The end of last month, I moved. It was a move I’d wanted so I was looking forward to it. Then there came a time when I realized the spot I usually keep my bookshelves didn’t exist in the new place. I went over the floorplan in my mind and couldn’t figure out where I’d be able to place the two bookshelves I owned.
Cue panic.
When I moved in, I still wasn’t sure where things would go but as we unpacked boxes, arranged furniture, a clear spot became obvious. The wall in the dining area fits my two bookshelves and allowed for me to buy two more.
Cue bliss.
Only now my brain worried about how I would sort my books. Did I shelve them alphabetically as I did last time or go for something different? And if I went for something different, what did that look like?
Cue: The Bookshelf Dilemma.
I asked friends and readers on Facebook. Both gave me a varied ways I could shelf books. There were the alphabetical fans (by author last name, not title or author first name). There were the fans of doing it in height. There were the ones who told me to shelve by series, color, and by genre.
I wanted to do something different since having four tall bookcases gave me ample room. And though I’m not a huge fan of book ends, I admit something to feel the space until you pile it with books is ideal. So I went ahead and gave the idea of shelving by color a try. I grouped the purples next to the pinks.
The reds have their own space with a Go Away I’m Reading sign to separate them from the yellows. I added an award or two that two of my books received and even put up my author copies of The Love Script, and other books on the shelves.
Which brings me to my last statement. How about a book giveaway for The Love Script? To enter for a chance to win a paperback copy, please let me know how you shelve your books and if you ever change it up.
*Comment by 10/17/23, 3:00pm PDT, and I’ll pick a random winner. Please have a USA mailing address. Void where prohibited.
Toni Shiloh is a wife, mom, and Christian fiction writer. Once she understood the powerful saving grace thanks to the love of Christ, she was moved to honor her Savior. She writes to bring Him glory and to learn more about His goodness. She spends her days hanging out with her husband and their two boys. She is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). Find out more on her website at http://tonishiloh.com.
Actually I’ve been thinking about my bookshelves lately. My family is probably moving by the end of the year. For the last several years, I’ve grouped my read books by author and year. Example: the books I read in 2020, have their own shelf, and any other books by those authors that I’ve read since also go on that shelf. I just realized how complicated/ weird that sounds. But that’s worked for me, so I probable won’t change it too much.
I changed the shelving because I moved too. The books are still in bags, being carried over, but they will be shelved on 3 criterias:
– dimensions (I have the bookcase with shelves of various dimensions, to make sure all sizes of books have their places);
– if I read them already and I want to keep them as souvenir, then they go on the upper shelves, if I have not read them yet, on the lower, more accessible shelves (because most I have read already and no re-reading in sight were already donated).
– authors and themes (grouping all the books of the same author in one place, all the foreign language books in one place, all the travel books in another place).
We are planning on downsizing(as soon as our house sells) and so my dilemma is more what to do with the books on my shelves. So many are golden oldies but are special only to me. Others would take one look and bin them. They certainly don’t look as beautiful as yours. They would be, or rather are faded red next to dirty green, a couple don’t even have the whole cover on, just the beige of the spine- need I go on….? All well loved and well read.
Congratulations on the move and your new home, what a fun adventure. I only have one cupboard and it is by height, fiction, author name, title and the non ficiton books by height and subject.
I shelve my books by author’s last name.
Ideally mine are shelved by author last name. But as my shelves are overflowing, and now pretty much goes wherever I can stack it!
I don’t read as much as some avid readers, but i somehow continue to buy more books that overwhelm my shelves =)
Hi Toni and congratulations on your new home and your well organized bookshelves. This reader and retired high school English and German teacher has multiple bookshelves. Two bookshelves in my bedroom and 3 our basement family room. Since I enjoy traveling and am bilingual my bookshelves are arranged into 2 major categories – one bookshelf for English books / one bookshelf for German books. Then books are arranged by size and genre (travel guides together / cookbooks/ best sellers, etc). Been arranging my books by language since I was a teen. Personal libraries are PERSONAL and so is the arrangement of our bookshelves. What works for us personally or from yesterday’s discussion what is our QUIRK. Looking forward to reading all the posts. Enjoy your weekend. Rainy but in the 50s in SW Michigan.
