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I'm switching rooms and just realized that I'll have to sort my bookshelf - but there are so many ways to do it! By author, title, genre, colour, read/unread, language, paperback/hardcover etc. This made me interested in how other people do it.

How is your bookshelf sorted?

By genre and then by author as far as possible.

Mine is sorted by author, then title.

My sister has a pile for unread and a bin on the shelf for read. I don't know how she finds anything; it's a mess.

By size of the book, my bookshelf doesn't have fixed height. And by the time I read it.

I sort one of mine by height, mostly. There are a few short ones that are in the middle of some tall ones, but I've no idea why. Another is by general subject matter, but those are mostly learning-books. My other bookshelves are by author.

Author then Title

Color coded.

Mine are sorted by size (some un-moveable shelves), then fiction / non-fiction, then by author. That's mainly how I do it.

Genre, author, title

Language, size, genre, author, series, title

Reverse isbn

We have books scattered through the house. I let the missus organize them; she likes to try and make them match the room decor, the particular shelf, etc. There are some series that are put together; for example, there is a particular shelf with Penguin books as they are very similar, my Donna Leon's are together, etc. It makes for a nice mix. I follow along and note where every book is in the house and then add the location to my Access book list database. :0)

I sort books because I used to work as a librarian and have a thing for sorting books. Besides, the language division lets visitors know what shelves they would find it expedient to graze by. In Reality they are sorted by "I -always- keep track of my books".

I used to to divide between read/non-read and keep my read english novels in one bookcase , and my read Dutch novels and all the encyclopedias/assorted non-fiction novels in the other.

Now I just seperate fiction from non-fiction and sorted the fiction by the last names of their authors and the non-fiction according to genre (Recipe books, encyclopedia, weird the power of crystals/body language books). Having said that there are also piles of to read books littered around my room. The books I use/need for my Study are on two seperate shelves near my desk and contains both fiction and non-fiction, which are ordered according to use (finished subjects up top, ongoing down low ;))

Genres (in the broad novels, poetry, drama sense) go together. Series go together.
All other considerations are purely aesthetic. I have a pretty good sense memory for where things are so I don't need them organised any better than that.

I split them first by paperback and hardback and tend to clump the similar genres in the same vicinity. For example, fantasy/scifi has their own 3 shelves to themselves and steampunkesque books are close by. From there I go by height order (tallest-shortest usually) and I tend to keep them separated by author.

I do basically what Pauline does, except I don't like steampunk enough to own many/any steampunk books. >.> Fiction and non-fiction are generally separate, and I try to keep the Minneapolis and related authors close together. (Lois McMaster Bujold, Caroline Stevermer, Delia Sherman, Ellen Kushner, Steven Brust, Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, Pamela Dean, possibly others I'm forgetting. And others who are deliberately omitted because I don't own any of their books.)

I have one 5-shelf bookcase set aside for speculative fiction of all kinds. I currently have hardcovers and trade paperbacks filed together by author on the 4 bottom shelves. The top shelf has spec-fic mass market paperbacks stacked by author (instead of filed on-edge.) (Exception to this pattern: Roger Zelazny and Connie Willis have both the larger formats and the small mass markets filed together, taking most of one shelf between them, because I have ended up owning so many of their works over the years. It bugged me to split their books up on different shelves, so I do it this way, even though it messes with my format and looks "off" to me.)

I have a smaller 3-shelf bookcase with one shelf dedicated to graphic novels, one shelf dedicated to "literary fiction", and one shelf for my current library check-outs.

I have a larger bookshelf with classics, non-fiction, cookbooks, reference books, and things I want to swap or donate, currently sorted loosely by genre. (I need to re-organize this beast.)

Then, because like many readers I don't have enough space, I have a few series runs filed on a set of shelves that mostly holds DVDs.

Used to be alphabetical by author. Now it's haphazard.

Kinda like this method, though:

Right now I'm read/non-read, just so I can navigate TBR Mountain with more efficiency. Not that it's helping deal with The Great Unread, but a girl can dream.

By broad genres (fiction/non fiction (which in turn is sorted by genre)/poetry/GNs), then alphabetically by author, and chronologically by title (from earliest work to latest), unless it is a series, they always stand together. I also have a shelf of unread fiction as a sort of inbox, but my goal is to read everything in that pile and only buy books as I'm ready to read them.

I think it's safe to say I have an inner librarian.

I've got limited space and pressure not to expand so I've been rearranging to fit the space I have.

Right now I've got it arranged on two bookshelves. The first has all of my finished/favorite series (Harry Potter, A Song of Ice and Fire, Tolkien, Dresden Files) and it just so happens these account for almost all of my hardcover books.

Therefore I tend to put hardcover and mass market paperbacks together.

Then it is by genre (sci-fi and fantasy are separate) and then by author and series. For instance, I've got almost all of the Foundation series and related books by Isaac Asimov together. Any other Asimov books get put together in front of them so as to not disrupt the "order".

My inner librarian has no idea what its going to do next though ;)

Bill wrote: "We have books scattered through the house. I let the missus organize them; she likes to try and make them match the room decor, the particular shelf, etc. There are some series that are put togethe..."

