Personally, I prefer genre or by author last name, but since between my wife and I, we add about 50 books a month to our collection I just gave up and put them wherever there is room.
Even worse than color. By my reading order. With another shelf just for books I've not read yet. That shelf is just whatever order they happen to get placed there or when I think I'll try a new half-assed sorting solution.
My excuse: it's nice to see my interest over time. But really? I dumb.
The only books my husband and I own which have ever had even a moment's consideration as to where they should go on a shelf, are the cookbooks organized roughly into "his" and "hers". Everything else, chaos.
And every one of them is pedestrian garbage. The day I follow some fuckshit ticktok trend my existence becomes void. Fuck off with the “I never made it past preschool and can’t read anyway” bullshit. I want my books in a meaningful order to find what I’m looking for not use them as idiotic decor
I put books that are more or less in the same general category near each other, for the most part. And then I stuff everything that doesn’t fit wherever it will fit.
Yeah, it’s actually not too impressive-kids books count as one genre to us. But we do separate out nonfiction into subjects and have maybe 4 different fiction groupings (sf/fantasy count as one).
So…. Now that I count, we have way too many books. 😉
😔 my books have been in boxes since our move in 2013. If they were on shelves they'd be by author until my husband messed that up. Any shelf is good enough for him.
Genre ➡️ alphabetically by author’s last name ➡️ size ➡️ color (unless they’re a series, in which case it’s chronologically, even when the publisher randomly decides to change the size/format midway through the series [which is infuriating]) shoutout to Maureen Johnson’s books, which are consistent.
Different, actually. I sort by favourite author/colour/or rarity of the copy. But all in correct order of publishing, if not, I can't sleep. Yeah, I have OCD 😇
Sorry, can't read the thread further as, while I understand and won't condemn chaotic behaviour in others, the thought of any other system being *deliberately* employed is making me squirm.
By author, mainly. The non-fiction is by subject, then author. (although the authors are not in any order and the case at the top of the stairs is just Terry Pratchett)
-Stephen King and Dean Koontz have a shelf,
-Really old books (over 50 years) have half a shelf with more King/Koontz books,
-Biographies, WWII books, etc have a shelf
-Thrillers have about two shelves
-Books I am actively reading and in queue to read next have a shelf.
Works for me!
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Alphabetical, but in sections -- fiction, nonfiction (loosely by subject then by author), kids books. I also have all my sprayed edges in one place in rainbow order.
More by whats dark vs whats cutesy… and whats useful for day to day learning new languages and books I had to by for school oh and lets not forget about the books from when I was a kid but that’s on an oder shelf
release date for each series first, then by volume per series. Dragon Ball was 1984 so that's on the far left on the top shelf. Saint Seiya after that and then JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Then Yu Yu Hakusho, ect.
Alphabetical by author, then organized in published order by series/alphabetic by title. I'm tempted to just copy catalog our books and order them that way.
A careful combination of by genre, by self made up sub genre, based on which shelf they fit best on, and by height or paperback vs hardback. A system that makes no sense except in my head.
Fiction by author / genre, Non-Fiction by topic, separate shelving for really large books, medium / hardback books, and paperback & other very small books.
I organize Donald Trump books by thickness, so I can easily select the right one to put under the short leg on a rickety desk or table.
I try to keep a series together, and use size to determine what can fit where. I also keep reference books and such organized by topic and separate from the fiction section. I neither color code nor alphabetize 🫥
😂 WTF by color??? WTF... seriously could you imaging going to the library and asking for the Necronomicon Ex-Libris and the librarian says "What color is it?"
Me: "I think black"
Librarian "Oh dear that might be a problem"
😂
I sort them by number of letters in the title and flip them around so the page part is out. Also, pro tip: if you lay them down, you can take the shelves out and just pile them in to the top, and it saves so much room!
By relation to nearby books. I have a whole shelf of classics, for example, and then a shelf of contemporary fantasy. On the classics shelf, Dracula is beside Frankenstein, but both are far away from A Tale of Two Cities.
By genre, then vaguely alphabetical. Got general nonfiction on the top shelf, queer and witchy shit on the second shelf, adult fiction on the third, then kids and YA on the bottom shelf. Then I have a smaller bookcase for my comics, manga, and graphic novels.
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My excuse: it's nice to see my interest over time. But really? I dumb.
I can see that there is some justification for arranging clothes that way but not books. They're not alphabetical either.
It's a terrible system.
Nonfiction: by subject.
By genre is as far as we go around here.
So…. Now that I count, we have way too many books. 😉
And this coming from a guy who used to work at a library. 😱
As in @jefflemire171.bsky.social occupies the top shelf of my most special book shelf
manga, graphic novels, and books have their own designated shelves though
Sorry, can't read the thread further as, while I understand and won't condemn chaotic behaviour in others, the thought of any other system being *deliberately* employed is making me squirm.
-Really old books (over 50 years) have half a shelf with more King/Koontz books,
-Biographies, WWII books, etc have a shelf
-Thrillers have about two shelves
-Books I am actively reading and in queue to read next have a shelf.
Works for me!
I organize Donald Trump books by thickness, so I can easily select the right one to put under the short leg on a rickety desk or table.
Me: "I think black"
Librarian "Oh dear that might be a problem"
😂