In response to a discussion thread in Flips Flipping Pages, another group for Filipino bookworms, I wrote this reply on suggestions on organizing one's bookshelf. As I typed out my response, I realized that part of the pleasure in my bookworm's life is the befuddlement that comes from not knowing which book to read next, even with a pile of on-going reads on the bedside table, as well as the surprise that still comes from opening any book I lay my hands on.
The printed page never fails to captivate me, even at this crazy advanced age of being comfortable in my own skin. And I am so glad that I can still feel this giddy and happy over the simplest and purest of pleasures that is reading a book.
This is my take on how to organize my books...
The books in my library of a house are grouped by genre by room, or at least that is the intention.
The hallway-long floor-to-ceiling shelf of 24 cubbyholes tries to contain the books loosely according to genre: writing references, harvard classics, non-fiction, history, fiction, blair & robertson, biography, Tolkien, coffeetable books [bottom shelves].
The den contains fiction I have read, health & wellness, travel, some Filipiniana. The guest room shelf has half of the pop-up books, inspirational, fairy books, left-over inventory from the bookstore which I kept for myself.
The living room-reading room shelves house most of the coffeetable books on art, history and travel, plus the other half of the pop-up books, the rest of the biographies, and the non-fiction ones that deal on security and terrorism. The chests in the reading room take the load of the Filipiniana coffeetable books and the interior design and crafts books.
My TBRs are scattered all over the house, such a pleasure to pick up a book and read anywhere you want ;-)
I have tried to learn the Dewey system, and implemented my understanding of it for the library of a friend. But for myself, I have used shelfari [only partial, mostly my favorites] and library thing [ the ones I have received from bookmooch] to catalog what I have.
I started an excel file of my books last month, which covered four cubbyholes in the hallway shelf including fiction, history, non-fiction and biography, but am just having too much fun cleaning out the shelves and sorting through the titles to go at the list every day. I guess you can see I having too much fun doing this read and collect and sort and catalogue thing.
In closing, I guess I am a hybrid of the O.C. [wanting everything organized by alphabetical order according to the accepted and very complicated library inventory system] and the spontaneous, as in stuff my books in available spaces and enjoy the surpises that you find whenever you try to locate a book.
I have obsessed about getting my library organized and catalogued but in the same breath, have just kept adding titles which has made it difficult to get going and complete the dream of a usable library database that tells me which title of which author is in what shelf.
While this situation seems utterly self-defeating, in fact, it has a rhyme and reason I understand fully well [and I am sure fellow book addicts will know what I mean]. I cannot imagine stopping the book buying addiction just to make sure all the titles are entered into excel and finally put in their proper place. Where would the pleasure in life be then, no newly bought books to open and read, and no disorganized trove of books to fuss over? I think I will stick to my current organizational pattern or, should I say frenzy: obsess about organizing while continuing to scour the bookstores for more treasures to add.
Thanks for listening. I enjoyed defining my state of book addiction and organization.
I think I will post this on my blog, as is.
[So I have posted, with some tweaks and additions along the way. I am sure the best friend will have the last word on this. Again.]
