We’ve finished moving. I have some light cleaning left to do at our old house, a few odds and ends to put away here and all of my books left to unpack. The new house is approximately double the size of our old house. There’s tons of storage, huge rooms and an amazing amount of natural light. It’s wonderful.
Except we gave up a room in moving. Our old house was a 3 bedroom, 2 bath with a den. This new house is a 3 bedroom, 3 bath with a sunroom. The problem with the sunroom is that it’s totally open to the rest of the house. The entire back wall of the house (which is the sunroom) is windows. The inside wall is made up of double glass doors into the living room, a large window into the living room and a huge doorway into the dining room. This leaves me with one full wall (the wall separating the sunroom between the main living area and the master bedroom) of free space for bookshelves – and it isn’t very big.
This is the back wall of the sunroom. I had to angle the shelves in order to make them fit (it was my SIL’s suggestion). I actually like how they look, but..where am I supposed to put the rest of the shelves? I have four more that need to go somewhere.
There’s extra space in the living room where I can set up a reading nook. But it isn’t large enough to hold more than one or two small shelves. So, again..where do I put the rest? The shorter shelves I can line up against the back wall of the sunroom under the windows I guess, but that means buying more shelves since I only have 2 short ones right now. Not that I have a problem with that, but MM might.
That isn’t my only dilemma. I’m also not sure how I should organize them. I used to have a set shelves for my collections (authors I’ve glommed over the years – Linda Howard, Hannah Howell, Lisa Kleypas, etc), one for my keepers that weren’t gloms (maybe just one or two books by the same author), one for my hardcovers/trade paperbacks and a set for my TBR pile/review books. Do I keep them the same way? Since I’ll be using shorter shelves that means less books per shelf. Which means my collections will be spread out farther. Not a big deal, but I like having everything together.
Because I’m nosy and looking for inspiration, how about a quick survey? Feel free to answer the questions here in the comments or on your own site with a link here so I can read it.
1. How do you have your books organized? Do you alphabetize by author, keep your gloms together or jumble them all up in a way only you recognize?
2. Where do you keep your books? Do you have a room for them or are they scattered all over the house?
3. Do you separate your hardbacks and trade paperbacks, or shelve them with your mass market paperbacks?
4. Do you proudly display your books in the main part of the house, or keep them hidden in a closet or bedroom?
5. Like me, do you dream of having a library, like the one in Beauty and the Beast?
My books are a hodgepodge. We have one room we laughingly call The Library but it’s also an office/mudroom. There is one floor to ceiling set of shelves for books but its only about 5 feet wide. On the top shelf are Nora Roberts trilogies, in alpha order by the first book in the series, and some oddball books that are special to me only.
The next three shelves are all Nora Roberts alphabetical, again, by the first title in a series. The HCs are mixed up with the PBs. The next two shelves are what I call collectibles but most people would simply call Keepers. No rhyme or reason there except all books by the same author are kept together.
The next shelf or two (I’m not at home right now) are overflow shelves of books I want to read. Beneath the bottom shelf is a big box full of other books I want to read and a smaller box of things I’ve read to donate to the library.
Downstairs is a small bookshelf that holds books I’ve won or collected that have been signed or autographed to me (with the exception of the Noras which are shelved above).
We have a wall in our living room that we talked about turning into a floor to ceiling shelving for books but we’ve decided to move instead.
One day, I’ll have the library I deserve!
1. How do you have your books organized?
Mine are sorted by author and series! I used to have several hundred books but I’ve cut back due to space issues and now I’ve gone almost all digital. The only books I end up buying at this point are hard covers I want to keep in my forever library.
2. Where do you keep your books?
I have an office that has shelves and that is where my books live right now. I also have boxes of them in the attic that I need to go through over the winter. That’s usually when I sort through the stuff my Mom dumps on me. 🙂
3. Do you separate your hardbacks and trade paperbacks, or shelve them with your mass market paperbacks?
My anal retentiveness means I sort by author, then hardcover to trade to mass market (going down in size). If I have something in a series that in a different format I’ll get obsessive until I find it in the format that fits in my organization system. LOL
4. Do you proudly display your books in the main part of the house, or keep them hidden in a closet or bedroom?
I heart, heart, heart my books and love having them on display. When we finally have our upstairs finished I’ll have some lovely built in shelves where I’ll put my hardcovers.