I tend to arrange mine by height and color. I place books I have read on the top shelf and save the lower shelves for the books I need to read. I also go through my books once a year and donate the ones I no longer want.
I shelve. By Author last, first name
I really like the look of that shelving by colour!
Mine are all by genre, then alphabetical within that, not very exciting and it does look a bit of a mess, maybe I should have a change!
I’m in the UK so don’t add me to the giveaway.
I am glad to hear you like your new space. Ohhh to add two more book shelves. My husband and I both love book shelves. A few years ago we moved our book shelves out of our dining room into our sons old room. We donated a lot of books we will never read again to our local library. It became, as my husband puts it, (our “reading room”) One wall is book cases and one wall is my desk and a filing cabinet. I let him order his books his way. For my books and “our” books I ordered by genre.
I shelve my books by the author’s last name.
I shelf my books alphabetically by the author’s last name.
That’s a new way! I like that they’re grouped by year.
A different dimension bookshelf sounds amazing!!
That sounds like a well-read bookshelf!!
And I purged mine thinking I wouldn’t have the space but I was wrong.
Sounds great!
My fave
Love that! A well stacked case is amazing!
It’s rainy here too, and I love that yours are shelved by language first.
I don’t go full out organizing my bookshelves but I try to keep genres together and of course series stay together. My daughters have bookshelves in their rooms too and the only order they go by is which ones are their favorites. I have The Love Script on paperback and just started reading it and am loving it so far!,
Yeah I have author copies on lower shelves. My tbr is on Kindle or paperback stacks elsewhere.
Awesome
It’s fun to change every now and again.
I love the idea of a reading room.
Nice!
Cool!
Thank you so much for reading it. I hope you enjoy!
“Most” of mine are by series. However, some are just by author, and some are just there! I have too many other things to get through before I organize the bookshelves any differently! lol!!
I have the same Go Away sign :)
I shelf by series and thickness/size I guess and yes, I move them around!
Glad you found a spot for your bookshelves! I let my sister shelve my books and she almost always does them by height :)
Hey there, Toni! I love the idea of shelving books by color! My husband and moved into our current home about a little over a year ago, and it was the first time in a while that I had a designated space for all of my books. So, it took me a little while to decide how to display them. But I finally decided to shelve them based on theme and then by size within each theme. I have a bit more nonfiction than fiction, so I have a section specifically for fiction. Then the others are categorized by themes like inner healing/deliverance, soul/mental health, physical healing, writing/creativity, spiritual growth, Bible study/commentaries, cookbooks, essential oils/home remedies, business, autobiographies, finances, etc. I recently read A Life to Live and Her Christmas Redemption, and The Love Script is certainly on my to-be-read list. Thank you for the chance to win a copy!
Hi, I shelve my books by authors last name. Have a great weekend. Thank you for the chance at your awesome book.
Hi Toni,
Congratulations on your new home!
I organize my books by the authors last name (and group any book series together by the author).
Love to see all the different ways people organize their books.
I have always filled my bookshelves by genre-by author. It worked very well until Kindle arrived on the scene. On my Kindles I have a mix of genre folders… Bibles, Biblical fiction, Historical fiction, etc., with Author folders, by first name because that’s how kindle rolls. I also have some series folders, both single author and multiple author series. Some authors have multiple folders since they write multiple genres and series. My physical bookshelves still follow the old method. But when I last purged my fiction shelves, I created a “Keepers” shelf… soon to be more than one shelf. Sorting by size or by color would so not work for me. I would probably forget what color or size the book I was looking for was. (Bad grammar, I know.)
lol, totally understandable!
I love that sign!
Doing it by height is aesthetically pleasing imo.
Love the idea of theme! That sounds amazing!
And thank you so much for reading my books!
Hope you have a great weekend!
It’s so fun to hear the many ways!
We have definitely changed the ways we shelve our books. But we seem to have settled on a bookshelf that is shelved by color. And then the rest of the books are put away in alphabetical order by author.
