Freestyle Fridays: Bookshelves - You're Doing it Wrong
The day of anything goes.
*****
Let's talk about bookshelves. Bookshelves are a marvelous invention. They hold a lot of stuff but take up very little space. You can store all kinds of things on bookshelves. Plants, collections, office supplies, craft supplies, music collections, boxes and baskets and of course books. (Insert angel singing.)
As a bibliophile, I love books. And I love to see my books. I have book shelves all over filled with lovely books of all kinds of shapes, sizes, and colors.
There's something about books that is warm and inviting and as long as I have books I will never die because I have to read them all.
The most important thing about having bookshelves of books, is that they be organized. Having books all over the place like they're having a wild drunken sex party is immoral. You have to show them a little respect. You need to be able to find them. They shouldn't be promiscuous. I may not be able to find my favorite frying pan, but if I'm thinking of a book I know I have, I can lay my hand on it in minutes. Now bear in mind, it is perfectly acceptable to allow your books to mingle with figurines, and candlesticks, and various other pieces of decor. I am not a total prude. I had a conversation with my daughter who was complaining about her sister-in-law moving things around in her kitchen... Her: "I had to move them back."
Me: "Well, tell her when she comes to visit she can organize my kitchen any way she pleases."
Her: "Mom, it would be like someone moving your books around." Me: "Well, that would be wrong. Heads would roll." Her: "Exactly."
So I thought I would go through the right way and the wrong way to organize your bookshelves. I am aware that it is your books and your bookshelves and how you do it is entirely up to you and if you do it completely wrong, that is your business and I will try not to have a panic attack if I see Louisa May Alcott canoodling with Stephen King.
First example...
Well, ain't this purdy. You can organize by color! A rainbow of books. Of course you would have to get rid of the books with multicolored spines - like the original Harry Potter books because where would those go? And if you have a series with different colored covers then you can just have that series all over the place having parties in all the wrong places.
So there goes that Alan Bradley series with his Flavia Deluce books that come in colors of green and mustard and purple. Flavia will not have a home because she'll be all over the place.
And forget about putting all the books from the same author together unless all their books are the same color which hardly ever happens unless you're Stephenie Meyer.
I guess it works if your books are merely decoration and you don't actually read them. Or...or...you read books by color. "I think I want to read a yellow book today."
Organizing by color works for your quilting fabric stash.
But it's wrong for books. Buzzer sound.
Then there's this...
So what is happening here? It's according to size. Now to be fair, sometimes you do need to put those big heavy books on the bottom, and some books are too tall for some shelves, but making waves with your books?
It's fine if you manage to get a series of matching books, but I can tell you, sometimes that doesn't happen. Sometimes you even end up with...gasp...a series where you have a mix of hardback and paperback.
It's annoying. Personally I like my series to match, but sometimes it just doesn't happen.
And there you go having Jane Austen canoodling with Terry Brooks. Which I guess is fine if you send Elizabeth and Darcy to some magic kingdom with witches.
This one gets a buzzer too.
And then there's this horror...
Do you see this?
The books are BACKWARDS!!!
Who on earth thought this was a good idea?
It must have been the beige people. They wanted beige books on beige shelves against the beige walls and the beige floors and the beige furniture.
The idea of color freaks them out.
Look, I see the allure of organizing by color. If it doesn't matter to you what the books are then at least it's pretty. And I can see organizing by size in certain cases. But putting your books backwards is just wrong. How do you find anything!?! It is so disrespectful to the books. You're telling them to hide their faces. That's what it is. It's like if your children came into the room and you told them to turn around so that no one can see their face. Think about how that would make them feel.
Books have announcements to make. They make it on their covers and their spines.
You are censoring your books!
Or maybe you're just hiding them. You want people to know you read, but you don't want people to know what you read.
This one gets me making the buzzer sound like a demented chimpanzee playing with a toy.
So now we've established what is wrong. Let's talk about what is right.
And yes, I am claiming rightness. I like to not have my face twitch at the wrongness of having the Hunger Games all over the bookshelves and more canoodling this time between Charles Dickens and Erma Bombeck.
There are several options and I use a mix of these.
First I organize by fiction versus non-fiction. Non-fiction then gets organized by subject - crafts, biography, history, spiritual, medieval torture etc. I even further organize my craft books by what kind of craft books. Needlework, knitting, porcupine quilling - you get it. Like the library. Fiction gets organized by genre. Mystery, fantasy, historical, Christian, classics, children, romance, books that can't be pigeonholed, etc. Then it gets organized alphabetically by last name of author. Of course you can skip the genres and organize by author and that's fine too and I've done it but I find I like putting my novels in genres first. Now, there are exceptions which are up to you individually. You can organize further into sub-genres. You can decide that your C.S. Lewis books go all together even though that's mixing genres. You can choose to put your series books all in one section. I have my various girls series all together - Nancy Drew, Trixie Beldon, Judy Bolton. If you know an author has two or more pen names, like JK Rowling does, you may choose to put all those books together. I have all my Agatha Christies together, but along with them I have Mary Westmacott (who is Agatha Christie) an Agatha Christie companion book (non-fiction), and a biography. The Oz books are written by several people but they belong together. I have a section that focuses on my craft books, but I also have my fiction crafting books there. Yes, believe it or not, there is a subcategory of fiction craft books where murders are solved in between knitting sweaters and sewing quilts. (Note - my Marina Colleen series is something like that - so far there's a needlework shop, a yarn shop, and an art store). Or you might divide up your fantasy section between space fantasy, sword fantasy, and dystopia. Or you can divide up your mystery section between cozies and police procedurals. Or you might decide to put your true crime with your mystery section even though it's mixing fiction with non-fiction. I even have a section devoted to Christmas which is a mix of genres. You get to decide what your genres are! There's no right or wrong there as long as it makes sense and doesn't cause my face to twitch and all the spines are facing so you can read them. That's the right way to do it. Yes, I'm a snob about it. I admit it. But I know where all my books are and I bet you evil people who put your books backwards don't.
Books are great designer decor. But that's not their main purpose. Have your room beautifully put together, but let your bookshelves be a riot of color and flavor and texture. They are tasted and savored best that way.
Don't be a beige person.
Comments