Books, shelving, and organization

How do you organize your books? And do you think how big your collection is matters? I think there are several things that can work for this, and I've been playing around with this. Mind you, I don't actually have a bookshelf so I've had to get a little creative. Wondering what you guys do. Please share what sort of things work for you.

I've tried by author. But I have a mix of both hard and soft covers by the same authors and that can look sloppy and strange mixed, IMO. I've tried putting books in catoagies like novel, short story collections, essay collections, and poetry. Bit then the works of some authors are split into different categories, and I'm not sure I like that.

What I have settles on is sorting books by color from light to dark. I know there's no real order involve here, but my collection is pretty small. I stacked the hard covers on both ends to act like booked for the soft covers. And then the row of soft covers is also color coated going across my dresser. I have a small stack on my desk that I'm reading and/or want to rad soon. And just to go along with the whole idea of color coding my books. even that little stack goes light to dark, too.

I read this article many years ago (I think it was in Real Simple) that said when things are organized light to dark it sends some sort of good signal to the brain. I don't remember the details of the article, but we'll see if does anything to have by books stacked up and displayed in this manner.

It actually looks pretty cool. And it's not hard to find anything because right now I own 35 books. But I don't think it's ever really that hard to find a book in a personal collection, even one much bigger than mine. I will also mention that I do like how estedicly pleasing it is.

***Also, I'm looking into some sort of shelving. Has anyone here used floating shelves? They look pretty cool. Or do you have any bookshelf recommendations. I want my shelving unit to be pretty sleek and go with a minimalist esoteric or look super modern. Any recommendations are much appreciated. Thanks.

 

Be sure you get something solid and sturdy, not made with that crappy sawdust-glued-together-with-a-laminate-covering that most furniture is made of now. I had to search far and wide and pay a good amount of money to get some bookshelves made of pine plywood, not ground up and stuck together with resin. That particle-board construction is fine for light use, but books, especially if they're bigger than pocket paperbacks, will warp it. Though I've found you can strengthen even particleboard shelves by solidly attaching a couple of 2x4s or something similar underneath as braces. Make sure the 2x4s are upright, rather than horizontal, or they'll warp just as easily. I ended up getting low shelving units (only about 3 feet tall) made for grade schools, which are designed and built to take lots of abuse, because they assume kids will be climbing on them. Well, that and they were about the only ones I could find at the time not made of particleboard.

 

Also, note there are supports underneath each shelf, so there's no more than about a two-foot stretch, maybe only a foot and a half, of unsupported plywood. Even plywood can't take much weight without supports under it, with something as heavy as books. Sure, if it's just some bric-a-brac, or a few little stauettes and display plates or something, but paper, when stacked in the form of books, is heavier than an equal amount of wood, because wood has lots of air spaces inside it, but as paper it's been pulped and compressed—no air in there!

 

Thanks, @Xoic. But I'm not looking to pay top dollar and I have very limited space. That's why I was thinking maybe some floating shelves. I haven' really looked into them, but maybe they make them in solid wood. I don't need a ton of space. Like I said, I currently own 35 books. I'm quick to give books away after I read them if I know someone who might be interested. A lot of by friends do the same, though, I do have some favorites that I like owning and going back to. There are some books I've given away and then bought again. I still don't mind that since I love sharing my favorite authors and books with other readers. Of course, many of my friends offer and try to return books when they are finished, but I often tell them to keep it or give it so someone else. There's a group of us that sometimes do this. I'm not looking to create much of a library. I'm in a small studio. I'm not sure I have much room for a typical bookshelf, but if I can figure something out, that would be great.

Anyone have some good book storage solutions for small spaces?

 

Oh trust me, neither was I! But as I researched I found the majority of sheving units just aren't strong enough to hold books, and I gradually came to realise this is a lifetime investment. Any time you move you'll take bookshelves with you (assuming you own them). But I really didn't need them until I had over a hundred books or so. I don't think you're at a point where you need that.

 

What I was doing with that picture was showing the need to shore up long shelves if you have books on them. You could just cut a couple pieces of plywood or something to the right size and stand them up between some books to hold the shelf above. Or anything thin enough and strong enough to do the trick.

Here's another trick:


Books-2 by Darkmatters, on Flickr

This shelf is made of some really thin wood that wouldn't be able to hold books up on its own, but the solid wooden supports along front and back edges give it enough strength. Something like this can be rigged underneath an existing shelf.

 

@Xoic -- I couldn't fit that in my home. And I don't own enough books to fill it at the moment, but that's not really the problem. I imagine a lot of writers live in small studio apartments. So, where do they keep all their books?

Also, is that a picture of your bookshelf or just a random picture you found? When I look at that it makes me anxious, and defiantly want to introduce some aesthetically pleasing organization into what's going on there. And it looks like that bookshelf might be too small to house all of the owner's books.

 

Aesthetically pleasing organization, like light to dark, works if you don't have many books. If you have a lot you need to organize them by topic or author's name, which is how I have mine.Otherwsie you wouldn't be able to find anything without a long search. Though having these pictures (those are all my shelves) does help me find where certain books are. I can look at the high-def images and read all the spines until I find what I need, and then go pull it out. Of course if I move books around that doesn't work anymore, unless I take new pics.

