Donna and I are very proud of our bookshelves. One side contains her books and the other side holds mine. Here’s a picture:
You can’t tell whose side is whose at first glance, but they are organized very differently. Donna has her books organized by subject, then alphabetically by author. My books are mostly organized alphabetically by author—fiction and nonfiction all together. But I also have a shelf organized by publishers with colorful spines, including NYRB Classics, the black Penguin Classics, Fitzcarraldo Editions, the blue-spined Penguin Classics, Sagging Meniscus Press, McNally Editions and Mandylion Press. We’d love to hear how you organize your:
woah. How many do you guys have in total? I arrange mine by subject/genre but right now I am running out of space so I just dump the new ones wherever I can squeeze them
We've never counted, but it's a lot, Jam. When we moved during the pandemic, we had 50 boxes of books. And since then, we've only picked up more. Every so often, I give away or donated books we either have duplicates of, or that I didn't enjoy, or that I've held onto for no known reason, all to make more space. But I also have squeezed a few into whatever open space I can find.
I would love to know who actually shelves their books SPINE IN. I am horrified yet fascinated by that possibility.
I actually am a professional librarian. I have a working knowledge of different systems of classification and cataloguing, and how those interact with a variety of physical (and digital) spaces. But my home library organization? Entirely vibes-based. My partner's books are mostly on the main floor shelves, and mine are mostly on the lower levels of our split-level home, though inevitably some of mine end up intermixed with his and vice versa. My shelves are clusters of loose affiliations, some of which make a certain amount of objective sense (e.g. graphic novels all together, poetry all together) but most of which are based on categories that exist only in my head (books I first read while travelling; books I only have because someone I love loves that book; books that meant a lot to me during certain seasons of my life that I'll probably never read again but were so formative that I keep them almost like holy relics; etc.). No alphabetization, though I mostly do cluster together everything by any single author. Pretty sure my partner's shelves are organized on the same kind of basis. I've never asked. But I like things this way, so on we go.
In other words, I don't think I really have grounds to side-eye the spine-in folks, haha.
I love all of this! Especially grouping books together based on what they meant to you during past moments. I definitely have books like that, but they're scattered throughout the shelf. Sometimes one catches my eye and I'm surprised by the memories it evokes. And I don't think we talk enough about how much vibes comes into play for book selection and organization. It's definitely a guiding principle for me, if it can even be called that. I'm not sure where I heard of or saw the spine-in thing. I think it was an instagram thing, like organizing books by color. But if it works for someone, hey, good for them!
OK. I am absolutely green with jealousy. I am completely obsessed with your library!
One of the reasons why we bought our house was that the previous owner was a librarian so there are built in shelves basically anywhere she could fit them in. We collect our books too so we need the space.
We have three main categories of books in the house - philosophy and other academic books (Kyle has a PhD in philosophy and my degree is in political theory), Kyle’s work books (he teaches history now) and (the biggest category) our fiction collection.
The last time the books were organized was in 2017, before Rumi was born. The moment she starting crawling, her favorite game became pulling books off the shelves and pretending to read them. You would be surprised how quickly your whole system can go to shit at the hands of one dedicated little human.
She is about to turn 8 now and we have finally gotten to a place where we feel like it’s worth putting in the effort into getting things organized. I will say that I have been keeping a Personal Cannon shelf of my favorite books and just added a small shelf near bed to organize my piles (mostly TBR).
Thanks, Petya! We're very proud of our shelves. Before we moved in we had them installed to take up the entire wall because in our previous (tiny) apartment the books were tucked in everywhere we could find room. On Home Depot shelves. In piles along the wall. In piles on the nightstand. It was unmanageable.
I was a philosophy major in college and kept most of the philosophy books I acquired then, but have started to give a few away. A friend was reading Kant, so I have him most of what I had. He started reading Nietzsche, which I had grouped in a specific-memory section (like Prairie Librarian mentioned above), but I let it go as well.
Roughly once a year I look at my side of the shelves and assess what should go and what can stay and what can be reorganized to more efficiently use the space. I have several piles of books that are newly acquired. For the most part, they don't get a formal place on the shelves until I've read them and decide if I want to keep them. It's all too much and not enough at the same time.
People always ask us if we read all these books. And for the most part we acquire books with the aim of reading them. Maybe not the one on the metaphysical roots of particle physics, but just about all the rest lol!
