piles everywhere because I grab what I need as I need it then pile it on a chair, the table, the sofa, or the floor—fully intending, of course, to replace it later. Dream on.
Actually, I have been forcing myself to straighten up after each major milestone. So if you came upstairs right after one of my comprehensive exams, or right after I finished Chapter 1, for example, you might discern some order.
But in between? Fuhgettaboudit . . .
2 comments:
My bookshelf, on a perfect day is arranged by height and color. Now you know how shallow I am! I love my yellow book jackets (Shopaholic books). They look great on the shelf! In my defense, my shelf takes up nearly an entire wall in our family room and is our only bookshelf so I want it to be pleasing to the eye...and it once was...
I've tried several ways to organize my books. As it is right now, I have many more books than I have room for the books so there a few piles surrounding me desk. I use LibraryThing to organize and catalogue all the books I own.
At one point, I had them organized and shelved according to the Dewey Decimal system (because LT would show me them in order) but I've since moved to a more personalized system.
On the shelf directly above my desk are all the books I have or will read for class this semester along with a few reference books and works I constantly reference for my thesis. In our big shelves I separate fiction from non-fiction and with the fiction I separate American from non-American and organize according to the authors name, alphabetically.
Wow, that was a long explanation--sorry.
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