 

I organize first by series; all books in a series go together. then by author.... so if i've read a book outside of a series by the same author, that goes with the series (if you see at the bottom, i have The Host with the Twilight Saga)

Then, if i have any read-alikes, they go together. example: Chanters of Tremaris trilogy and the Books of Pellinor are similar so they are grouped together.
my graphic novels are together. The books standing uo (and the one laying down) i've had signed by the authors, so those will actually go on a different shelf once i have it mounted.
Nonfiction i have separated to the 2 outer cubes with literature (poetry, plays, shorts story anthologies) in the 2nd cube.
the left cubes (not pictured) are all the books that i bought with the intention of reading lol. so my TBR shelf

 

I would have a hard time committing to a bookshelf for the rest of my life. LOL. But, seriously, the idea of that does freak me out a bit. I'm more than okay with things not lasting forever. There are always people and places that give away free stuff. But I'm not sure where I would put a bookshelf. I don't like the idea of clutter of too mu ch stuff in my small space. I currently don't own a tv, but I have been thinking about getting one. And for that I want a really ridiculously big one that will take up the whole wall, in basically the only space I could put it. I can't complain about the big windows that basically span one whole side of the apartment. It's a pretty cool place to live even though it's very small. This is the smallest apartment I have ever lived in, but it's a really good one.

 

I get it. Just FYI -- It has to go dark to light not light to dark to set off that good thing in your brain. But do you have hard and soft covers mixed. That's something that's always been an obstacle for me when it comes to book organizing. Like when you get a favorite author and you want to read everything they write. This is when I seem to acquire hardcovers most often. Or I guess some new releases in general. Honestly, why do we even have hardcover books? I'm not a fan. But I have always found that separating the hardcovers from the softcovers just looks and feels a little better to me. Totally, a personal choice. I get that.

 

What is you mounted shelf like and how has it held up? The more I think about it, the more that seems like it's probably the best solution for me. But I don't know anyone who has had those kinds of shelves. I would love to get your thoughts on that. And just curious, now do you decide what books you put on the wall vs. your cube shelving. By th way, I like the look of those cubes. I had a friend who had a shelving unit like that that she also used as a room divider between the kitchen and the living room. But my one room ins't big enough to divide.

 

I ordered my shelves from target. they were super cheap (like less than $25), easy to put together, and are stackable. so if i get more books, i can buy another shelf and just fill in the gaps.
They are not the sturdiest on their own (they wobbly when they are empty). but once filled, they stay in place.

 

I love built ins. That sort of solves the whole shelving problem. And you have a fireplace? Lucky.

 

mine look like these (but white wood)


I havent figured out how to put them up yet. my wall is weird... i tried to hang a picture on the same wall where these shelves will go and the nail bent. so i think there is a beam of some sort behind it.

The books that will go on the wall will be the books with significant meaning. the 3 books (soon to be 5) are books where i've met the author, have pictures with them and have them signed.

 

@J.T. Woody -- Those are kind of what I was thinking. Actually those look perfect. How many books do you think fit of each? I think they look cool and sleek. I might even put some down low. Are these called floating shelves or something else. And you've got to get those up, especially since when it's up and the books are there it's going to be quite a meaningful display. When we are both published novelists I'll put your book on my most special shelf if you out me on yours.

 

Fun fact -- The majority of books I seem to read have blue or white covers. I actually have every color except purple. Has anyone seen an adult book with a purple color? I don't think I've come across one.

I was thinking that if I totally want to streamline my little home that maybe I should only buy books with black covers and white covers. That would look pretty cool and I don't think I would ever have a hard time finding books with those two covers. Of course, it would be silly to think I would actually never read a book that had a different color cover. But I'll just try to give those away after I read them or maybe have a small little rainbow collection they I could keep on some sort of nightstand or nightstand shelve. I currently don't have a nightstand.

But then on the wall hanging shelves all the books would be black or white. I think I could even go alphabetically by author and I think a cool design might just emerge. I think that would be cool, but I have nowhere near enough books to really pull that off, and I don't imagine I will anytime soon.

Okay, I would love your thought on what I should do out of these two option. I could do three of four of the hanging ones like @J.T. Woody showed. Or they actually have a longer one that is the size of three or four of these put together. I don't know how to upload picture of anything, but I think you get the idea. Trying to settle into a new life. A life that might have some sort of bookshelf so this is sort of more important than it probably seems. Thanks to all of you who've taken part in the discussion. We all have books and I think it's sort of interesting to see what we all do with them.

 

Oh goodness, you're making me feel embarrassed over here. I have humidity issues with my apartment, so I have to keep my books in bins. I bought metal wire shelves on Amazon ($89-$125 range) and keep the bins there. I have like...over 400 books (need to update my excel chart so I'm not sure), so some of these bins end up being "tables" for my scrapbooking and my keyboard.

 

There are many:

 

(Snap! the Chris McKinney book i just now found out there is a third book! I have Midnight: Water City. I was waiting on Eventide: Water City.... I missed when Sunset: Water City came out! )

 

I'm reading this one now