I did not start to keep or buy books until after college (in a small way) and then after Nurse Practitioner school (in a big way). I have an old This Side Up shelf in the living room and office. Living room is organized (in my brain) some read, some unread, gardening books, DVDs and one son’s video games. Office has old nursing texts including a book in which I wrote 2 chapters. During Covid, my husband built a huge book case. This is the most organized, fiction alphabetical by author’s last name and mostly unread. Signed books are in a chest in the bedroom and a cabinet in the living room. Fantastic would be to build shelves on every wall of the office and collect the madness in one spot!
I hear you about having the madness all in one place. That's why we built the big wall-of-books shelf. I have so far resisted the temptation to get smaller shelves to put books elsewhere in the apartment. (I wonder if I can fit one under my desk?)
It's so great that you wrote two chapters in a text book. A piece I wrote years ago for the Village Voice was included in a text book and I always meant to buy a copy but never did. Now I've forgotten what it was called, but sometimes when I'm at a big thrift or used bookstore I imagine I'll find it by accident. That would be a tremendous surprise.
I'm always interested to hear how people organize their books, and I don't think there's a correct way to do it. Whatever brings joy and helps you find what you're looking for or connect to a memory is the way to go!
I keep my books very organized (on bookshelves and also now on built-ins that we're lucky to have in different rooms in our home) but outside of grouping selections from certain genres together, it's really just kind of vibes-based. The genre-based shelves include favorite/highly regarded books about music, by South Asian authors, classics, Agatha Christies and key sci-fi. There are some shelves for knitting books and sheet music. But then I also have books including ones from the previously mentioned genres mixed up with all sorts of other books. The Ikea Expedit shelves that have moved around with me from home to home largely have two horizontal stacks of books on them (one behind the other), the built-ins have books stacked on each other and also neatly arranged the traditional vertical way with spines out. And... somehow I know exactly where to find at least 95% of the books, so I must be doing something that works!
RAD DISHEEEEESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! Hello friend! I think a genre + vibes based system is probably the best. Like you said, it's key to knowing exactly where things are.
I'm barely cooking these days, my friend! It would be the worst newsletter. I should probably archive the newsletter (is that a thing??) and tweak my username on here :(
I don't know if you can archive a newsletter, but I imagine there must be a way. Or maybe leave it as is in the hope that one day Rad Dishes will cook again!
this bookshelf looks like the stuff of dreams! my boyfriend and i also keep ours separate. we used to have just one bookcase each but both our libraries have increased exponentially. i organize mine with fiction alphabetically by author on one bookcase; then on a large shared bookcase i have a space for nonfiction and for classics, organized alphabetically, and keep publishers together if i have multiple from them - penguin classics are together as well as oxford editions and the vintage imprint of penguin. i also have all my NYRB together, and that’s the largest collection i have from a single publisher, with 10 of those. and of course random piles crop up often of things im currently reading or ones i want to prioritize next and whatnot.
Thanks, Isabella! I love having the NYRB together. It was the first publisher I collected on purpose--I used to have a subscription for years, but then it just became too much so I stopped it. I've since had a mini subscription to Fitzcarraldo, which is one of my current publisher obsessions. That blue binding stands out! Anyway, having NYRB grouped together is great because it's like having a rainbow on your bookshelf. So colorful! I think it's good to have separate collections kept separately. A collection is an expression of one's personality and taste, and should be showcased as such.
the NYRBs are so gorgeous together. i just was gifted my first two fitzcarraldos after wanting some for ages but not springing on the shipping from the UK! I do love that blue binding, it’s so rich! and totally agree on keeping the collections separate. it really is so personal and i love looking over at my shelves and being able to glance my journeys and passions as a reader.
I hear that about the shipping. I always keep an eye out for their random sales. Also, while they are hard to find here they do pop up from time to time at McNally Jackson or the Center for Fiction. In the past, I'd just grab one whenever I saw one, even if I didn't know what it was about. Now I have a whole stack I need to get through. The allure of the blue cover is no joke! Ha!
Living abroad and renting I don't have that many books, so I do the silly thing of organizing them by color. Well, first I divide them by fiction and for non-fiction, then size and color :D
Mine aren't organised at all at the moment as we have only a few small temporary shelves while we save to have some built in shelves added. So I have a couple of boxes of books unpacked and all the rest are still in boxes waiting. My criteria for choosing the ones that are unpacked was a) recipe books need to be handy so they are all together and b) I tried to choose ones which I either hadn't yet read or was likely to reread. All my really precious books stayed in the boxes as my toddler is currently fascinated with pulling them off the shelves and 'reading' them, which sometimes involves accidentally removing part of the cover or other damage. He also has a penchant for reshelving them spine-in - I have no idea why. When we eventually get shelves built and can unpack properly, I'll shelve fiction alphabetically and non-fiction by subject I guess - I can't wait for that to happen!
