There are so many ways you could organise your bookshelf,
and the way to organise it instantly becomes harder with the increase on your
collection of books. In saying this, most people need a way to know where all
their books are, and having a list seems a bit too… professional. Not to
mention, preventing yourself from buying more books is a bit of an
impossibility. Would you really want to continuously update that list? Talk
about a chore. The only organisation that people really are common with is separating
the non-fiction from the fiction and that’s a pretty good habit in my books.
See what I did there?
Don’t cringe. You’re welcome. :P
OK. So I’ve decided to form a list on different ways to
organise your books. I have discovered nine different ways to organise your
shelf and some of those have a few sub-categories. So how about I stop my
jabbering and we get started!
ONE: ALPHABETICAL
This is by far the most popular option, and in my opinion,
the most practical. This way of organising can have many different outcomes,
and I’m here to help you figure out which one will work best for you.
1
-
Alphabetical
by Surname: This is the most popular option of the alphabet, and by far
my favourite. (If you come across a co-authored book, I usually use the last surname
on the spine.)
2
-
Alphabetical
by First Name: This isn’t used as much, but it still can work. (If you
come across a co-authored book, I generally use the first name printed on the
spine.)
3
-
Alphabetical
by Book Title: This is my least favourite option out of the three. Why?
Because it can separate all of your series’. Having the first book at the end
and the second in the middle can be infuriating. A helpful option if you really
wanted to do this way would to organise your series’ by the series’ title
opposed to the books title. That way it can work out better for you.
Another flaw in this is that your authors will also be separate, but that isn’t as big as a problem as the first. Unfortunately, I don’t have any ideas for helping you out with this. If you want your authors together, then I suggest finding a different way of organisation.
Another flaw in this is that your authors will also be separate, but that isn’t as big as a problem as the first. Unfortunately, I don’t have any ideas for helping you out with this. If you want your authors together, then I suggest finding a different way of organisation.
TWO: BY GENRE
When you get a lot of books upon your bookshelf, putting
them in alphabetical order can be a bit confusing. Sure you know where it is,
but with the large variety of genres, it’s just easier to find the book you’re
after if it’s amongst the other books of its kind. Placing your contemporary
books together and then having your fantasy books separate, can be helpful.
When you’re in that mood for a love story, all you have to do is focus on a
small section of your bookshelf rather than looking at all of it. Y’know what I mean?
You can even further this by having a ‘Middle Grade’
section, a ‘Young Adult’ section, an ‘Adult’ section and then your ‘Non-Fiction’
section. This way you have some organisation amongst your genres. So with your
young adult section – for example – you could further organise that by separating
all the genres within. The sci-fi from the high-fantasy and the low-fantasy
from the contemporary. Get what I’m saying? Of course you do. Let’s move on!
THREE: BY SIZE
There are two ways to complete this organisation. It just
depends on which you prefer.
1 -
Height:
There’s something aesthetically pleasing about having your bookshelf
range from the shortest books you own to the tallest. Or vice versa. Admittedly
this isn’t a favourite of mine because once again this organisation can split
your authors and it can split your genres if the publishers have decided to
change the size or if you’ve accidently bought the wrong size. So that might be
a problem, or it might not. It’s up to what works best for you.
2 -
Width:
This isn’t a popular option. It
isn’t as aesthetically pleasing as the first option, your books are in a
muddled order and the heights are a mess. But, hey, at least you know what’
your biggest book in your shelf and what’s your smallest. I guess that helps?
FOUR: BY COLOUR
Ah. The infamous rainbow shelf. This seems to be taking
readers by storm. This is just like the height option. It’s aesthetically
pleasing to your eyes. Your books look amazing and it brings a certain
brightness to the room, but! Not all books are beautifully coloured. Some won’t
fit. Your authors will be muddle. Your series’ will become separate because
they aren’t all the same colour. Some of the spines have such a range of colour
that they don’t fit anywhere. Most of your books are probably black or white.
