So I’m in a position where I need to reorganize my bookshelves.
I realized that so much of how I organize books depends on how much space I
have. When I have lots of room, I can afford to have more keeper shelves and
maintain a broad collection of books from all my areas of interest. I have many
shelves of the books I’ve written, the books I’ve written that are translated
to other languages, shelves of friends’ books, and signed books. Plus there are
books I organize by interest—medieval culture, castles, knighthood, medieval literature,
the courtly tradition, the Pre-Raphaelites, mythology, psychology, world religions,
literary novels, poetry, and the list goes on.
I love my bookshelves! Browsing is a joy, and I continually find
old gems I haven’t looked at in a decade. If I had my choice, I’d leave them as
is. But I’m consolidating homes after living in a few places of the last
decade, and that means merging collections—and, worse, losing the home of the
biggest, best bookshelves.
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| One of several shelves I had to dismantle. |
Minimalist sensibilities might say that’s a great thing. Do
less with more! And if it was anything in my life except for books, I’d agree
with that idea. But we love books, don’t we? Parting with them is like saying
goodbye to old friends.
First to go were books that weren’t favorites—works I’ve
only read once and didn’t feel called to read again. That wasn’t so bad. But
then there was the pairing down of my own foreign editions, which was hard because
I had hoped to keep one of everything. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible, so
I mailed books to libraries all over the country, re-homing them.
Now, I’m in a period of stasis, trying to figure out what can
go next. Most days I contemplate building more bookshelves in my new home to
accommodate all the volumes. But in my more productive periods of organization,
I try to choose the “best of” books from each favorite category. I don’t need
all the books I have on mythology, so I pick my top two or three choices, and
so on.
We’ll see if this yields a more manageable collection. For
now, I can say that I have renewed appreciation for cyber bookshelves like
those I have at Goodreads. Even if I no longer possess the physical copy of the
book, I can keep track of what I’ve read there—when I remember to enter it. I
also like that I can put a book on multiple shelves so that it’s not just a
book poetry, it’s also a book by a friend and a book I read for book club.
Having the ability to sort books into topical categories and specialized fields
makes it easy for me to look up all the books I’ve read for book club or all
the books I’ve consulted on Avalon.
But I’d love to know what you do! Do you keep track of books
in a platform like Shelfari or Goodreads? Do you use a notebook and paper to
list books you’ve read in a year or by series? And how to you keep your home shelf
or shelves organized? Share with me here and I’ll give one reader a print copy
of my Texas Playmaker story, THE PERFECT CATCH. Book #2 in that series is now available - GAME ON!
14 comments:
My kindle has collections for favortie authors, I have a signed book shelf and 4 other book shelves that are organzied by last name.
The one's on my desk top/ kindle aren't in any order. I wouldn't know how to do it on the kindle! However, I managed to down size by going through the one's I just knew I'd never read since I have so many. What I ended up doing is box by box, shelf by shelf and looked at the author or if it was a TCC series. I gave them to someone else who can read 2 -3 a night! Now me, I sleep! She then passes them on to either my cousin or one of her daughters. As for in any kind of order the one's on my selves are by author. As in all of Kathie DeNosky's are beside each other. All of Maureen Childs, Brenda Jackson's, Cathy Mann's, LeeAnne Banks, and yours! I have so many tbr piled next to the couch. Those are mostly TCC series! New one's in the last year. I have all of Sheri Whitefeather's bagged to keep! Why? Maybe some year I might decide to re- read her's! I also have Karen Rock's books saved but they aren't bagged. Someday they will be! Pam Hamblin
I arrange my physical bookshelves in Alphabetical Order and by Publication Date unless the author has their own series that doesn't come out near each other and then Continuities are by series publication date toward the bottom of my bookshelves. For my Kindle, I try to put my books in collections (authors and Tule Publishing) so I can easily find my books but I don't do that as much as the organization of my physical bookshelves.
I meant to ask about the electronic collections... I want to organize more there, too!
I have a notebook that I keep a list of all the books I have read. I list by title, author, place where it came from and the date I finished reading it. My book shelves are arranged by books I have read, those I want to keep and then those to be read.
I have very little shelf room, so my books are mostly in tote boxes, and several other places. I do keep my favorite author's books together, the ones I know I won't give away. When I get through reading a book, I will write it in a notebook and decide if I want to keep it or pass it on to friends and family.
