a question about books. part two.

September 17, 2009

there has been a brief twitter discussion regarding this, but it demands a bit more attention.
how should books be arranged?






two methods not listed:
by subject and by the dewey decimal system.
(he was my archenemy in elementary school.)

it's a bit of a conundrum, isn't it?

photos via flickr.

5 notes:

  1. They're all wrong. It's by size. They go from tallest to smallest. That's how my Richard Scarry, Tomi Ungerer, Sesame Street (old school, pre-Elmo Sesame Street, thank you very much....Back when it was cool), Charlie Brown and Calvin and Hobbes books are lined up downstairs.
    So size. Not color. It looks pleasing, but I think I'd get sick of it. Plus, I'd find myself buying/not buying books based on color. "I can't get this book, I already have too much green..." etc

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  2. generally, my problem with any of the systems is that i can't find what i'm looking for. (maybe the problem really is that i'm not sure what i'm looking for!)

    i'm about to undergo a book reorganization project, but i only want to do it once. that's my goal. get it right on the first try. (of course, this is probably the third or fourth try, but that was awhile ago and no longer counts. it doesn't count, right?)

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  3. Mine are currently organized by subject area. My childrens books are in a spare bedroom. My school books related to my field are in the study. My school books not related to my field (I never could sell them back) are in the spare bedroom with the kids books. My inherited antique books are in the bookcase in the den on display.

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  4. By subject area for sure. So I can find what I am looking for. And then by size. so it looks tidier. Someone in my hosue keeps putting books away randomly and it drives me crazy. At least they're getting put away...

    Oh, and I devour, too. I get too excited to savour.

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  5. well here i am swimming against the flow of traffic. i ended up going alphabetically for enforced randomness!

    when i tried color i could never remember what color the book i was looking for was... it had a green cover but a blue spine. when i tried subject, i was miffed at the less attractive sections. (plus somehow managed to lump together books i was balking at reading for no good reason.)

    but so far i'm quite chuffed with my alphabetical arrangement.

    and yes, i spent a very wild friday night alphabetizing my book collection. i did have a glass of wine. so crazy.)

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