Organizing your books

Oops -- probably the translucence of a monitor (as with slides) makes them (the first ones, of the sea) look, well, watery! (I work in acrylics, fairly densely -- perhaps in every sense! -- and though they don't look like watercolors in an Ektachrome slide, they do sometimes look better than in vivo!)

Very verbal of you Bumble! And a lovely idea. I'll check my shelves BUT WILL NOT MOVE ANYTHING BECAUSE I'VE FINALLY GOT 'EM IN THE RIGHT PLACE! Anal isn't a strong enough term for the moi-book relationship!!

Tartarin have you got any of your work on the web?

Re: Tartarin


Thats a cute idea <smiles>

No, I don't, Viv. I've registered a domain name and then sat right back down on my butt! Used to show in London, but not for ages. I'm getting lazy in my old age!

London?

Impressed!

Harrumpfh! Apparently I'm not so organized. I can't find the next book I intended to read.

I could find mine if I could remember what it was... But that's another matter altogether, Terry! Organized but bleary in the brain, that's me.

Hee hee! I found it! Apparently, in a frenzy of disorganized housekeeping, I threw a bunch of books into a bag and tucked them away in the den because there was no more room for them on the shelf in the living room....<sigh> Now I have to DECIDE what to read! Too many choices....perhaps I'll just stop at the bookstore this afternoon while I'm out.

Goddess help me! That makes sense!

I'm looking forward to a mini-vacation, beginning on Thursday. I plan to do some major reading!

Um, well......I came home with "just a few" new books, but I decided to read the original for which I was searching yesterday. <sigh>

I hereby nag the topic author to put her work online. I got a quick glimpse of some pieces once and am wildly impressed.

On the way you organize people and books, Tartarin, I have to laugh, you are describing my fantasy travel book store, that I still want to open, after my ship comes to port....it is organized geographically, with all manner of books relating to the different areas, not just guides. Ah, well, I have gone on about that on a2k in other topics.

Organizing your books
I voted "piles on the floor", but that's not totally true. Older titles are arranged basically by size, i.e. how they fit on the variously sized shelves, with the exception (when possible) of reference, poetry and drama. The poetry shelves are handy because I do poetry readings, and have to be able to put my hand on appropriate selections as easily as possible. The drama is bunched together because I used to belong to a play-reading group. The reference are as close together as possible because I used to be a professional librarian and still use reference books a lot (though the computer has added another whole dimension to checking facts!)

And I do try to sell some of the newer ones when I have finished them, otherwise instead of wall-to-wall carpet, there'd be wall-to-wall books.

I hope you and D'art are discussing, Osso, the new bookstore, funded by my lottery winnings. My only demand is a good website so's I can use the rest of the gelt to buy more books to pile on the floor.

Well, listen, we can all meet in Seattle and discuss it when you get your winning ticket cashed in. You won't mind springing for some nice hotel rooms, would you? (Perhaps allowing doggies....)

Well, if I win $18M, we can have suites! Only trouble: my astrograph says I should never never set foot in the state of Washington. So I could send you the check and you could cope, right? Or we could have a planning party at the edge of the Willamette with dogs allowed, possibly a rental, near that winery... etc. etc.

Only the Encyclopedias look like much thought went into the arranging.

I do the rest by color and size--pale DH beside colorful Anne Rivers Siddons. I have a couple of unmatched sets of favorite authors, and they are strung out across the built in shelving.

I sort of like 'scenes' on the bookcase, so I have a stack of books beside family pics and artifacts. I have about fifty books arranged like that on the bookcases, and some of our less attractive books are upstairs in the attic.

I go up there every so often to pluck one. Many wind up stacked in some mini-scene of interest on the floor, beside a miniature, antique chair or huge wicker basket. I think books arranged in this manner are cool focal points (and handy).

Obviously voted 'piles in the floor.'

Color is really important, Sofia -- you're so-o-o-o right. Don't know how I could have forgotten that. I also use books -- take them along to paint stores -- to match a paint chip for wall color.

Ditto "scenes." The problem is dusting, but hey, one of those dainty sheep's wool thingies does the trick quite well if not perfectly. I keep dead animal parts there (a shimmering coral grasshopper's leg; assorted leg bones; a nutria's jaw and orange tooth).

I always sit on the same chair. Yesterday I sat on the sofa for the first time in ages and noticed all the good books on the shelves opposite which I usually have my back to: worsening my guilt about buying more books when there are SO MANY to reread!! None on the floor, but they are on every other available surface except the kitchen, along with out-of-date, unfinished New Yorkers, Antioch Review, Harpers...

Funny~~ I felt the same way about Texas (no astrograph, however)... we skirted it entirely with handy old Oklahoma.

The scenic bookshelf look happens around here, too, not through any clever thinking, just that any flat surface will serve sometimes. Besides the small arty pieces, there are little doodads, good rocks, a pile of shells, baskets of stuff. I also like the books-laid-flat look.

This thread has gone on for so long, I forget, did we talk about whether or not the books are pushed all the way in or carefully held to the shelf edge? I used to hold them at the shelf's edge, then returned from a longish trip to find a mouse's nest behind some books. All books are now pushed back which provides a lot more surface space.