Yeah my Kindle shelves are by genre. It works for my brain when trying to pick out an ebook. :)
I like that!
by whatever fits
Your bookshelves look nice but I could never organize mine by color. I’d have difficulty finding what I wanted because I wouldn’t always remember the color of the book. I have several bookshelves that are grouped differently depending on what kind of books are on them. I try to group my Christian fiction books together by author’s last name, which works well until I get too many and then I have to have a stack on top of the overflow. Mysteries are grouped by author, though not necessarily alphabetically. Nonfiction books are grouped more by subject. I grew up in a house with lots of books and can’t imagine not having books in my home.
I shelve my books in a few different ways on the 2 bookshelves I have, and then the rest are piled in boxes in front of them. I have what I call the “Dark Side” and the “Light Side”. Both are individually arranged by author surname (almost – I am a library technician after all). The “Dark Side” are mystery and suspense novels, which tend to have primary colours and/or more muted colours. The “Light Side” are romance and basically anything else, and the covers tend to be pastels and brighter colours. Not all of my shelves are a uniform height, so some books stand up, while others are piled up as they fit.
The system works well, except when I have authors who write for both mystery and romance genres. The space currently dictates that they don’t sit together, but are separated to their dark and light sides.
One day I would love to have more shelves so that they can all be displayed and easily accessed, rather than some in boxes. I did try last year, but I just can’t squeeze another shelf into the room.
I sure hope your move was way less stressful than mine. but I had no idea where the book cases would go. One is now a display cupboard for ornaments and Christmas time my village. Another I go by genre. and then the LI all three lines go in genres but in the one shelf its a double as are a couple others. at the bottom are my photo albums. This is in the small lounge room. The main lounge room has another books case that has more books but more the non fiction ones. actually the LI lines and HP are in the top shelf there. it has to be moved as that room is too small for where it is. The set out with plugs etc isn’t the best. it will go into the spare bedroom after I rearange the furniture. (They tell me Rome wasn’t built in a day) add to the stress Henry (big boy cat) has gone wandering again back to the old area. I went to try catch him today but I was too late (last time I was too early). Tomorrow I am getting a trap to get him.
I have most of them in a wicker trunk, others in a large plastic box and others I found a home in my closet. I don’t have that much space in my room to have a bookshelf hahaha.
My mom is not a reader, she likes movies more and my dad keeps his books in different piles around the room.
I mostly read on kindle these days, so don’t have a ton of physical books I keep anymore. Since there aren’t too many of them, I shelve by height.
I usually arrange my shelf by book size. I have one side for books that I’ve read and donate them about every four months!
The photos of your shelves are visually appealing. As many times as we’ve moved, and as many books as we own, our books are shelved mostly by how they come out of the box and by who they belong to. We have “kids books” shelves and “hubby’s books”, and then “my books” And then as the “kids” have grown, they started curating their own shelves of books.
I do not have a lot of organization to my bookshelves. They are a work in progress. I do have all my hardbacks of one author together on one shelf. I have a shelf that has hardbacks of authors from a podcast I watch. I have a shelves for Christian writers. I have tried to place some of the books together. I have a lot of books yet to unbox as well as more book shelves to work on. I also have a book case for books I have read that I want to keep due to being signed. Thank you for sharing. God bless you.
For awhile my books were by color then I changed it by author but now I just put them on the shelf cause I have too many books.
On my living room bookshelves I have a mix of books by colors, and also series and hardback classics are together. My bedroom has a mess of TBR books on a bookshelf that are not organized!
I’m most definitely in the minority because even though I love reading, I don’t have a large collection of books. However, the ones I have are grouped by religious books, series, and other assorted non-fiction.
As an ex-library employee, I tend to shelve at home as I did at work.
Fiction…last name, alphabetically
NonFiction…Dewey Decimal categories
I also alphabetize my spices🤷🏼♀️
#workhazard 😂
That works!
Yeah sometimes I think of one day going book less and only having ebooks then I break out in hives. ;)
I like that. I bet that looks amazing to see the differences.
Moving is always so stressful! None of us want to do it again.
I love movies as well.
Nice!
Do you donate them all?
That’s cool! I like that idea too.
Blessings to you as well!
I understand that!
Yeah I have unread books that aren’t shelved.
Nice!
Love that!