I have my historical and contemporary romances separate, and those are in alphabetical order by author, and I do the same for my other genres.
denise
(ps. I think Amazon morphed shelfari into goodreads.)
kindle is organized by newest. goodreads is how i keep track of my reading. i have books arranged according to my favorite authors. i keep all signed books. i use hardback vintage books in my living room bookcases for decoration & admiration.
I have a folder on my computer that I keep my book reviews. I feel that I do both the author, the public and myself by doing book reviews. I also keep tract of what I've read on Goodreads. As for the books themselves, I keep those special to me and the rest I have as loaners out to family and friends with my name in the back so when they are done with it and return it someone else can read it. That a good part of my library is out on loan most of the time.
Understand the need or desire to downsize. Almost three years ago, we moved to our dream destination and built our smaller home to accommodate what we felt was essential or with great meaning to us. Instead of three bedrooms with two staying empty most of the time, we build larger rooms but have only one bedroom. Instead of extra unused space, we built our computer room where I have a large desk with books as my backdrop. When that space fills up, which it does amazingly fast, then it's time to reconsider what to keep and what to loan or give to others. My having less space, you don't hoard near as much. As with you, books is the one thing I still struggle with but I'm still old school and love to hold my book when I read it.
Thank you for the chance to win a copy of "THE PERFECT CATCH".
2clowns at arkansas dot net
I don't keep any kind of list of the books I have read. My daughter reorganized all of the books in our house. Basically a bookcase, or two, for each person in the house and then alphabetically by author. It is a system that seems to be working. (We do keep buying more bookcases though.)
I have a number of books and I have a built in shelf in my apartment, right now they are just set on my shelf. I do have to go thru them and figure out how I want to organize them. Thanks for this amazing chance.
What works for one person may not work for another!
I would suggest keeping a Word (or Excel) file. In that one file would be an alphabetical list by author surname for ALL books and alphabetical lists for each of your categories. In that way, you can copy/paste within the file (much easier/faster than having separate files) for each of the categories ... you can also list where to find such books (Kindle, book shelf, under what category on your book shelf, etc.). At first I was going to suggest that every printed book be filed alphabetically by author, but then I realized you'd probably prefer categories bunched together, if possible. The list would tell you where to find the books placed in different categories. Once the file was created, I am old-school enough that I would print said lists so that I could walk over to my bookshelf carrying the list, and then would be able to find every book in that category quickly. I would also handwrite new books on the list until I found the time to update the whole list later.
As for me, I keep a Word file of books (in alphabetical order by author and then by book title) by my favourite authors so that when I'm out shopping, I can quickly see if I've read that book yet. I keep updating it by hand until the page gets cluttered, then I update my Word file and reprint for my wallet again (printing on both sides of the page in columns in small fonts to fit everything on one page).
I also keep track of my book reviews in alphabetical order by author so that I can then give my books to others and not have them taking valuable book space. I probably should do this in a Word file as well, but I started it years ago by handwriting everything on scrap paper, then advanced to copying the book blurb/cover and typing the review in Word, so I have one page for each book read/reviewed, taking up over a dozen BIG binders. (My kids know that when I'm gone, these get burned/shredded, as I might have old confidential scrap papers from my self-employed business printed on the reverse.)
Today I have boxes full of TBR books, but I'm okay with it when I realize that once I read them, they are out of here (even the autographed ones). I give them to my girlfriend's mom, who lives in a seniors' apartment building; she reads them and then shares them with others in the building. I keep "recipe cards" in alphabetical order by author names so I have a list of contests I have entered (so I don't enter them more than once) and show all books bought by those authors. If I were starting that list today, I would do it in Word instead, but there are more important things in life to do with my time than that (at least to me). I have read over 250 books every year since 1973 but have only been keeping track since 2009 when I started blogging (as I can't remember every book I've read).
Elaine, you are so organized!! And I can understand sharing the books after you've read them... passing along so they end up circulating through the seniors' building is a nice idea.
***Winner!*** Cheers to Amanda Gardner, winner of the prize! Amanda, all you need to do is message me with a mailing address (send to jrock008@gmail.com) and I'll get this out for you asap!! Thank you all for visiting with me and helping me get organized!
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