Off Tangent Thoughts… while organising your bookshelf
Good morning bookworms!
Today we are doing another Off Tangent Thoughts (OTT) which was created by Charvi @ Not Just Fiction. This fortnight’s topic is a freebie because it’s the 5th week of the month, so I am going back to the very first prompt: thoughts you have while organising your bookshelf.
However… instead of off-tangent thoughts (because my books are currently sorted by rainbow, so it’s really just a “is this blue spine redder or yellower than the one next to it?”) I’m going to explain my shelving thoughts to you (which may end up devolving into off-tangent thoughts anyway)…
Now, I don’t know about you guys, but I am usually VERY PARTICULAR about where my books sit on my bookshelves. However, when we moved into this house back in June and I got brand new bookshelves (???) I decided to do something very different for me. Which is RAINBOW SHELVES.
This might not seem that strange to some, but let me tell you how my books were arranged prior to this. Firstly by genre (fantasy, paranormal, sci-fi, contemporary, romance, crime/mystery, classics, graphic novels and comics, childrens), then author surname (A-Z), then by series, and within the series they had to be in numerical order (yes, even if they published a prequel last, the prequel was first on the shelf). If the author had multiple series, then the first series would be the one with the earliest publishing book date. Series were also usually stacked up, with the first book on top, as this usually took up less room (I have many series that are longer in length than they are the height of the book).
This may seem like a lot of effort, but you could tell me any book that I owned and I would be able to reach out and grab that book within about 5 seconds. Rainbows are very aesthetically pleasing, but if I can’t remember what colour spine a book has, then I. AM. SCREWED. (Like, the cover of Heartstopper Vol 1 is green, but the spine is pink. I didn’t know this so I spent almost an hour looking for this book.)
Obviously there are exceptions to this rule, as only one wall of bookshelves is currently rainbowed (which I showed you all the other day… no I can’t remember which post it was). So, without further ado, let’s talk about my other wall of shelves (which is kind of a mess… so no judgement)!
Honestly, sharing this photo is giving me hives. Let’s go top to bottom, left to right.
- Children’s books (there’s a lot of Enid Blyton)
- High fantasy: Neil Gaiman and David Eddings
- Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books
- Sarah J Maas and the DC Icons books
- Maria V Snyder and Twilight
- (out of photo) James Patterson’s Private series, other crime books, and some autobiographies
- Graphic novels and comic books… plus Tolkien
- Classics (B&N leatherbound children’s, Austen clothbound, Little Women clothbound, Shakespeare)
- Maggie Stiefvater books
- More high fantasy: Garth Nix, Kate Forsyth, Raymond E Feist, Laini Taylor. However, stacked in front of this is my book haul for this month.
- Random books I couldn’t fit in the rainbow
- (out of photo) Tilly and Louise Bagshawe books
- Kind of a Jay Kristoff (and Aimee co-authored books) shelf, but The Lotus War trilogy and the LIFEL1K3 books are in the rainbow, as are all the other Aimee books… So I guess a Nevernight and co-authored space books shelf…?
- Holly Black books
- Harry Potter books
- Cassandra Clare books
- Janet Evanovich books
- (out of photo) additional Janet Evanovich books and book boxes I haven’t unpacked.
As you can see, I also just have STUFF everywhere. I haven’t sorted my book box merch in like 6 months, and I also haven’t really sorted out my desk enough to figure a way to keep the stationery from overflowing to my bookshelves.
The other thing to note is that a lot of these shelves will be fuller by the end of the year. Once all my preorders for the rest of the year come in, I’ll be back to cramming books into random spaces.
So, I guess the next stage will be … haul or reorganise?
Are you this crazy about your bookshelves?
14 Comments
Kristina
Holy organisation! I admire you, really.
I just put them however fits ?? no real order, but one shelf MUST remain the « yet to read » so I don’t mix them up and know where to go to fish my new read — and usually one shelf ends up with my favorites xD the rest is mostly from height bigger to smoller ??♀️ I dont pay much more attention
Meeghan reads
That’s funny, because all my ‘yet to reads’ are just mixed in with the general populace of books!! I find it really interesting how we’re all so different with our book organisation!!
Kristina
I honestly don’t think I could live with that ? I’d probably forget about them and just.. don’t read them.. ahah
Meeghan reads
That’s… exactly what I do ???
Kristina
Ahahah ?
Madam Mim
Ooo I’d not thought of organising my bookshelves by colour… Mine are currently organised by genre, and then if I have more than one book by an author they sit together (series in order). It’s a “sort of” system haha
Meeghan reads
Any system is a good system, so long as it works for you!!
Madam Mim
I’m totally going to do a whole spin off post about this! Like, how many ways are there to organise a book shelf… You’ve inspired a full a book nerd moment haha
Meeghan reads
You are MOST WELCOME!! And I cannot wait to see it!! ?
Beware Of The Reader
I also got new bookshelves but they are already full! I arrange them by genre then by authors and then by colors LOL
Meeghan reads
New bookshelves are a joy to behold!! ???
Kathy @ Pages Below the Vaulted Sky
I tried using a rainbow system a year ago and I LOVED how pretty it looked, but HATED the fact that all the series (serieses??) got separated. So now I sort them by favourites (top shelves), then by genre, and then author. And sometimes I just like how a book looks in particular spot, so they stay there even though they don’t fit the system. It’s chaotic as heck but it somehow works! XD
Meeghan reads
So long as you know how it all works, that is the main thing!!! ?
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