Your Book case

[Gail Allen]

What does your book case look like? Is it neatly sorted with all the backs in a neat and even row and authors sorted alphabetically, or are they all sorted according to height or colour perhaps? Or are you like me and have more of a system of "If I can cram in one more book here, I will!"

I've noticed that's quite different for a lot of people. Some people even have room for decorative objects in between their books and it looks great. Full disclosure: I don't. In my bookcase, if the books aren't tall enough to take up all the space to the next shelf, chances are I'll have other books lying on top of them to fill that space. Not because I think it looks good, cause it doesn't, but because I am running out of bookshelf space to store my books in. When I first got my bookcases I also had an idea that I would sort them alphabetically... The reality of it is... that that's not happening. I do however make sure that if there is a book series that they at least stand together and if I have other books of the same author I try to get them to be in the same spot though that's not always successful. And yet.. I somehow always know where my books are.

So that made me curious. How do other HOLers sort their book cases? Or 'not sort them' as might well be the case too. And are you good at remembering where your books are?

[Shadow Gaunt]

Me and my dad programmed a website to keep track of all of our bookshelves. It is actually very useful and as long as my family puts the books back where they came from, it is amazing. Our family bookshelves are very organized, mostly because of the program.

However, all my books are strewn in random places around my room, or just like Gail, crammed into two shelves of space. One day I’ll organize everything. One day...

[Shiloh Adlar]

When I was still living with my parents, I sorted my books by color and then it was in the order of the rainbow colors. Then it was by author last name then title and series order.

Now that I'm on my own in my apartment, I don't own as many books. The ones I do own are sorted by subject. I have plays and I have research books from school. I have some books that I read over and over again because I enjoy them. So I sort by research/course materials, poetry/plays, fiction. After that I go by author and title.

[Prof. Kendra Givens]

At my new house, we just bought a bookshelf from someone in the neighborhood. The top two shelves are full of books, and the entire bottom half is filled with board games. Eventually I'd like to have two shelves for more space, but this one is fine for now. Of the books I do have, one shelf is devoted to series (Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Divergent, and Twilight, because yes, I went through that phase...) The top shelf has the more random books, not arranged in any particular order yet. I try to organize by author and by height when I'm really paying attention.

I do have a second bookshelf in the office with all of my academic books on it, but those just went up there today and are not very well organized yet. Eventually they'll be separated between clinical and school counseling and then by general topic. Slowly but surely getting there.