5. Like me, do you dream of having a library, like the one in Beauty and the Beast? OMG yes! I’d love to have a special reading nook set up just for me too. A leather lounger, good light, soft blanket and a small table for my hot coca.
1. How do you have your books organized? Do you alphabetize by author, keep your gloms together or jumble them all up in a way only you recognize?
A: I put them biggest to smallest. Sometimes I re-arrange them so it’s alphabetized by author though.
2. Where do you keep your books? Do you have a room for them or are they scattered all over the house?
A: I keep them on my half a dozen shelves and boxes in my house and garage.
3. Do you separate your hardbacks and trade paperbacks, or shelve them with your mass market paperbacks?
A: I put them all together!
4. Do you proudly display your books in the main part of the house, or keep them hidden in a closet or bedroom?
A: Hidden!
5. Like me, do you dream of having a library, like the one in Beauty and the Beast?
A: I want one bigger, with a spiral staircase and everything! Don’t get me going!
1. How do you have your books organized?
A: First, I organize by author. I use http://www.Fictiondb to help me organize the author’s series and then by their non-series books according to the date published.
2. Where do you keep your books? A: Don’t hate me but I purchased a schrunk when stationed overseas and one of the pieces is a bookshelf cabinet but http://www.getorganizednow.com can give you alot of ideas
3. A: Any book separation (be it hard/softback) is strictly by author
4. Do you proudly display
A: Right now all of my wanna reads are stacked on my pc desk shelf. When I am reading a series, the entire series is stacked on the side of my bed cause I’m lazy like that.
5. Like me, do you dream of having a library, like the one in Beauty and the Beast?
A: Absolutely! Who would not want a library like that but first I’ll have to have a mansion built to house the library but before that I’ll have to make enough money to be able to build the mansion but before that I’ll have to find a job. Being unemployed is the pits!
1. How do you have your books organized? Do you alphabetize by author, keep your gloms together or jumble them all up in a way only you recognize? Mine are organized in a hodge podge way with the main separation being what I want to read and what I have read. My fave (addiction authors) are in the living room and the rest in my bedroom. The biggest part of my organization is that I place all books by the same author together.
2. Where do you keep your books? Do you have a room for them or are they scattered all over the house?
Books are always scattered in my house lol however, my faves are mainly on shelves next to my desk in the living room. The rest are in my bed room. I have five bookshelves and only 550 sq ft to work with lol.
3. Do you separate your hardbacks and trade paperbacks, or shelve them with your mass market paperbacks? My paperbacks are separated from my hardbacks.
4. Do you proudly display your books in the main part of the house, or keep them hidden in a closet or bedroom? My addictions are proudly displayed in the front room the rest are in the bedroom.
5. Like me, do you dream of having a library, like the one in Beauty and the Beast? YES YES a thousand times YES lol
Since we also recently moved, I’ve had to consider some of the same issues. I’ve been lucky that I have plenty of space and bookshelves in the new place. However, my issue has been with the fact that the office/library is upstairs, and not handy for casual perusal when I want to grab a new book to read.
Even though my other place was smaller (much, much smaller) I really liked that I could sit in the living room directly adjacent to my tbr shelf. It was conducive to lots of time spent pondering what I’m going to read next. Running up and down the stairs in the new place? Not so much.
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to take a small narrow shelf and keep it in my bedroom. On it, I’ll have my library books, books for review, and top-of-the-tbr books. Of course, not ALL my tbr will fit, but at least the top 50 or so will.