Thanks, Kate! Built-in bookshelves were so worth the time and money for us, so I hope you'll be able to have yours put in soon. It's great to have things organized and also to see your books arrayed before you. Your unboxing system makes total sense. What do you do with the unboxed books after you read them? Do they go back into the box?
Honestly I cannot wait, I so miss seeing them all. It's like missing your old friends. I mostly read on my kindle these days (despite the various issues with them, which I guess Amazon have no incentive to fix, I still find it so helpful to be able to carry around with me) so most of the books on my shelves are either non-fiction or old fiction books that I've loved but already read. There are exceptions though! At the moment all the boxes are buried under further bags of stuff so no rotation will be taking place for a while...
Mine are "organized" by subject. I've got a section for poetry, a section for tarot and esoteric books, a section for old, OLD books, and SEVERAL sections around my room for fiction. But in those sections, they're not at all organized. And sometimes a subject expands outside of its allotted space and has a subsection somewhere else in my shelves. And peppered throughout them are RPG books.
Oh, and there's also a section for paperbacks without covers that I got from the B&N I worked at when we shut down and packed up the whole store.
I love this system, Justin! It seems very organic, like a plant that just goes where it will--wherever it makes sense and feels right. The key to all book collections!
Amazing shelves! Shelf envy over here. Mine are organized first by “read” and “not read” and then “fiction” and “non-fiction” and a separate section for instructional/self-helpy/writing craft. There’s no rhyme or reason within the sections, but they’re sort of in the order I read them? My own secret code. Within books I have read, I also have a shelf of books that I will never part with— the ones most important to me personally. Those tend to be organized by genre and grouped by author. It is a wonder I can find anything again yet it works for me!
I love hearing about how readers organize their shelves. I separate fiction, nonfiction, cookbooks, and TBR. All organized by last name except cookbooks, which are generally by cuisine with favorites prioritized for a quick grab.
woah. How many do you guys have in total? I arrange mine by subject/genre but right now I am running out of space so I just dump the new ones wherever I can squeeze them
We've never counted, but it's a lot, Jam. When we moved during the pandemic, we had 50 boxes of books. And since then, we've only picked up more. Every so often, I give away or donated books we either have duplicates of, or that I didn't enjoy, or that I've held onto for no known reason, all to make more space. But I also have squeezed a few into whatever open space I can find.
50 boxes! that’s a lot. This could be a bookstore already or a public library. virtual bookshelf tour soon?
Ha! I should do a tour. Not sure how I'd do it here. Maybe on Instagram?
Yes! on the newsletter maybe pictures on the different sections of your shelves. how you arranged them.
I would love to know who actually shelves their books SPINE IN. I am horrified yet fascinated by that possibility.
I actually am a professional librarian. I have a working knowledge of different systems of classification and cataloguing, and how those interact with a variety of physical (and digital) spaces. But my home library organization? Entirely vibes-based. My partner's books are mostly on the main floor shelves, and mine are mostly on the lower levels of our split-level home, though inevitably some of mine end up intermixed with his and vice versa. My shelves are clusters of loose affiliations, some of which make a certain amount of objective sense (e.g. graphic novels all together, poetry all together) but most of which are based on categories that exist only in my head (books I first read while travelling; books I only have because someone I love loves that book; books that meant a lot to me during certain seasons of my life that I'll probably never read again but were so formative that I keep them almost like holy relics; etc.). No alphabetization, though I mostly do cluster together everything by any single author. Pretty sure my partner's shelves are organized on the same kind of basis. I've never asked. But I like things this way, so on we go.
In other words, I don't think I really have grounds to side-eye the spine-in folks, haha.
I love all of this! Especially grouping books together based on what they meant to you during past moments. I definitely have books like that, but they're scattered throughout the shelf. Sometimes one catches my eye and I'm surprised by the memories it evokes. And I don't think we talk enough about how much vibes comes into play for book selection and organization. It's definitely a guiding principle for me, if it can even be called that. I'm not sure where I heard of or saw the spine-in thing. I think it was an instagram thing, like organizing books by color. But if it works for someone, hey, good for them!
OK. I am absolutely green with jealousy. I am completely obsessed with your library!
