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I have some large books, too, Karibear, and they are always a challenge to get on a shelf. I have a wonderful three-shelf table between the wing back chairs in my family room, and it seems to be perfect for some of those 'coffee table' books -- I mean, how many can I stack on a coffee table? We also have some shelves that I am sure were meant for a TV, also in the family room, but they are perfect, too, for large and/or heavy books, and sets of books.
Have you noticed how some bookcases have absolutely no depth to them?
Anyway, some good ideas here on organizing books. I guess I did better with mine than what I had thought. Still, I have to hunt for titles a lot of times.
Oh, yeah. That's why he built them, so there was some depth. Some of the shelves were 1"x8"s, some were 1"x12"s, and in the middle of the one in the living room - it wasn't a bookcase so much as a wall of shelves for media - there was a record player [remember those?] and on one of the bottom shelves hundreds of LPs. The cassette decks and tapes were in other parts of the house, as well as the CDs. Some of the smallest of the 'big' books I had were several hardback copies of various of Conran's books, The House Book, The Kitchen Book, and so on. As for the stray paperbacks, the ones that wouldn't fit on shelves any more - there were just too many - I stuffed into doubled grocery bags, the plastic ones mostly, with one author per bag. So if I knew who wrote a book, I wouldn't have to search for it, all I'd have to do is find a bag and go through it. All of our bookshelves covered an entire wall, except the ones in the kitchen, and those ran along the top, above other shelves and refrigerators. Yes, we had 2 refrigerators, too.
I can finally answer this question because I just did it:
- art books (separated by sub-topic) and alphabetized (mostly oversized) in the office
- non-fiction avocational interests
- literature, poetry and prose (alphabetized)
- non-fiction professional
- science fiction (mostly paper-backs) by author
And I need one more book-case so that I can stretch a bit.
I organize by type and author. After I read a book, I only keep it if I want to read it again. For the books that get loaned out, I try to make a copy of it and write the person's name,phone number and date on the copy and stick it on the shelf. If I am concerned about getting it back, I put it in my pending file for two wks and then call them. I fugre if they haven't read it in two wks, they won't. I have a client that is a bookaholic (she loves books and has a hard time parting with any) She has book cases in most rooms of her house (the billie bookcases from ikea are great because you can put glass doors on them) Each room houses different types of books. Pick up the library labels (levenger.com) that slide on the shelves and you will never wonder where to look for that special book.
I sold most of mine and I'm trying to keep mine to a minimum to downsize, I started using the library a lot and recently got a samsung 7" tablet that I love. My ultimate goal is to go "tiny living" so a lot of books don't fit into that life style.
But when I did have a lot of books I did it by author.
No real system aside from separating fiction and non-fiction onto mutually exclusive shelves. And within fiction, devoting one entire bookcase to genre fiction (spy, crime, SF).
All the other fiction is arranged by shelf according to a variety of factors: favorites, nationality, publisher, style.
Mine are sorted by size. I built my shelves for CDs and other stuff. I have one shelf of small books, one of medium size, some crates of large, and more in boxes under the bed.
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] and on one of the bottom shelves hundreds of LPs. The cassette decks and tapes were in other parts of the house, as well as the CDs. Some of the smallest of the 'big' books I had were several hardback copies of various of Conran's books, The House Book, The Kitchen Book, and so on. As for the stray paperbacks, the ones that wouldn't fit on shelves any more - there were just too many - I stuffed into doubled grocery bags, the plastic ones mostly, with one author per bag. So if I knew who wrote a book, I wouldn't have to search for it, all I'd have to do is find a bag and go through it. All of our bookshelves covered an entire wall, except the ones in the kitchen, and those ran along the top, above other shelves and refrigerators. Yes, we had 2 refrigerators, too.
