Show me your bookshelf - and how do you sort it?

[millyskate]

I saw this thread elsewhere today and thought it had FSU potential, in particular the sorting debate . I also love seeing people's bookshelves.

Here is mine, sorted by theme and then by size in each box. (I've posted in other threads I recently got a new bookshelf which brings me great joy).

 

[Aceon6]

No pic. Ours is sorted his/hers. The subsections are light reading, heavy reading and keepers. There is absolutely no organization within the subsections unless you count random paperbacks as being always on top.

 

[gkelly]

In my home "office":
One bookcase full of plays, also some souvenirs from shows I directed and other miscellaneous items; another with books on theatre/performance theory and criticism, plus books on skating and foreign language books/dictionaries.

Smaller bookcase with CDs and cassette tapes, plus books on dance history/choreography, and some computer games.

Living room:
One large and one small bookcase full of VHS tapes and CDs of skating, random uncategorized novels.

Bedroom:
Ditto, plus some nonfiction dating back to college and the rest of the 20th century, and lots of old skating magazines

 

[attyfan]

I read a lot. I have two full bookshelves in the living room for my British history books, and another three in the library for my fiction collection (primarily murder mysteries). My husband has two for his science fiction and other books. Needless to say, I am trying to get more and more books on Kindle, but I have a large number of books unavailable in that format.

 

[millyskate]

Yes, I've had to cut back on the number of books I own. I donated one big bag to a charity and brought two large bagfuls to the book exchange at my commute station this year. I've been sending books I enjoy onto friends oo. I still have some books in the loft, mainly study books.
Most of the ones on my bookshelf there are the "keepers".

 

[Anemone]

I have four 6-ft high bookshelves occupying a corner of my living room. I have them sorted by genre (children's literature, mystery, non-fiction etc) and then they are shelve in alphabetical order by author (with series in order) as you would see in any library.

 

[clairecloutier]

We have 7 mid-height bookcases scattered in various parts of the house, plus one in a closet. Always culling, but always buying more books! Little discernible order, although my most favorite fiction books are in a bookcase in our room, and we do try to keep the children's books in 2 bookcases downstairs (one shelf is for their library books).

 

[Prancer]

I have five bookcases (plus a couple of closet shelves) and have them organized by:

Built-in bookcase in family room: Textbooks and literature I either had for school or use for school. I have one shelf for non-English books, one shelf for argument textbooks, one shelf for writing and editing books, and two shelves for literature. Literature is alphabetized by author, other books are alphabetized by title within category.

Freestanding bookcase in family room: Fiction I haven't read on top shelf, alphabetized by author. Cookbooks I use but not regularly on second shelf (because that shelf allows for taller books); no real organization there. Nonfiction I haven't read on third shelf, alphabetized by author. Music books I use but not regularly on one side of fourth shelf; arts and crafts books on the other half. Kid activity books and art supplies on the bottom.

Built-in bookcase in Husband's office (which we used to share): Treasures--collectible books and childhood favorites, organized mostly by collection and affection.

Freestanding bookcase in Husband's office: Assorted reference books, mostly sorted by size (most of this bookcase is taken up wth things other than books).

Freestanding bookcase in my office: Mostly empty at the moment because I need to paint my office and have the wood floor refinished, so everything is in boxes, but I normally have one shelf full of guitar music books (alphabetized by composer or arranger where possible; wherever it fits otherwise), one shelf where I store loose sheet music and my folders for music I'm working on (a disorganized mess except for the folders) and one shelf for assorted guitar paraphernalia. I plan to move the textbooks and reference books I use often from the other cases to the other shelves in this bookcase if I ever get the painting and floor done. One day I will also organize my loose sheet music into something usable.

 

[quartz]

Two six-foot bookcases in my living room:
First: fiction, mystery, fantasy, children’s stories, children’s eyewitness collection, fairy tales and folklore, home design, decor and homekeeping - contemporary and historical. My 2 poetry books. About 40-50 on the floor as there is no more room on the shelves. All grouped according to their genre, no consideration of alphabetizing, but I do keep each author’s books together. Some vertical, some horizontal, however I think looks pretty.

Second: biographies, humour, religion, bibles, supernatural, history, local history, geography, geology, gardening, art, coffee table books on various topics. My big stack of DK books sits on the floor beside, box sets stacked on the floor in front. Again, books are like with like but shelved so they please me ascetically rather than properly sorted.

My 48 year old Narnia box set holds a place separate from all other books, prominently displayed on my livingroom sideboard amongst my crystal and pewter candlesticks.

