Looking around I have a renewed appreciation for blank shelves. I recently did a massive book unhaul and now have a few large shelves sitting empty and waiting for new stories to fill the space. There's something beautiful about blank shelves, the anticipation and wonder at the books that will soon stand in the currently open space.
The juxtaposition of unread books amongst old (and new) favorites on the filled shelves nearby. Stories that were lovingly written, waiting to be picked up, enjoyed, and cherished. Stories that were dreamt up, drawn out, and labored over. Stories that will engage, inspire, and ruin in the best way.
Blank shelves are like a fresh canvas waiting for that first flick of paint.
I love that I can rearrange my shelves and contemplate and plan out where my books will all live. Do I refresh what I already have by arranging my fiction alphabetically by publisher and then alphabetically by author within, do I go classic with alphabetizing by author only, or do I go full whimsical and create a rainbow of spines? The last one is visually stunning but would make it too difficult to find anything.
I'm leaning towards organizing my fiction alphabetically by publisher, my nonfiction by genre, and because I enjoy having my up next TBR shelf in rainbow order, I think I'll keep that going as well. Essentially a refresh of the system I had in place that worked until my shelves began overflowing into bookish chaos. But then I think that classic alphabetical by author only would make the most sense. And do I mix in my subscription books form Book of the Month, Allurial, and Aardvark? Do I keep a separate display section for winter holidays and halloween witchy books? Do I keep a display section with sprayed edges? Oh decisions, decisions.
On the flipside of working on creating a beautifully refreshed library, I now have a dozen piles of books waiting to be sold or donated -- to be more precise I have about 26 dozen books now begging to be rehomed. I blame all of this on the need for spring cleaning that recently hit me. I’ve already donated a stack to my local friends of the library but I’ve still got a ridiculous amount of books to get through. (Thinking of doing a Substack share giveaway for a small stack… let me know if you’d be interested!) Although it's given me more work to do, I do appreciate that it pushed me to purge books I know I'll never get around to reading, giving them a new home and a new opportunity to be read and enjoyed.
Q: How do you have your bookshelves organized?
With joy from the stacks
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I love what you wrote about purging books you’ll never get to. I keep saying I’m going to organize my bookshelves. So far the only thing I’ve done is put one section with Jewish theme and holocaust books. Oh. And 1 section of self help books. I keep thinking I’d like to arrange my fiction by authors name. But then do I do last name or first name? There were so many books. I don’t even know where to start.