Oh, my Stephen King books are arranged by the band of color on the spine of the
My books are arranged according to a complicated formula involving size, type, subject and author…
Err. That is to say that I just put them wherever looks right. 
I tend to keep books by the same author together, books of vaguely similar size on the same shelf, and all the books of roughly similar subjects on a shelf tend to clump together.
The problem is that my books and bookshelves are all of widely varying size, and I typically have about half again as many books as I have space for them on the shelves, so trying to impose much of an order is pretty futile.
Take a deep breath.
My non-sf books are arranged randomly. I have over 5,000 sf books and magazines. The magazines go by themselves, in order of title and date (using the most common title when it has changed during the run) except for non-digest magazines, which go into special magazine holders. These are things like the early-60s large Analogs, my Unknowns, and a scattering of '30s and '40s pulps.
My books are split into several categories. The first and largest are the novels and one author short story collections. Next come Ace Doubles, of which I have about 50. These are arranged by publisher’s number, with the older ones coming first. Next are series anthologies I have more than 3 of. Finally come the anthologies. After that come books on science fiction, such as bios and author interview, then some pseudo-science books, like UFO books, then real science books.
Trade pbs are separated, and sorted using a somwhat similar scheme, but with more of a size component. Hardcovers are also sorted similarly.
For a couple of years I had all my paperbacks sorted by publisher and publisher’s number. (I knew someone who kept his collection this way.) It was fun, because you could see the evolution of cover design, but I had to go to my card index anytime I wanted to find a book, so it became a pain.
Bet you’re sorry you asked.
I wanted to arrange my books by subject, but after a lot of indecision and second-guessing, I used the Library of Congress number on the copyright page. They know best, I figure.
I sort mine by genre and then by author (not necessarily alphabetically though) so that I have a rough idea where to find what kind of book. The middle shelf of each bookcase is reserved for the tallest/heaviest books as it’s easier to get hold of them rather than having to reach down to the bottom for them.
At the moment I’ve got books stacked two deep on some shelves so when the house renovations are finished, it’ll be time to go bookcase shopping again.
I could always stop buying books, but where’s the fun in that?
Hardcovers together, trade paperbacks together and oversized books together. All are in alphabetical order by author.
I do have about 250-300 books I bought since the last time I shelved - they’re stacked on top of the shelves in no order. I need to get another bookcase. Damn used bookstore down the block, feeding my addiction.
Like the library, for the most part.
Fiction and non-fiction are separated, and then fiction is alphabetical by author, and chronological within each author’s grouping.
Non-fiction is grouped alphabetically by subject, and then within each subject, alphabetical by author.
First, sorted by size & cover - mainly because of the limited bookshelf space that I have, doing it this way lets me fit everything in.
Then within each type, I sort by author, series (if applicable) and title. This lets me find things quickly - the only problem is that I don’t always put things back as I should.
No kidding. I’ve got 2 or 3 near me. Plus a couple of thrift stores that have $1 books in unbelieveably good condition. Can’t even drive past 'em without going in.
Oh Oh Oh!!! why didn’t I catch this thread before. My wife and I are avid bibliophiles!! we’ve thousands of books. Please look at our Bible …
Living with books. Its a great text with hundreds of ideas. I have built every book shelf we have, some into walls, around walls, in coffee tables, from the ceiling…you name it. When people come over they always comment on our book shelves, very eclectic.
Great thread!
I do mine by “Favorites”. First, my favorite writer’s and their books are put together, starting left to right. Then, when it gets to the single books I own, by favorites again. I try to also keep same genres on the same shelf, but sometimes you have to cross due to space constraints. And for some reason, when it comes to the single books, favorites go from right to left.
So, yeah…basically, I have no real structure…
I was confronted with this issue last year after building a library. One thing I’d done in construction of the bookshelves was to vary the shelf height in a couple of areas for both smaller and larger books, the paperbacks and the “picture/coffee” books.
These shelves I populated first and the subjects are mixed throughout. The rest are grouped by subject, with those I reference most frequently more available and at eye level. All the novels are together and seperated into action, mystery, romance etc with a particular author’s works grouped together. Philosophical, religious, medical, gardening, professional and legal works are grouped accordingly.
Then there’s all the encyclopedias, magazines and periodicals below, stuff like Texas Monthly, Arizona Highways, National Geographic, etc. Also down low are the children’s books, within easy reach of the height challenged.
The kids’ books get two shelves down here and they have a bookcase upstairs (which is mostly empty because they pull things off of it all the time - a shelf and a half of books up there, though, too).
I’ve got paperbacks three deep on…uh…three shelves down here. Tark’s Trek paperbacks are two deep on another shelf. Two shelves have hardcovers two deep. There’s a shelf of gaming books and a shelf of computer manuals/game books/"The Official Guide To"s, etc. Two shelves are books which we consider precious - an autographed paperback of It by Stephen King, An Incomplete Education, an 1887 edition of Dante’s Inferno, The History of the 87th Mountain Infantry: Italy, 1945, which was Tark’s dad’s unit in WWII…that kind of thing. There’s a shelf of books which other people have left here, and another shelf full of comic books and graphic novels.
As far as organization goes…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Other than those stated, almost everything is organized by a strict system of “well, this shelf still has some room on it.” There are a few organized by author (David Weber) or type (a billion @#&@#(& Dragonlance books) but for the most part if I need something to read I have to search the stacks by hand.
We still have 2-4 boxes of books buried in the garage. There are a few I know are in there that I want to read and it’s driving me bonkers.
