How do you sort your books? I realize this is sort of an anal question but I figure I am speaking to the right people ;).
I was given a bookshelf for xmas – really got it early. Then right before xmas 🙂 same aunt who bought the bookshelf, ended up with another! wwwwwwwwhhhhhhheeeeee And gave it to me.
Very cool sez I. So it has been sitting empty (the new new one) in the livingroom while I try and decide how I want to put up my books. Which leads to – god I really really need to track what I own, trade, sell and like/dislike – which leads to what data system to use – which leads to visions of stealing rosario’s excel sheet – which leads to omg that would still be so much fucking work – which leads to shit I need to finish those reviews – which leads to crap there are 10 blog drafts to get done, which leads to omg I have emails half done to send – which leads to nope in the world cares about the above by me so I just shutting off my brain because I can’t think and or finish jack. And this is just the book part of my rambling mind (you know the hobby) not even including books to trade, USPS and yahoo group.
But today was D-Day (which really makes the 31st thing a pissmeoffIdon’twanttofuckwiththispleasegofuckyourselfandleavemealone issue – blog to come after sometime in feb 😉 ) and my mark to start working on the stacks of to do lists, I am not going to take the easy way out and use crap as an excuse. So we lead back to the question ;). And prolly an annoying question and one I see on message boards and such but never really paid attention to.
Sorry… hey I could be asking about who you think should play those Robb character’s in a movie.
How do you sort your books?
Right now I am focusing on the Harlequin’s. Do you group by line? By author? By line and by issue number? By line and by series?
I am thinking, I will do by line then author. But since I love to collect backlists – maybe I should do by author. But other than HH there aren’t many in the other lines. I have found with the blaze and temptation lines, I like the same authors… so I am mostly collecting old and new Karen Anderson, Lori Foster, Alison Kent, Jo Leigh, Isabel Sharpe, Jamie Sobrato, Vicki Lewis Thompson, and Nancy Warren with a few others here and there to try. And I own ONE American – Carol Finch who I own 7 HH’s. I own a about 7? lines because I wanted to try a few different ones but when I looked into them there are a couple that just so don’t interest me. LOL and I do have a blog started on each line I plan to put up at some point… not that anyone really prolly cares but me.
Anywho I think with the colors and such mixing lines would look way ugly. la la la I know nothing I do is set in stone but I was wondering what others did. Or if I was the only fucking crazy person who even gave it much thought.
I’ll jump in because I just recently completely rearranged my books. I had them alphabetically by author but switched to collection size by author, largest to smallest. Strictly alphabetically may sound like it makes books easier to locate but the new way puts favorites that I reread a lot together within easy reach of each other.
When I have many books by an author, I do author, then line for category books. Don’t much care about colours, because my shelves are already such a hodge-podge, though. For those one-hit wonders, I keep the books by line.
And do not even THINK of asking the J.D. Robb casting question! That’s penalized by removal from my bloglines roll!
If I say it depends on how your brain works will your head implode?
I decided almost a year ago to alphabetize my books. I have never been so freaked out by my bookshelves in all my life.
I can have books by one author grouped together but putting them in any sort of order wigs me out. Not sure what that says about me.
I used to visit my books every other day. Now, I don’t go into the room unless I know exactly what I am going in there for.
Yes, I am going to mess up the shelves but, dusting and cleaning must start first. Dang floors need to be sanded and stained – maybe then I will want to be in there again.
Wow, this became a boo-frickin’-hoo post by me.
So, to sum up – Know thy self.
Yeah, I’ll fuck off now 😉
CindyS
I categorize (but some books are tricky to categorize – ie does an anthology of poetry about the devil belong in the poetry section, or religion) and then I alphabetize within each category.
And then I rip it apart and do it all over about every six month.
Glad to hear there are people who are as anal about these things as I am! Thanks!
Beverly:oohhhhhhhh when I think of how many books you have that much suck to rearrange 😉
Ro: you know color doesn’t bother me except for the Harlequins. Which I decided would go on one of the two shelves in my bedroom. Of course, turns out they don’t all fit…
cindy: Your library and the work you will have to do makes me feel better ;). Then again I am not an animal person and never ever ever ever would have given the room with all the BOOKS! to the dogs ;).
Reese : The anthologies! I am stuck with them right now. It is sad the amount of thinking I have put into this…
I arrange by fave reads and then sort of by author, but I’ve seen Harlequins done by line and number order at the UBS. Makes it easier to find books, that way.
I’m totally anal – I have all the walls of the upstairs hallway lined with paperback sized bookcases.
The books are sorted by author then title with anthologies at the end.
Even the books I’m selling are sorted that way!
I’ve not gotten interested enough to play with the book database idea I was thinking of though. Too little time.
Just a couple of follow-up comments since the discussion is still going (G):
On anthologies – during the rearranging process and while I had the anthologies, which I count as an author collection all on their own, off the shelves, I shuffled them around a bit as an experiment thinking I might reshelve them as a group by number of stories in the book rather than alpha by title. Very interesting and eye-opening exercise because I surprised that there was a fairly even balance between two, three, four and even five story anthologies.
On databases: I used to have Byron but several years ago switched to Readerware which is a really great and economical database with the ability to directly download book info, including prices, off the web from bookstore sites like Amazon, B&N, etc. Check it out at:
http://www.readerware.com/index.html