Am I right? So where do they go? Of course. Give them their own section. What
about the grey books? Are they black? Are they white? Do you have enough to
make their own section? Can you fit them under a ‘sort-of’ tree? Like ‘sort of
green’ or ‘sort of blue’. What about coloured text with a black or white
background? What then?
So this organisation can be a bit difficult to figure out at
first. Everyone is different about how they keep this order. Where you put
those books that don’t fit anywhere is completely up to you. But hey, at least
the coloured portion of your bookshelf looks sexy as eff.
FIVE: BY FAVOURITE
This is a pretty good option if you like to prioritise your
books. If you want to be able to have your most favourite books on the top of
your shelf, in easy reach and together, then this might be the way to go. The
problem with this order is: What to do with the unread half? (Don’t lie. At
least half of your shelf is unread. That’s okay though, everyone has too many
unread books in their shelf.)
What I like to do is with the unread books is organise them
from which is the highest on my to-be-read (TBR) list to what I’m not that
interested in. This is actually a good way to realising which books you
probably aren’t going to read and which series’ you aren’t going to finish.
Speaking of unfinished series’, it’s probably best of me to mention that your
series will be separate in this way of organising unless you plan on putting
the unread books of certain series amongst your favourite books.
SIX: READ,
HALF-READ AND UNREAD
Your first category, in order by how ever you find best (I
prefer Alphabetical by Surname) should be what you’ve read. The second
category, should be your half-read. I like to put this one in Alphabetical by
Surname as well. The third, is the unread section. This section I like to order
from highest on my TBR list to the least likely to read. It helps you discover
which books you’re going to grab next. This order may also separate your series’
and authors. Just be warned.
SEVEN: PURCHASED ORDER
Maybe your one of those people who can remember what order
you bought your books. Maybe you just like to keep that visible for yourself or
others. Personally, I’m not a fan of this way of organisation. In case you
haven’t noticed, I don’t like separating my authors and series’ and this will
most definitely do that unless you plan to wait until the entire series is out.
Even then, authors are paid to bring out new books and sometimes they will
choose to spice things up and publish a selection of short stories to a series
you love. Or maybe they will write a spin-off series. You know it’s true. And
you know you will buy it eventually.
EIGHT: PUBLICATION ORDER
This way is fiddly. You’ll have to search in the front of
every book you own for the publication date. Then, according to that you have
to put your books in that order. You want to know something? I’m not good at
remembering numbers. So firstly, when putting the books in order, you’ll have to
re-search in books for the publication order, because chances are, you’ll
forget. Then, once your shelf is in order and looking pretty, you have to
remember when all books are published. Plus, your series’ and authors will be
separate.
NINE: BY CHARACTER
There are a few options for this one. This is when you grab
a character from a book, and place them in order by character. There are
several characters you can pick for this option: leading protagonist, favourite
character, first name in the blurb, leading antagonist, etc. Any name in the
book will work. (As long as you remember them.) This way of organisation will
also split up your authors and series’. Some of these options will leave you
wondering where to put your unread books.
-
Alphabetical
Characters: Placing the characters’ of your choice in order of the
alphabet.
2 -
Favourite
Characters: Putting the characters’ of your choice in order by favourite
to least. Or vice versa.
3 -
Quirky
Characters: Putting the characters’ in order by level of weirdness.
4 -
Grown
Characters: Putting it in order by the characters’ that have grown the
most throughout the book.
AND THAT’S ALL FOLKS!
I hope this was helpful. If you have any ways of organising
your bookshelf that I haven’t mentioned, please feel free to leave a message to
let me know. Also, don’t be afraid to let me know if you liked this or not. I
would love to hear criticism!
See you next time!
Love, Harley.
Note: None of these images are mine. I have found all of these on Google Images. If one is yours, please let me know and I promise to give you credit, or to take it down. Which ever you prefer.
