After getting home from the library last week, I made a beeline for my closet to put away the newest additions to my reading stack. A few minutes later, I realized I’d been rearranging everything so the books sat in descending order by height — is this normal?
The book I’m currently reading usually ends up wherever I’m reading it, but it officially lives on my bedside table. The rest go on a shelf in my closet.
In Belle’s room, we organize books by colour. Everywhere else it’s by height.
And never alphabetically.
Here are some questions for your Thursday morning:
- Where do you keep your “current” read — always in the same place, or wherever it lands?
- Do you organize books by colour, genre, author, height…or pure happenstance?
Discover more from The Optimistic Musings of a Pessimist
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
mbmom11
Let’s see, mostly by happenstance. Library books stay in the bag or get piled on a side table- I make a few short piles, by reading level and interest, so I can see the covers and titles more easily.
Our bookshelves tend to be chaotic. Author’s books stay together, but in no order. I pack them in so they fit and don’t tip over. No aesthetics involved- it’s all about stability.
Elisabeth
Stability is a GREAT aim for bookshelves 🙂
When the kids were young we had a “book box” in our living room for all our picture books and I absolutely adored that. It meant they could easily get books and we didn’t have to worry about having things stay upright on a shelf because they were all self contained in the wire basket.
Jan Coates
We don’t organize our books at all, and my current read follows me around the house usually. When Shannon and Peter were listing their first house in Kingston, one of the things the real estate stager insisted on was colour arrangement of their books – can’t imagine that would be a big selling feature, but there you go.
Denise
I can see how this would be a great idea. It’s beautiful and gives the people who look at the house a reason to keep thinking about the house.
Elisabeth
That’s so interesting about the colour arrangement for selling a house. I think it has become very “in style” to have books arranged by colour (and I do appreciate the aesthetic). I think if you take the dust jacket off books (like I do) it tends to be mostly muted tones so that would look quite nice for colour, but the paperbacks we own aren’t nearly so aesthetically pristine and so I try to make some order out of the seeming chaos by organizing according to height.
Denise
I don’t really organize my library books, but the books that I own are arranged by color. I have 2 bookshelves on one wall in my office for non-fiction by color, 4 bookshelves on another wall in my office for fiction by color, and 2 bookshelves for children’s books by color in the grandchildren’s room. I’ve been doing it this way since 2003, in three different homes.
Elisabeth
Ohhhh. Love that you organize by fiction, non fiction, and children’s books. This is genius. Now that you mention it, I mostly do this in our main bookshelf! All the kids books go in one section, and I’ve also grouped by author (so all of my Little House books are together – obviously! – and other series like my small stack of Nancy Drew books that I did keep). Non fiction is on a separate shelf. And I actually have another shelf dedicated to “my” books, so the few books I specifically ordered for myself on a variety of topics. But all of the things mentioned above are organized by height!
Bijoux
I keep my library books/current reads in the family room next to my chair. Our bookshelves are mostly photo albums and precious knickknacks. We have very few books that we’ve kept.
Elisabeth
I don’t have one spot I read, but it’s generally: on the couch (I rarely leave my book there), in bed (I leave it on my bedside table; and this is where it always ends up eventually), and in my corner chair (with a small side table and I will often leave my current read there during the day).
Belle has one shelf of books, and then we have a small bookshelf in our basement. I have a few books on display in our living room for aesthetics, but that’s it. I am a die-hard fan of libraries. Also, I’m frugal. And a minimalist. The three things together mean I don’t buy many books!
Melissa
I used to always organise by height, but now I have smaller bookshelves scattered around the house so I try to keep similar books together, although I will still usually put the tall ones to the right. We had a really big floor to almost ceiling bookshelf in our old study and for a while I had my books organised by colour which was fun to look at. I have a shelf for library books, borrowed books or unread books in our study, but my current reads are either on my bedside table (fiction that I read before bed) or floating around somewhere in the living area (non-fiction that I read during the day)
Elisabeth
I also put tall on the left and go in descending height! We’re opposites.
Also opposite. I read non-fiction at night and fiction during the day. If I reverse this, I stay up wayyyy too late. I’m so bad about staying up late to find out how a fictional book turns out.
Jenny
I’m fascinated by these people who organize their books by color! My books are not organized, just placed on the shelves haphazardly. Library books go in a different place though (stacked on a desk in the living room) and my current read is either on my bedside table, or if I think I’ll have time to read during the day, in my purse.