At the attached you can see for the most part how books are organized in our house. The first couple of pictures are from when I was on my own, but the remainder give you some ideas of the bookshelves and storage in our current home.

Bill, it really looks cool what the carpenter did for you! :)

Rita wrote: "Bill, it really looks cool what the carpenter did for you! :)"

Thanks Rita. He was super and such a nice guy.

Fiction/Nonfiction. Then hardcover/paperback. Then genre, author, title.

I have groups of authors but mostly it's where I can find an empty spot as there are more books than shelving for them.

Bill, I'm moving in! My books live on two sets of 6-shelf cases and 6 shelves that are fixed to the wall. The wall ones on the stair well are pretty random; non-fiction, couple of series and one-offs. The two bookcases were organised in author but as they both moved rooms back in Autumn when I decorated and then helped me add info in the Amazon event, they bacame very random. Now they ae read and unread shelves but completely all over. Authors in different rooms... Colour sounds good.

I've been downsizing and my bookcase was damaged in my last move, so my remaining books are just stacked haphazardly in the corners of my room. I'm not terribly organized.

I sort by author, but now you all have me wanting o be a little kooky and make my bookshelves look like a rainbow, or something else whimsical!

Helen wrote: "Bill, I'm moving in! My books live on two sets of 6-shelf cases and 6 shelves that are fixed to the wall. The wall ones on the stair well are pretty random; non-fiction, couple of series and one-of..."

Your shelves sound pretty good too, Helen. I love a house filled with books.

Book shelf porn.

Book shelf porn. Not porn on book shelves, but book shelves AS porn.

Just as an interesting aside... I once heard (perhaps read) a story about a salesman who really thought outside the box. Sometime in the middle part of the 20th century (I vaguely recall it was just after WW2) he was hired by publishers to get people to buy more books. Instead of coming up with a campaign to promote reading, he instead approached home builders and convinced them to include built-in bookshelves in houses. They did and it worked: people needed something to fill those shelves up and book sales increased.

I don't know if it's a true story or not, but I want it to be true because it's so brilliant.

Mine are sorted by (base) genre, then author, and further by series order (if that applies). I got to the point many years ago that the second thing I checked when picking a book of the shelves of the bookstore was copyright date. For authors I read, if it wasn't in the last year, chances are it was already on my shelves at home (about 500 linear feet of same - reason I now have a Kindle) and joined GR (cataloging my collection).

I wish I didn't totally fail at taking pictures and putting them on my computer, because Friday a friend who is an amazing carpenter just finished building us an entire wall of bookshelves just for paperbacks for our attic.

Yes, it took us getting flooded out of our live- in basement not once but twice in ten days* last fall -- and our entire house was inhabitable for three months and now we can't put anything in our basement that we don't mind losing, but our attic is going to be spectacular.

Trike, it was during WW2 that publishers got into paperback books; the books were cheap, fit into a fatigue jacket, and were handed out by publishers like cigarettes were to soldiers to get them into the habit of reading. So getting builders to put bookshelves in those Levittown- like houses all over the country just makes sense...

* That would be Hurricane Irene & TS Lee.

I used to do it by genre but now I just do it alphabetically, although my non-fiction is kept in a separate bookshelf.

Considering since I got my Kindle several years ago I've sold or donated all but a couple dozen volumes that barely take up a shelf, I don't really worry about organizing.

So I guess my answer is: in the diaper bag, in my purse, or in my work bag depending on the day. There is the occasional house hunt when I can't remember where I left it.

*shudder* I can't imagine selling all of my books. I like my Kindle and iPad well enough, as it goes, but I like the presence of a paper volume. In many cases books I've enjoyed on the Kindle or other e-reader I make a point to purchase as a hard copy. I also have a sickness that drives me to purchase fancy, hardcover, ornate editions of classics...

All this not to mention that, as an Orthodox Jew, the Kindle or iPad is out of the question on the Sabbath - so I doubt I should ever get rid of my paper books.

It's not for everyone, but I doubt most people had to give up the "office" to make it a nursery. So it comes down to "keep book collection" or "make room for toddler and his toys". So now my "office" is covered with Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends and all my lovely hardbacks went to the bookseller.

I have two shelves, but I really need three. One shelf is hardcovers, school books, bibles, religious texts, cookbooks, and then lower are the classics and just general fiction. The other shelf is done loosely by genre, bottom shelf is children's books, next shelf up is general fiction, next is romance, and the first shelf is my favorites which are the paranormal/PA fiction books. Other then that they're all shoved on there in any way they fit, stacked 2 deep in a ridiculous fashion that means you have to remove the whole shelf to see where the book you want is. I try to keep authors together, but nothing beyond that, although I may alphabetize later when we move and I hopefully have room for another shelf.

If it weren't for the fact that I am naturally OCD (a friend once tormented me by putting a pen across a table diagonally, and waiting to see how long it would take me to straighten it) I'd probably opt for the associative sorting method, or the 'I-remember-where-my-books-are-thanks' method.

By height and series