I've satisfied my compulsion.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Any of my ex-girlfriends can testify as to my obsession with organizing my books and DVDs.

When I moved in with one (a girlfriend, not a DVD) about 4 years ago, I was unpacking about 12 boxes of books. I looked at the piles of books strewn on the floor and said to her “I’m missing 3 books!” She looked at me like I was insane (she could be right), and did not believe me. I prompty wrote down 3 titles, which I remember to this day: Polar Star, Gorky Park and The Death of Hitler.

We drove to my storage locker and I found those 3 books in another box. My books are decently organized by Author and Subject on my many bookshelves, but I am religious about DVDs. They are strictly organized alphabetically by title, with sequels following the original provided they also follow alphabetically. For example, American Wedding comes after American Pie 2 (I don’t have the original American Pie - I am postponing getting it because it could pose an existential crisis for me).

By the same token, Blade, Blade II and Blade: Trinity fall in the proper order.
When I only had a few James Bond movies, I put them all at the beginning of the “J” section and tried not to think about it. Today I received in the mail the complete (so far) collection of all 20 official Bond films. However, they are not in standard DVD cases, but rather in a presentation type case that holds a small CD booklet inside. The case is about 12" long, 6" high and 2.5" deep.

I could not for the life of me figure out how I was going to get this on my shelf, as I don’t have enough shelf space to fit it sideways amidst the others, plus putting it that way so I could read the face of the box would have it set too far back from the fronts of the other cases, which would be aesthetically displeasing.

I solved my problem, satisfying my compulsion at the same time: Since the front of the box has “007” in big characters on it, I put the case sideways on the top shelf, just before 8 Mile and 12 Monkeys.

Whew. Another psychological crisis averted.

2

Not sure I’d go that far.

3

I take CDs and DVDs out of their plastic cases and put them in those portable wallets (you know, with the plastic sleeves inside). I can then put the wallet in a cupboard and forget about it, thus saving myself hours of compulsive rearranging which I would be doing if my collection was in full view!

4

Dude, I think you left the stove on.

5

That’s even worse, because you can’t tell ata glance if they are all in proper order.

6

I had one of those once.

And then I got married.

Now, it’s long gone. I miss it.

And I miss those books and CDs I can’t find.

Question: where would you put a soundtrack for a film done by all one artist? In the artist’s section, or the soundtrack section?

Since I can’t keep my own stuff organized any more, I have to live vicariously through others’ organization …

7

[Hijack]Great books, but you lose points for Blade II and Blade: Trinity. [/Hijack]

After I finished basic cataloging when going for my MLIS, I began cataloging my personal not-entirely-insubstantial library in LC format. Luckily, my wife staged an intervention in which she threatened to donate all my books to the Christian Harry Potter book burning festival going on upstate if I didn’t come to my senses right then and there. Saved me a whole lot of trouble.

8

I’d put it alphabetically in the Soundtrack section.

FTR, my CDs are in artist order and then oldest to newest. Groups like Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers go under the main person’s name.

Various artists compilations are under “V” and sorted alpha by title.

9

All my music is on mp3s on my laptop. Organized by Artist, then Album.

Those were free, I never claimed they were good. I’m also a compulsive collector of media.

10

Well . . . OK, fine, but JAMES BOND?? After forty something years, isn’t it time for that guy to break a hip while beating up some random henchman? :stuck_out_tongue:

11

But those are Ohs, not Zeros; Double Oh Seven.
OO7 belongs just before Oo na sige na.

12

Sorry, “double-oh” is simple a method of pronunciation, like “double-aught” buckshot. The fact that they are numerals is not negated. :slight_smile:

13

Uh-oh. My books are in alpha order by author and then title (and I’m gradually entering them into a database), and my CDs are in alpha order by artist and then title (no sections, but they are all ripped to iTunes), but so far I’ve refrained from alphabetizing my meager DVD collection (though I do have them all in a database that I created myself in MS Access). I now have a little mini-project for myself this weekend.

Thanks a lot, Gabe. :mad: :wink:

14

You’re welcome. One can never be too organized.

15

My albums, singles and CDs are alphabetical by artist, and chronological within each artist’s section. All 13,000 of them (there are more since last time I mentioned it). Separate sections for Various Artists and Soundtracks. The 78s are arranged by label, then ascending in catalogue number by label. I keep two main databases in MS Works, one for Singles, one for Albums. Everything about them is in there, except for the parts I haven’t got to yet. I’ve been working on it for five years. I have about another five years’ work to do on it just to get up to where I am now. Assuming I get more records / CDs in the meantime, that’ll add a bunch of time to the completion date.

Only my wife knows how her books and manga and anime VCDs / DVDs are arranged. She keeps two Access spreadsheets for her collection - one for books she has, and one for books she doesn’t have yet, with some provision for indication of Read / Not Read, and Comments.

It’s true, you can never be too organized. Especially if you have a lot of anything. You don’t want to end up buying another copy of something you already have, so you have to document everything.