Elisabeth
I love the aesthetic of books by colour but don’t feel like I have enough colour to do this properly. It works in Belle’s room because I feel like they make YA books with more colourful, distinct spines.
Birchie
Let’s see, my bookshelf is kind of ordered by favorites, there is a bit of order by size (bigger books on the taller bottom shelf), and the rest is random.
My current read is always on my bedside table. Usually it’s just my kindle, but sometimes I have a physical book or two.
I spy Alive by Piers Paul Read in your stash! I’m excited! I really enjoyed that book. I’ll tell you some more details when/if you read it.
Elisabeth
Ohhh. Organized by favourites. Love that!!!
Yes! I have Alive on my shelf BECAUSE OF YOU. You influenced me, Birchie. I haven’t read it yet, but my stack is dwindling quickly and it will be on my bedside table in the next week or so. Stay tuned for my thoughts.
Lindsay
The book that I’m reading lands on a book holder on the side table next to “my” chair in the living room, where I do most of my reading. (My backup book is in the basket under the chair, haha!) As for my books in general, I balance what will fit on a shelf (I use a lot of antique/old bookcases with erratic shelf heights) with wildly putting my favorite books on the top shelf in order of how much I love each one of them on the given day I organize the shelf and then a higgledy-piggledy mix by author for the rest (books grouped by authors, but authors in no apparent order). Wow, that sounds wild written out. I may need to think about this.
Elisabeth
Yes! The sign of a “good” reader – you have a backup book! I always want multiple books on the go at any given time. And I MUST stick to my determination to only read non-fiction at bedtime because good grief I am terrible at putting down a gripping story at a reasonable time.
I just adore that you and Birchie set aside favourite books. This is genius! You system sounds great because it works for you!
Suz
I love how the books look on Belle’s bookshelf. (This is how I hang, organize my clothes too: by color)
Would you believe that I don’t keep books? Like, I have some of my girls childhood books, but for myself, I usually donate them all, aside from a few that must be kept.
Elisabeth
I have a relatively small number of books, given how much I read. And with the exception of a true handful of books (5, maybe), I could without hardly a second thought donate all the books I do have. I’m a reader, but NOT sentimental about books and I love, love, love using the library.
Funny you should mention clothes. I organize by type and then height…which I now realize mirrors how I handle my books. I could look at pictures of gorgeous closets with colour-coded clothing ALL DAY.
Katy @ Practical Walk
I like organizing the books by color. My husband and daughter prefer other methods, but I like it. I usually keep library books in the closet. What I’m currently reading sits by my bed.
Elisabeth
Yay! Another Closer Keeper 🙂
Nicole MacPherson
I have, as you can imagine, shelves full of books and they are organized in such way that no one but me would be able to find them. Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro are one shelf, for example. Jane Austen shares a shelf with Elizabeth Strout and Ann Patchett. Books from a certain era are on one shelf, books from childhood on another, travel books are over here, more current books over there. I keep authors together but they are not alphabetized, they are organized in terms of importance to me. Central shelves contain the aforementioned authors, and then they fan out from there. Library books I keep on the lower shelf of the coffee table in the living room.
Elisabeth
I can imagine, Nicole and I love it. How perfect that you can find the exact book you want but no one else could. *Happy sigh*
Also, how you write about Austen “sharing” a shelf with Strout and Patchett makes my heart happy.
I want pictures of all this, Nicole. I spy a wonderful blog post buried in this comment. Nicole Tours Her Bookshelves??? Pretty please???
Rebecca Jo
I have a “library” – my dining room converted to a reading room – my book shelves are nearly full -so when I STILL buy more books, I have a little table that I pile them on – its nearly teetering over.
Elisabeth
Who needs a dining room?
I think having a dedicated library room (with a reading chair, mood lighting) and high windows sounds absolutely DREAMY.
Sorry, that was a tangent, but I was caught by appreciation for your smart conversion!
Ernie
I’m in awe, and making a note to never invite you to my cluttered home that is not organized by color or size of anything. At all. I don’t own very many books, but those that I do are in a drawer in my closet. I usually get books from the library, but typically just the one – until I’m done. I happen to have a few out right now, but they are all just stacked on my nightstand. The photo of Belle’s bookshelf – I am trying to imagine how I could ever get a single area of my house to look that neat and ordered. Maybe when the kids all move out?