One of the reasons why we bought our house was that the previous owner was a librarian so there are built in shelves basically anywhere she could fit them in. We collect our books too so we need the space.
We have three main categories of books in the house - philosophy and other academic books (Kyle has a PhD in philosophy and my degree is in political theory), Kyle’s work books (he teaches history now) and (the biggest category) our fiction collection.
The last time the books were organized was in 2017, before Rumi was born. The moment she starting crawling, her favorite game became pulling books off the shelves and pretending to read them. You would be surprised how quickly your whole system can go to shit at the hands of one dedicated little human.
She is about to turn 8 now and we have finally gotten to a place where we feel like it’s worth putting in the effort into getting things organized. I will say that I have been keeping a Personal Cannon shelf of my favorite books and just added a small shelf near bed to organize my piles (mostly TBR).
Thanks, Petya! We're very proud of our shelves. Before we moved in we had them installed to take up the entire wall because in our previous (tiny) apartment the books were tucked in everywhere we could find room. On Home Depot shelves. In piles along the wall. In piles on the nightstand. It was unmanageable.
I was a philosophy major in college and kept most of the philosophy books I acquired then, but have started to give a few away. A friend was reading Kant, so I have him most of what I had. He started reading Nietzsche, which I had grouped in a specific-memory section (like Prairie Librarian mentioned above), but I let it go as well.
Roughly once a year I look at my side of the shelves and assess what should go and what can stay and what can be reorganized to more efficiently use the space. I have several piles of books that are newly acquired. For the most part, they don't get a formal place on the shelves until I've read them and decide if I want to keep them. It's all too much and not enough at the same time.
People always ask us if we read all these books. And for the most part we acquire books with the aim of reading them. Maybe not the one on the metaphysical roots of particle physics, but just about all the rest lol!
I did not start to keep or buy books until after college (in a small way) and then after Nurse Practitioner school (in a big way). I have an old This Side Up shelf in the living room and office. Living room is organized (in my brain) some read, some unread, gardening books, DVDs and one son’s video games. Office has old nursing texts including a book in which I wrote 2 chapters. During Covid, my husband built a huge book case. This is the most organized, fiction alphabetical by author’s last name and mostly unread. Signed books are in a chest in the bedroom and a cabinet in the living room. Fantastic would be to build shelves on every wall of the office and collect the madness in one spot!
I hear you about having the madness all in one place. That's why we built the big wall-of-books shelf. I have so far resisted the temptation to get smaller shelves to put books elsewhere in the apartment. (I wonder if I can fit one under my desk?)
It's so great that you wrote two chapters in a text book. A piece I wrote years ago for the Village Voice was included in a text book and I always meant to buy a copy but never did. Now I've forgotten what it was called, but sometimes when I'm at a big thrift or used bookstore I imagine I'll find it by accident. That would be a tremendous surprise.
I'm always interested to hear how people organize their books, and I don't think there's a correct way to do it. Whatever brings joy and helps you find what you're looking for or connect to a memory is the way to go!
I keep my books very organized (on bookshelves and also now on built-ins that we're lucky to have in different rooms in our home) but outside of grouping selections from certain genres together, it's really just kind of vibes-based. The genre-based shelves include favorite/highly regarded books about music, by South Asian authors, classics, Agatha Christies and key sci-fi. There are some shelves for knitting books and sheet music. But then I also have books including ones from the previously mentioned genres mixed up with all sorts of other books. The Ikea Expedit shelves that have moved around with me from home to home largely have two horizontal stacks of books on them (one behind the other), the built-ins have books stacked on each other and also neatly arranged the traditional vertical way with spines out. And... somehow I know exactly where to find at least 95% of the books, so I must be doing something that works!
RAD DISHEEEEESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! Hello friend! I think a genre + vibes based system is probably the best. Like you said, it's key to knowing exactly where things are.
New Rad Dishes newsletter soon??
I'm barely cooking these days, my friend! It would be the worst newsletter. I should probably archive the newsletter (is that a thing??) and tweak my username on here :(
I don't know if you can archive a newsletter, but I imagine there must be a way. Or maybe leave it as is in the hope that one day Rad Dishes will cook again!
this bookshelf looks like the stuff of dreams! my boyfriend and i also keep ours separate. we used to have just one bookcase each but both our libraries have increased exponentially. i organize mine with fiction alphabetically by author on one bookcase; then on a large shared bookcase i have a space for nonfiction and for classics, organized alphabetically, and keep publishers together if i have multiple from them - penguin classics are together as well as oxford editions and the vintage imprint of penguin. i also have all my NYRB together, and that’s the largest collection i have from a single publisher, with 10 of those. and of course random piles crop up often of things im currently reading or ones i want to prioritize next and whatnot.
