NP - How do you sort your books?

[Keith Davis]

I asked my English professor/taiji brother this question once, and he said
his method was, "One thousand petals scatter in the wind."

I'm facing the age-old dilemma myself. To cull or not to cull. Already got
at least two boxes ready for the used book store, but they still haven't
managed to make it to the car. Then, at the Nearly New Shop, I saw a great
bookcase for sale, but my 15 year-old dissuaded me, applying the dreaded
"logic". "Dad, where are you going to put it? It's not going in my room!"
Oh well....

On Sun, Aug 12, 2012 at 8:15 AM, Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> Because I sometimes actually have to go and hunt for a book,  and because
> I have several thousand books,  I try to keep my organization simple and
> useful.   I have three rooms of books - one room for fiction, , one for
> non-fiction and one for both but these are newer.   Fiction is organized
> alphabetically by author,  non-fiction by subject-matter.   Each room has
> its own set of books and is arranged separately - the books in one room go
> from A-Z and in the next room from A-Z - no split in the middle - the M - R
> section is not in a separate room.  (heh) .  Non-fiction is by
> subject-matter - old history is in one room and the rest is in the shared
> room for newer books.  Books get rotated into the old book rooms (stacks?)
> as the new book room (office/den?) fills up (over and over).
>
> There is one exception - classics and special books go in a separate
> bookcase - all Pynchon books are there,  for instance,  as well as
> Faulkner,  Nabokov and some others dear to my heart.
>
> All this happened because my library room filled up and so I took the
> older books and put them in other rooms - then I arranged them - it took
> years. (heh)
>
> Moving?  Separate your books into fiction and non-fiction and then into
> old books and newer (or more frequently checked) books.  Then pack into
> boxes.  When you get where you're going unpack the newer books and put them
> into whatever order you want - alpha,  color,  size,  subject,  ? -  and
> shelve.  Leave the older ones until you have time.
>
> When I move or as I get older,  I'm going to trash most of these books -
> all the ones in the back rooms anyway.  I'm not young and  I don't want
> them crowding me out of some tiny space.  I don't want my kids to have to
> deal with all these which are mostly worthless anyway.
>
> Bekah
>
>
> On Aug 12, 2012, at 4:01 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen wrote:
>
> >
> > Colors are very important to me. That's why it always takes so long to
> reorganize. Actually you have to live surrounded by your books to recognize
> the fitting patterns.
> >
> > On 12.08.2012 11:19, Kai Frederik Lorentzen wrote:
> >>
> >> Alphabetically? Hardly! I create nests along genre, color, nationality
> etc. To prevent this from becoming too sterile I place a good deal of book
> completely illogical and add some more or less meaningful installations
>  like, for instance, putting Ratzinger's book on Christian mysticism
> ("Schauen auf den Durchbohrten") in between an introduction to Voodoo and a
> photography book by Nobuyoshi Araki. One effect of this practice is that I
> fear removals (it always takes half a year to reorganize the library).
> Another one that my wife seldom finds a book without asking me. But that's
> OK: I need my personally designed library order to feel - at least a little
> bit - at home in this world.
> >>
> >> On 12.08.2012 10:21, Kris Williams wrote:
> >>> I start with genre, then alphabetically, then they get re-read, then I
> cross reference, after that I spill wine on some pages...next thing you
> know, Hemingway is sleeping with Platt, and Poe watches through a window.
>  Then I start over with genre...sigh...
> >>>
> >>> On Aug 12, 2012 12:34 AM, "Prashant Kumar" <
> siva.prashant.kumar at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> I've had to reorganise my collection recently and was idly wondering
> how plisters do it (if at all), and why?
> >>>
> >>> P.
> >>
> >
>
>


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