Elisabeth
Oh Ernie. I am entirely clutter blind outside my own home. My brain works best when things are relatively neat and tidy, but I have zero qualms about how other people manage their house. Also, if I ran a daycare AND had a large, busy family my house would likely have spontaneously combusted by now.
The interesting thing about organizing by colour is how neat and charming it looks. I don’t think it would work well on my other bookshelves (and I think it almost always looks best with a white bookshelf or at least something that is light-coloured). It is a fun, easy way to organize books, but since we don’t have many books in our household, this is the only place it makes sense. It also makes it easy for little kids to put books away! They can easily match colour to colour. I’ve seen oodles of nurseries where board books are organized by colour and it looks both adorable and is highly functional I suspect (don’t ask me; neither of my kids had dedicated nurseries in our teeny, tiny apartments).
Michelle G.
I love how your bookshelves look! I have a bookshelf in my sewing room, and two shelves are dedicated to art and sewing books, and a few of my other favorite books. I don’t tend to keep fiction books – I donate them to the library or the thrift store, depending on their condition. I stack library books by size on a side table.
By the way, I tried your tip of freezing a brick of cheese for a bit before grating it – and WOW! That worked SO WELL! Thank you so much for telling me about that!
Elisabeth
Yay! I’m so glad my little hack worked. Crowd-sourcing info via blogs is the best.
Central Calif. artist Jana
Nice painting on Belle’s shelf!!
Books on the shelf are somewhat by subject, but there are always those ones that are too tall which then messes it up. Reading in progress books are in different stacks. I try to get the library books returned as quickly as possible to lessen the stacks. If a books stays too long in a stack, I put it on a shelf.
Elisabeth
I get inordinately frustrated by a too-tall book! A few books can only fit sideways/flat instead of upright which messes with the flow of things, but I try to make it work. Oh the sacrifices we make for the sake of reading 🙂
Alexandra
Hmm … good questions. My current read, like all my TBR pile, sit on the coffee table in the lounge, with in easy reach from the couch, where I usually read. I have about 50+ books piled higglety-pigglety on top on one another. I just randomly choose a book for my next read.
Those books I keep, are kept by genre on my bookshelves. So, in theory, I try to keep all the crime fiction together, and all the scifi and fantasy together. Though that’s arbitrary on a few shelves due to space. Of which I’ve run out of and now, have books piled in weird spaces. I really, really need to buy a new bookshelf … but have nowhere left to put said shelf if I do.
Organised? Me, ha!
Elisabeth
Wow! That is a VERY big stack of TBR. I get overwhelmed when I have more than 10ish books out from the library. I almost never choose at random. Sometimes it’s a book I’m really interested in reading, in other cases I choose it because of the cover. Ha. I’m easily swayed by aesthetics.
Alexandra
I think I have that many books (other than I can’t help myself when I’m near a bookstore) but, because I’m something of a mood reader. I pick up and put down a book based on my mood at the time. Some days I want a funny romcom style whodunnit, another day, I want to be a space pirate on a mission to where ever. And yes, I can even be reading 4 books at once … well, not *actually* at once, but you know what I mean. I have 2-3 on the go sometimes because I can hit days where I’m just not feeling it.
But true, I buy those pretty covers and, sometimes, regret it. If only my library were closer.
Elisabeth
I’m sorry to hear your library isn’t nearby. I’ve been…4 times in the last week? Which seems excessive, but it’s so fun!
Diane
My current reads are either travelling around with me or piled in my chair in the living room. They used to be on a side table by said chair, but the side table broke. So the books are in the chair and I read on the couch. The chair is also a depository of anything of mine that the family doesn’t know what to do with – forms to fill out, my journals, my work lap top. It’s probably not the best system, but I swear if someone tries to put something of mine aways “properly” I’ll never find it, so I just tell them to leave it in my chair.
Elisabeth
Hey, organized chaos sometimes works more efficiently than organized calm! And it’s helpful to have a single repository for everything. It sounds like you’re able to find what you need when you need it, so the system sounds good to me.
Catrina
By height, here too! 😊
And I’m just as excited as Birchie to spot “Alive” on your bookshelf! Once you’ve finished the book, definitely check out the film on Netflix — for once, the adaptation really does the story justice. Enjoy!
Elisabeth
Thanks for the tip!!