I am in process of unpacking and re-arranging my books right now… sounds like my system is pretty much the same as other Dopers; umbrella categories–> specific categories–> authors–> height left to right. Currently (and subject to minor changes as the system is tested out) we have:
[ul]
[li]Construction (interior, exterior, landscaping)[/li][li]History (Ancient, European, American, a HUGE Civil War section, and misc)[/li][li]Art[/li][li]Poetry[/li][li]Classics[/li][li]Non-fiction [/li][li]Reference (all the “idiot’s guide” and “for dummies,” Straight Dope, financial, dictionaries, thesaurus, medical, misc)[/li][li]Psychology (cognitive, cognitive behavioral, behavior modification, REBT, relationship, child/adolescent, spiritual/religious, depression, grief/death/dying, aging, substance abuse, anger, groups, research, professional practice, misc diagnosis, misc therapeutic orientations, misc textbooks)[/li][li]Religion (religious philosophy, witchcraft, magick, shamanism, Native American shamanism, Celtic, European, Western, Eastern, Christianity, Judaism, Satanism, misc)[/li][li]Parapsychology (hauntings, past lives, research, ESP, possession, aliens, misc)[/li][li]Fiction (modern classic, humor, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, drama, children, misc)[/li][/ul]
We’ll see how this goes… it seems to be working out okay so far. Although you should have seen the problems that arose when trying to shelve Dianetics. None of the other books wanted it in their section. It was really quite sad. 
-BK
I do not organize my books according to size, and I can’t imagine wanting to do so. To me, it looks much more interesting to have different sized books next to each other.
Fiction is all alphabetical by author, with absolutely no regard to subject matter.
Nonfiction is arranged by subject with similar subjects next to each other (say, nature writing next to science, or biography next to history). I try to arrange my nonficiton so that one subject gracefully flows into the next. It’s not alphabetical.
But what bothers me in a really anal retentive way is when I have books on various subjects by the same author. Lets take Annie Dillard. I have Pilgram at Tinker Creek, which would go in the nature writing section, and then I have An American Childhood, which goes in bio/autobio, and then The Living, which is fiction, and then The Writing Life, which goes in with the other So You Wanna Be A Writer books. But… they’re all by the same author. But… they’re all different. But… But… But… ::head explodes::
My system is a blend of order and chaos. Right now I have more books than I have shelf-space, so I’ve had to cram a lot of them in every which way and keep them stacked in short piles all over the place.
When I first moved into this apartment and everything was tidy, my system was like this: I grouped by theme, and within each theme, I kept books written by the same author together and ordered those in the chronology in which they were published. After that, there was no order, but I made sure my Tintin comics and other oversized books ended up on the ends of the shelves, or I stacked them on my coffee table.
By category…
Serial killers, medical and spiritual
I have 3 4’x3’ shelves, one 6’x3’ shelf, and boxes and books still at my parents (I haven’t lived there since summer 1996).
In the small bookshelves, they are organized alphabetically by author’s surname, and then by publication date. The larger books (such as my Complete Works of Shakespeare - 1 ’ tall by 6 " wide by 8.5" deep) goes on the bottom, as do most of the books I kept from school, like my Norton anthology, and Canadian poetry books (can you tell I took English at uni?).
On the big shelf, I have my notes from school in binders, and related spiral bound notes from profs, plus my puzzles, stereo and activity books - learn to draw, string games, etc.
At home, my favourites are in the bookshelf in my old room, arranged by subject - F/SF, Romance, Mystery, Fiction. The rest are on my dad’s bookshelf which is 12’ long and 4’ high (it starts about 5 ’ off the ground, above the built in desk) and 18" deep. There is no method to this shelf, other than big books get the whole shelf, and paperbacks are stacked two deep and two high. And that is after mom took about 300 books to the used bookstore.
That’s funny, Blue, I too have been thinking about rearranging the books in our house. They were fine before we moved, but now that we’re in a new house, we have different bookcases, in different places all over the house, and the books have just come out of the boxes randomly. Here are our goals, anyway:
All of the reference books (encyclops-edias, dictionaries, medical guides, atlas, etc.) are in a decorative bookcase near the living room/dining room. They’re a set that look good together, and can be out. There, they’re available to the kid for his homework assignments, for instance. (This, we’ve already done.)
My son’s room has various kid/teen/young adult books (filling a bookcase), and we’ve been trying to encourage him to weed out the books that are now beneath him. (We save some for his much younger cousin, donate them to schools, or trade them in to used bookstores, depending.) He arranges them as he likes, and we do pretty good if we can convince him to put them all vertically.
In the guest room, we’re going to put all of our hardback SF books (4 shelves worth, alphabetically, and it will look pretty good there), all of our humor/cartoon books on a shelf (and some miscellaneous books - this will be the only shelf of odd sizes mixed together), 1 shelf of overflow from my son’s room :rolleyes: which I’m trying to convince him should be his “classics” (more general interest, plus they are similar size and will look better together), and all of the paperbacks that are true crime, detective, or thrillers (since a lot of our family likes these).
In our den/computer room, that will leave 4 bookcases for science fiction paperbacks, which I hope I’ll get around to alphabetizing, and perhaps I can talk my wife into allowing a few more bookcases in there. Since these will be all paperbacks, the shelves can be closer together, and I’m going to add some more shelves to these bookcases (if I can get them to match) to give us more space.
We probably have half a shelf more of books that don’t fit into the above categories, which we’ll end up putting either in our den, or in the guest room, depending on space.
We have a bunch of college textbooks in boxes in the basement, but at the moment, we have no plans to actually pull these out.
First I separate by size, then I shelve in alphabetical order by author. Not fancy, but convenient!