As a book lover, I have come to face the most important question that one can ask themselves: how do I organize my bookshelf? There are many ways to organize a bookshelf and the way you organize can come from what types of books you have to what kind of person you are.
Alphabetical
This is the way that bookstores run the shelves, so it just makes sense that should be the way we organize ours. There are many ways to do the alphabetical method. You can organize by author’s first or last name or even by the books own title. This is one of the simpler ways because you will always know where a book is.
Color
This is one of the most acetic ways of organizing your books. There is something about looking at a bookshelf where all colors are together. It is an extremely silly way of organizing books, since you won’t be able to locate a book right away, but it is the most striking way to arrange them.
Genre
Here is one that is very common if you have a range of diverse genres, but even if you have just YA (young adult) books, you can still organize this way. Many genres have subgenres, just as with YA books, there are graphic novels, dystopia, vampires, and more. This is a good way to organize if you don’t know the titles or authors of your books.
Secretively
This method is having your books spines facing the inside of your bookshelf, rather than our facing the world. This method is a way to keep the mystery alive with your books. It makes you not think about what book you are going to read because you won’t know which book you are picking. It will give your bookshelf a soothing, monochromatic look and it won’t matter what books you are putting beside each other.
Publishers
If you buy a lot of books from a publisher, then this might be the way to go. This way is often for people who work in publishing, but if you like a certain publishing house, then make it so they sit with their fellow book brothers and sisters. You can have all your penguins sit in a row or have your Random House books build a house.
Series by themselves
Series can take up a bunch of room and with the other methods of organization, the series might not sit next to each other or be out of order. For people who have to have things in the right order, this will be a good way for you. This way you can organize the series in a way where they can sit together and then have your other books be organized in another way.
Size
With this method, there are a lot of different ways to do this. You can do it where the page numbers go from smaller page count and then move towards the thicker books or the other way. You can do it where the shorter books are first and then they grow to the larger books. This is another way of organizing books in a fun manner. There are a lot of ways you can organize books by size.
Randomly
You don’t have to even organize your books at all if you don’t want to. This will mix the books and can have a strange mix of books together. Pamela Paul, a New York Times Book Review editor, has said “what I like about that disorder is that it allows that element of surprise and serendipity.” So if you are one that likes being surprised when you pick a book, this is the way for you.
There are many ways to organizing your bookshelf and there isn’t a right or wrong way of doing it. It just depends on who you are and what you want from your bookshelf.