How do I order my fiction books (normally, in my collection, sorted by author) when there is more than one author? Especially collections of short stories? By editor? By first author alphabetically? I’ll feel bad, for some obscure reason, if all the Pohl/Williamson books end up in the “P” section. And I really must keep all my Zelazny together, no matter who else contributed.
Is this a personal collection, or a real library?
if it’s a personal collection, doesn’t matter. just choose a criteria and stick with it.
I’d use the editor, in a multi-author story collection, but some libraries sort those by title of the collection. Either way would work, if you’re consistent
The purpose of sorting is to aid in retrieval first, and browsing second. So, put them in the order that will help you remember where they are. If that means a book Zelazny contributed to always benig under Zelazny then do it that way.
Been a long time since I worked in a public library but my recollection is that they were always by first listed author. Anthologies and multi-author collections by the editor’s name (first listed if necessary) though I was never clear when the catalogers that be would differentiate some into the 800s rather than the general fiction shelves.
That said, back in the day I had my books in LC call number order, including fiction. Now that I keep myself down to only a couple hundred books in the house at any given time I just put them in whatever order they show up since I can search them all in a couple minutes.
I am a rebel, so I sort them by cover color.
Within that, alphabetically by first author.
But oddly enough, even when I can’t remember the exact name of the book, or when I’m spacing out the author, I can usually remember what color the cover was. So maybe this isn’t as rebellious as it sounds.
ETA: I’m not a librarian. I did work in a library, in both high school and college. Had to use Dewey decimal system in HS and a combination of that and LC in college, which might explain why I now color-code.
Librarian checking in.
There’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to multi-author scenarios. But usually, if it’s two authors it will be listed under the first author’s name. For three or more authors where each contributes a novella length story, it usually goes under the title. Short story collections will always go under the title, but occasionally they will go under the editor, although this is rare and usually requires the editor to be the only named author on the cover/verso.
Cataloger here–
Official policy is to place a work of two or three authors with the first listed author, and works of 4 or more authors under the title. Anthologies and the like are also by title - we used to use the editor, but that rule changed sometime in the 80s (or whenever it was that the 2nd ed. of the Anglo American Cataloging Rules was released into the wild)**. If you see an anthology at the library that’s filed by editor, dollars to Berliners it was cataloged quite some time ago. Or the cataloger was a wild and crazy rebel, whichever.
That said - none of that matters with a private collecton. You should do whatever lets you find what you need with the least amount of vexation - if that means arranging them by jacket cover, that just makes you organized and stylish!
**Incidentally, they’ll be changing that rule again when the 3rd ed., renamed Resource Description and Access (RDA), is released this fall…::sigh::
I just want to say that I feel for the OP. If I were to arrange my collection the way I’d like, I’d need a six-dimensional bookshelf.
I understand this. I do the same.
My method, such as it is, sorts all the book by the single author in alphabetical title order. After this comes all the books co-written by the main author, in order by alphabetical last name of co-writer. With Zelazny that means Bester, Lindskold, Saberhagen, Sheckley, Thomas.
Of course, that leads to the question of what to do with the two series of Amber novels. Leave them in alphabetical order or sort them in reading order? I sort them in reading order, placing them first and then the other books alphabetically.
Shouldn’t Psychoshop be filed under Bester since he was the lead author? Technically, yes. But it’s my collection and I’m not fanatic enough to buy two copies to keep all the Besters together as well. Without duplicate copies, some books will always be mentally out of place. You can’t help it. Just put the books where you’ll find them the next time you’re looking. That’s the only Rule.
Here, it’s very confusing - a lot of anthologies end up in the 800’s under literature, which plays merry hell with the patrons. However, in your own house you probably won’t have those on different floors, so you can have a whole nother shelf for short fiction, or for anthologies. I put something with just two authors under the first listed, myself, or if I have other books by one author and none by the other I put them where they have company.
I do mine by the best known (or liked) author based on my personal preference.
I do want to say that I had a buddy who used a pretty cool method. It was completely random, but he had a simple little database that he used to track the shelf it was on. He’d look a book up and know what shelf to go to, but found that scanning the shelf would remind him of books that he had forgotten about. So it was like a little mini bookstore trip.
Also interesting that you mentioned Zelazny since I’ve currently embarked on rereading all of his books that I have.
I do mine separately, all the anthologies at the end of my fiction, alphabetically by title.
I have piles of books everywhere right now, no organization at all. Piles in the living room, piles in the dining room, piles in the room I’m re-purposing as library/reading/craft/really- I’m- just- hiding- out room. I have no suggestions for the op, just couldn’t help but contrast my situation with yours. I wish I was organized.
Well, I always try to keep mine organized, but since I’m continually getting new books, it never stays organized for long.
And series absolutely have to be kept together, in series order. On that point, I’m adamant.
I work in a college library (LoC classification- fiction is scattered through a broad section by author but numerically first [well, the call number usually starts with a P or PS but that has nothing to do with the name of the author] and alphabetically last) which is way too confusing for home, so whenever I’ve been organized enough to shelve them I just go alphabetically by last name (primary author if more than one). My non fiction I group by subject matter- when I group them, more likely they’re just on stacks in order by “I put this one on the stack first so it’s on the bottom”.
In my personal library which has an entire bookcase worth of short story anthologies I put runs of the same series together (Nebula Award anthologies, Year’s Best SF) then blend all the rest of the anthologies together. Single author anthologies get positioned by author name while the editor’s name is used to shelve the multiauthor.
It’s my personal real library.
I just finished cataloging everything, so I can do a bit of searching in the spreadsheet. A 6-axis bookshelf sounds great, however. Now I have to convince myself to update the catalog spreadsheet with the names/authors of all the stories in all the collections–just as soon as I figure out how to link sheets in Excel (I think that’s the right way to do it, isn’t it?)
Just remember: If you’re wandering in L-space, leave a trail of bananas so the librarian can find you.
Hmm…maybe I’ll try it. The imediaman looks particularly interesting with the “virtual shelf” thing. But mostly I just spend every last dollar on books, so a DB that I already have might be better.