Whimpulsive: Touring my TBR Spreadsheet and Shelves

For the past year or so I've done a monthly feature called Confessions of a Serial Reader. This has been all about the differeent series I read. It's time to admit that I've run out of topics for this feature and it's has officially been retired.

I still plan to continue doing a monthly book related feature but take it beyond the series books so naturally the name has to change. In keeping with my commitment to Whimpulsiveness I wanted to leave it open to whatever sritkes my fancy as a monthly topic. From now on Confessions of a Serial Reader will be replaced with Touring my TBR Spreadsheet and Shelves.

I don't have any specific list of topics but I've enjoyed the monthly break from routine posts that Confessions of a Serial Reader gave me and it's time to expand the subject matter.

So lets begin with the basics. The first topic for Touring my TBR Spreadsheet and Shelves is my bookshelves.

My EMPTY bookshelves.

This hasn't happened since the day we brought them home from Costco and put them together.

We had to empty out the shelves so we coud put new carpet down. In the process we donated about 400 books that used to be on the shelves to make room. Now the books we kept are boxed up and ready to return the the shelves along with all the piles of books that were on various dressers, tables and shelves throughout the house.

So I now have the opportunity for a compelely fresh start at arranging the books as I put them back. Honestly this is something I've been looking forward to from the moment that the cleaning and purging for new carpet began.

I know I want to set up a To Be Read section for my unread books and a TBR shelf for The Hubster too but other than that I'm not sure how I want to organize the rest of the books.

I'm looking for ideas and inspiration. I know that I do not want to organize them by color. That's cool as artwork but I need to be able to find the book I'm looking for whether or not I can remember what color the spine might be.

So tell me - how do you have your bookshelves organized?

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7 comments:

Melissa, 9/25/2012 7:06 AM: I know this shocks you but I would arrange them alphabetically by authors last name. If I had many different genres I might first split them accordingly and then alphabetize.

Such a rebel!
Jenn's Bookshelves, 9/25/2012 8:39 AM: I organize bookshelves by genre. Additionally, I have a separate bookshelf for review copies.
ravingreader, 9/25/2012 10:27 AM: My books are split up into fiction and non-fiction, and then sub-split under those titles. Fiction is alpha by author last name (vaguely speaking), and NF is put into related groups such as travel writing, history (and its time periods grouped), and then there is a spill-over shelf where everything is a bit anarchistic... I have just been procrastinating what to do with the contents of that shelf... probably just need to go through them and see what I have...!
Lorraine S., 9/25/2012 11:07 AM: I arrange my books by subject and there are many of them-Paris, France, England,Art, Painters, Books on books, Middle Ages, Enlightenment,founding of America, novels, mysteries, etc. One of the best presents my hubby gave me was when I was away helping my aunt in NYC, he put together 4 sets of bookshelves in our half finished basement with boxes of my books to enjoy shelving. Of course they're now full!
SuziQoregon, 9/25/2012 2:46 PM: Melissa - I had them that way before with the non-fiction separarted from the fiction but with the way our bookshelves are I can easily set up different sections.

Jenn; that's kind of what I'm considering. Maybe going from a 'library' organization to a 'bookstore' type of organization.

RavingReader: Hmm - good ideas thanks for the grouping ideas. I have a feeling I'll end up with some sort of 'spill-over shelf" too.

Lorraine: Nice! Having lots of shelf space helps doesn't it. I need to make sure I put the ones we use the least over on the end by where the treadmill limits access to the shelf.
Les, 9/27/2012 3:54 AM: You would thinking I would arrange mine like a bookstore, since that's what I do almost every day at work! ;) I do have mine alphabetized by author, though... for the most part. An antique bookcase holds classics and "literature" that are nicely bound. These tend to be old books that we bought years and years ago at antique stores. I have a large Pottery Barn bookcase that houses all the fiction books I've read. It overflows to another antique bookcase that also holds my read nonfiction titles. No special order other than alphabetizing there. Then I have all my to-be read books in alphabetical order starting in a bookcase in my office then flowing to the shelves in our bedroom. However, I have 9 stacks of ARCs on the floor in my office. There's no order to those, although at one time I put them in order by release date. Now they're a random mess! Maybe I'll ask for a new bookcase for Christmas... Or maybe I should do a little book-purging myself. ;)

Have fun!
SuziQoregon, 10/02/2012 8:28 PM: Les: Ha! yes that does kind of surprise me that you don't do a bookstore format. I think you definitely need a new bookcase for Christmas.