Six foot bookcase in dining room: Scotland books, DK travel books, more art, more history, skating, journals, photo albums, boxes of writing materials, rocks, my grandmothers sewing basket, brass candlestick, vintage lunchbox holding decks of cards, one small iron salamander.

Spare bedroom: floor stack - more art, more history coffee table books.

Other spare bedroom: antique and vintage collection.

eta...and on top of the living room bookcases there are my old bottle collection, and in the old bottle collection are my feather, seedpod, small fossil, and beach glass collections.

 

[Bunny Hop]

I have them sorted by genre (children's literature, mystery, non-fiction etc) and then they are shelve in alphabetical order by author (with series in order) as you would see in any library.

Similar here. The ex-Librarian in me accepts nothing less! I draw the line at trying to do Dewey decimal though (even if bits of it are stuck in my head despite not having worked in a book library for over 20 years). My DVDs are sorted by genre and then alphabetical by title.

 

[Japanfan]

I have a large six-foot bookshelf and a smaller one with two shelves.

The large one is mainly for fiction, with cookbooks and some of my astrology texts occupying the larger bottom shelf. Still got a number of works by the dear, sweet, sad Kurt Vonnegut.

The two shelves are mainly for non-fiction. The books include several hardcover texts which include feminists texts such as Marilyn French 'Beyond Power' and Susan Faludi "Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women", and the works of many intellectuals/great thinkers up to publishing date (in the 70s). Most of these were purchased for a film class I took way back in the late 70s called 'Film and Contemporary Consciousness' - they are beautiful books, and the pricetag is still on one them - under $20.00. There is also got Noem Chomsky 'Towards New Cold War'. And being a dutiful intellectual, 'The Communist Manifesto'.

I've read parts of my feminist books, but for the most part, the 'intellectual' books are largely unread.

 

[Kasey]

Two six-foot bookcases and one smaller one, all in my spare room (I have a pretty small condo). Um....not organized at all. Maybe if I end up quarantined that will be a project for me.

 

[Marta24]

I recently counted my hardcopy books and apparently I own over 300 books. I was a little shocked, tbh, seeing them sitting in my bookshelves they didn`t look to be so many. And that`s without counting all the books that are still in my parents`house

Anyway, I sort my books in the categories "to read", "classics", "non-fiction" and "fiction". Since I have so many books in my "to read" category, I decided to not buy anymore books, until I`ve read them all. Hopefully, I will manage to stay strong!

 

[Vagabond]

My rare book collection

My art book collection

My fiction and poetry collection

My non-fiction collection

Spoiler

You didn't really think I was going to post pictures of my own home, complete with the location in the metadata, did you?

I have a five-shelf bookcase in my bedroom, with shelves mostly dedicated to (1) Oxford, Edinburgh, London, Paris, and travel, (2) gastronomy, (3) philosophy,fiction and poetry, (4) books by Lisa St Aubin de Terán, and (5) foreign language dictionaries and Judaica.

In my home office, I have a shelving system with fifteen shelves and a cabinet. At the moment, this is largely organized according to physical considerations, such as to have work-related books directly over my writing desk and oversized books on the top two rows. Subject to these considerations, I have books collected together to some degree by such categories as science and natural history, history, archeology, novels in English, poetry, short story collections, reference, art and architecture, and foreign language literature.

How's that?

 

[smurfy]

I have various categories....
-Autographed books on a small 2 shelf bookcase (my brother made me in junior high wood shop) - sorted alpha by author
-British/Irish fiction/nonfiction books - 3 shelves - with one shelf with only books by Diana Gabaldon - in a 3 shelf bookcase

And in 2 bookcases - 83 inches high if I remember right from building the Ikea cases
-Travel books - sorted alpha by country; and others sorted alpha by author - 1/2 of one of the 3 bookcases
-Genealogy books - sorted by topic (general how to, resources, by country) 1/3 of one of the 3 bookcases
-Text/business books - sorted by topic - alpha
-How To - crafts, photography, repairs - categories group together and sorted by color
-Section of books about skating or by skaters - alpha by author
And a bunch of photo albums and a few knickknacks

And another Ikea bookcase - 83 in tall - but 50% wider than the other 2.
-Almost all 50 odd Nancy Drew yellow binder books, plus some other like books that were my moms
-General Fiction - alpha by author
-NonFiction/Bio/AutoBio - sorted alpha by author
-Text/business books - sorted by topic - alpha

I have another 3 shelf bookcase in my living room that has 'art' books collected from various museums and house museums. Many are coffee table big and fancy, and some smaller - regular sized books. And a bunch of photo albums

I am tempted to do some sorting by color - to look nice - but so afraid I would not find something.

Marta24 - I want to count them now, so not sure how I will feel after about your post.