I have one non-fiction book I’m currently reading and then Alive is next. Will report back!
ccr in MA
I do have a stack of “to be read … sometime” books that are not in any order (and have also been sitting there for a long time), but I own a lot of books (I AM sentimental about my books!), and the books on my book shelves, of which I have read probably 98%, are almost all organized by author. I have a few groupings that are more by size, like knitting books or kids books, but the vast majority is in alpha order. I mean, how else would I find things? I know that there’s something to recognizing books by their outsides (I worked on bookstores way back, and we really did get questions like “it’s a dessert cookbook with a purple color”), but my books? Nah, author all the way.
Elisabeth
I sometimes wish I were more sentimental about books. Though the ones I am sentimental about, I’m DEEPLY sentimental about, so that has to count for something?
Ha! A dessert book with purple. Not a lot to go by!
J
My books are broadly alphabetical by author. That’s how they started out, and when I add books I try to keep them in order, but I am not fanatical about them. My TBR however are just in a pile near my bed.
I’ve been thinking that I need to keep fewer books. I do not reread as much as I used to, there is no need to keep every book I buy or am given after I’ve read it. This is NOT how I was raised, my mom had more than 40 boxes of books when she moved. She alphabetized her fiction by author, and her non-fiction was by subject and then author.
Elisabeth
Wow – that’s a lot of books. My dad has slowly been donating books over the years. He loved to read and re-read (like over and over and over). Books he knows he won’t read again he’s finally letting go of. But still…he has a lot of books!
M. Jean Pike
My current read is usually either on my bedside table or (if it’s smaller in size) in my bag going wherever I am going! I arrange my books on the shelves by height. By color would be great but I wouldn’t like the heights all mixed together 🙂
Elisabeth
It does make my skin crawl a bit to see things not organized by height. I love the aesthetics of arrangement by colour, but that only works well if you have a lot of colourful books which I don’t.
Rebecca (the Farm Wife)
Current read goes wherever I was reading it last, lol … My kindle stays by the bed, unless I’m reading it on the couch at night. The rest of them … Library books are in a small stack next to the bed, so they don’t get mixed into the overflow from the bookshelves in our living room 😉 I don’t organize by color or alphabetically … it’s roughly by genre/type? Sort of? I have my mystery shelf, and my historical romances shelf, and multiple Austenesque and fantasy shelves … but within that, they’re just kind of grouped the way that I think looks best – and it gets tweaked often, lol
Stephany
Oh yay – I am HERE for this discussion! I have lots of bookshelves and book piles.
The bookshelf in my living room is for all of my Book of the Month hardcovers, and those are organized by color.
The bookshelf in my dining room is organized by author last name. (It used to be by color, but I kinda like the way it doesn’t look perfectly organized).
The bookshelf in my bedroom is only for my absolute favorite books. Top shelf is my Anne of Green Gables editions, second shelf is nonfiction faves, third shelf is fiction faves, and last shelf is romance faves.
I have a spot on a shelf for library books (or books I will be reading next that I pulled off my bookshelves) – those are organized by height!
And the books I’m currently reading are either on my coffee table, my bed, or my nightstand.
Elisabeth
I smell a blog post in this comment response!
I love how intentional you are about the different configurations and bookshelves!
sarah
color! I have a shelf that is just my TBR pile, but my current reads end up EVERYWHERE– night stand, console table, stairs, dryer, pool bag, work bag– I have books in all of the places. The kids’ books in their rooms are hodge podge, as are their downstairs bookshelves– maybe someday they’ll dewey decimal the whole place 🙂
Elisabeth
Colour! I was curious because I know you read like NO ONE ELSE I KNOW! You are a reading wizard.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
My current read is by my bed or by my reading chair. It travels around depending if night or day.
My books are currently sorted by color – only fiction though.
And a certain section by series.
All non fiction, religious and art/craft are sorted by topic and there by heights.
It’s a whole weird system I guess.
Elisabeth
Not weird at all! I love how many different systems are represented here.
K @ TS
I get what you mean about the height, and color is pretty, but both are kind of useless if you are trying to find something! Having said that, I used to have a few color coded books on my living room shelves just for prettiness, and if I got books from the library (temporarily housed) I would organize by height.
In my reading room, all of my reference books were on one shelf organized by subject, and then depending on the category (like travel for example) they might be alphabetized (by country), or if they were cookbooks for example, I would place them by height. Non-fiction was organized by subject, but I did not have a lot of that. Fiction had three shelves – read, not read and favorites. These were organized alphabetically by author.