Thanks, Isabella! I love having the NYRB together. It was the first publisher I collected on purpose--I used to have a subscription for years, but then it just became too much so I stopped it. I've since had a mini subscription to Fitzcarraldo, which is one of my current publisher obsessions. That blue binding stands out! Anyway, having NYRB grouped together is great because it's like having a rainbow on your bookshelf. So colorful! I think it's good to have separate collections kept separately. A collection is an expression of one's personality and taste, and should be showcased as such.
the NYRBs are so gorgeous together. i just was gifted my first two fitzcarraldos after wanting some for ages but not springing on the shipping from the UK! I do love that blue binding, it’s so rich! and totally agree on keeping the collections separate. it really is so personal and i love looking over at my shelves and being able to glance my journeys and passions as a reader.
I hear that about the shipping. I always keep an eye out for their random sales. Also, while they are hard to find here they do pop up from time to time at McNally Jackson or the Center for Fiction. In the past, I'd just grab one whenever I saw one, even if I didn't know what it was about. Now I have a whole stack I need to get through. The allure of the blue cover is no joke! Ha!
Living abroad and renting I don't have that many books, so I do the silly thing of organizing them by color. Well, first I divide them by fiction and for non-fiction, then size and color :D
Not silly at all, Luiza! It sounds both practical and colorful, and makes total sense when you've got to keep your collection light and transportable.
Mine aren't organised at all at the moment as we have only a few small temporary shelves while we save to have some built in shelves added. So I have a couple of boxes of books unpacked and all the rest are still in boxes waiting. My criteria for choosing the ones that are unpacked was a) recipe books need to be handy so they are all together and b) I tried to choose ones which I either hadn't yet read or was likely to reread. All my really precious books stayed in the boxes as my toddler is currently fascinated with pulling them off the shelves and 'reading' them, which sometimes involves accidentally removing part of the cover or other damage. He also has a penchant for reshelving them spine-in - I have no idea why. When we eventually get shelves built and can unpack properly, I'll shelve fiction alphabetically and non-fiction by subject I guess - I can't wait for that to happen!
Thanks, Kate! Built-in bookshelves were so worth the time and money for us, so I hope you'll be able to have yours put in soon. It's great to have things organized and also to see your books arrayed before you. Your unboxing system makes total sense. What do you do with the unboxed books after you read them? Do they go back into the box?
Honestly I cannot wait, I so miss seeing them all. It's like missing your old friends. I mostly read on my kindle these days (despite the various issues with them, which I guess Amazon have no incentive to fix, I still find it so helpful to be able to carry around with me) so most of the books on my shelves are either non-fiction or old fiction books that I've loved but already read. There are exceptions though! At the moment all the boxes are buried under further bags of stuff so no rotation will be taking place for a while...
You're so right. Beloved books can very much feel like old friends!
Mine are "organized" by subject. I've got a section for poetry, a section for tarot and esoteric books, a section for old, OLD books, and SEVERAL sections around my room for fiction. But in those sections, they're not at all organized. And sometimes a subject expands outside of its allotted space and has a subsection somewhere else in my shelves. And peppered throughout them are RPG books.
Oh, and there's also a section for paperbacks without covers that I got from the B&N I worked at when we shut down and packed up the whole store.
Yeah, the quotation marks are earned.
I love this system, Justin! It seems very organic, like a plant that just goes where it will--wherever it makes sense and feels right. The key to all book collections!
That's a very apt metaphor, for sure.
Amazing shelves! Shelf envy over here. Mine are organized first by “read” and “not read” and then “fiction” and “non-fiction” and a separate section for instructional/self-helpy/writing craft. There’s no rhyme or reason within the sections, but they’re sort of in the order I read them? My own secret code. Within books I have read, I also have a shelf of books that I will never part with— the ones most important to me personally. Those tend to be organized by genre and grouped by author. It is a wonder I can find anything again yet it works for me!
This is great, Abra! Whatever works for you is the right way to do it!
I love hearing about how readers organize their shelves. I separate fiction, nonfiction, cookbooks, and TBR. All organized by last name except cookbooks, which are generally by cuisine with favorites prioritized for a quick grab.
Thanks, Rhiannon! It's been so much fun to hear how people organize their shelves! Everyone has their own fascinating way to do it.