Typically, I organize by genre. Both my guy and I are big readers, and we have “our” books, his books, and my books. Amer lit in one area, Brit lit in another, and so on. For my books, they are also according to pnr, contemp romance, historical, etc. The only time I separate mmpb/trades/hc is when the shelf only allows a certain size.
The beauty and the beast library would be awesome! 😉
If you have bookshelves you don’t want, you could drop them off here. Not sure where I’d put them, but…. my kids don’t need beds, do they?
We have an entertainment center still (small TV. A dying breed) and it has some shelves on one side with doors. I have my books in there 3 deeps and wedged on top. The top shelf has a space for library books, books I own that I haven’t read yet are piled on top above that, books I own that I’m not keeping are piled at the other end.
Then I have a small bookcase with 3 shelves, about 4 by 4 feet. It’s 2 deep with books wedged on top.
I’m asking for bookshelves for Xmas.
Oh, and the ones in the entertainment center are the cream of the keepers, the others are ones that I don’t freak out about as much when the toddler pulls them all out (sigh). They used to be pretty well-organized, but… toddler you know.
I’ve got one large book case, and a TV table with two long shelves underneath it for my collection. Both of which are housed in my bedroom. I also have three Rubbermaid totes stuffed in a closet – one for Harlequins, one for keepers, one for “recent acquistions.”
For a librarian, my books aren’t organized very well. I have separate shelves for trade paperbacks and hard covers. The mass markets are shelved by sub genre. But nothing is alphabetized. The shame! The horror! Most of the time, if I’m looking for a specific book, I can usually narrow down where it is. But sometimes? Yeah, digging is required.
I definitely dream of having a library a la Beauty and the Beast!! At the moment my bookshelves are in my bedroom and I alphabetise by author’s surname hardbacks and paperbacks together – admittedly though i do not have many hardbacks. Need more shelves though as i have taken over those of my husband and kids too.
1. How do you have your books organized? Do you alphabetize by author, keep your gloms together or jumble them all up in a way only you recognize?
Yeah, that last one. lol Actually on my TBR shelves there’s really no rhyme or reason but on the one’s I’ve read I try to keep authors together.
2. Where do you keep your books? Do you have a room for them or are they scattered all over the house?
All in my office. When that gets full it’s time to weed through the books and figure out if I REALLY want to keep each one.
3. Do you separate your hardbacks and trade paperbacks, or shelve them with your mass market paperbacks?
Yes, but only because some of the shelves are higher than others and they fit.
4. Do you proudly display your books in the main part of the house, or keep them hidden in a closet or bedroom?
Not hidden – anyone who goes into the office can see them…and be amazed at the quantity. 🙂
5. Like me, do you dream of having a library, like the one in Beauty and the Beast?
Oh honey, yes. Never having to give books away – a dream. lol
I organize my books by author, then series. There’s a special shelf directly above my bed for my fave keepers. I started out with all my books on display (I too dream of a B&tB library!) but quickly ran out of space so had to come up with ways to store them all.
Awhile back I got rid of most of my video tapes leaving several VHS cabinets empty. They used to hold 20 VHS tapes but I found they also hold just as many (more if Harlequin size!) paperbacks. Photo boxes are also the right size for most paperbacks, can be stacked and 4-5 usually fit per shelf. They’re labelled by author and a heck of a lot easier to dust than individual books!
For the books not in boxes, I horizontally double-stack using up as much of each shelf as possible. These stacks are all by author so I know whatever’s “hiding” in the back is by the same author as the front stack.
And to avoid the ‘OMG where did I put that book’ frantic search I even created an inventory list that keeps track of where I stashed each book. It also serves as my reading list so it’s in constant use and comes in handy when I’m buying new books and want to avoid duplicates.
This makes me sound much more organized than I really am!
1. Unfortunately, my books are jumbled in a way that only I can recognize. I wish they were more organized.
2. My books are stacked in piles or stored in boxes around my room.
3. I don’t separate my books by their covers.
4. My books are in my bedroom.
5. It would be pretty neat to have a library like the one in Beauty and the Beast, which happens to be one of my favorite movies.
Diana