A few days ago, Thomas Otto of Hogglestock posted that his “Century of Books” challenge had lead to a massive book reorganization. Something about his project made me jealous. I didn’t want to take up the challenge; that wasn’t it. Then, the next day, I was meeting with a colleague at her house to talk about a class I’d be assisting with. She got up to look for a book but couldn’t find it. Her books were sort of in order by category, but there were too many places this particular book might have been and we couldn’t spot it. When I suggested that she reshelve the books in a different order, it hit me: I was jealous of people who had the opportunity to organize a library. It’s weird, I know, but there it is.
My home library is in alphabetical order. The last time it was organized was three years ago, when I moved into my house.
I used to keep my books in order alphabetically by genre. I kept the literary fiction, non fiction, and classic titles out in the front rooms of my apartment. The weird stuff, fantasy, comics, and science fiction were in the bedroom. Once I had a room big enough for all my books, I went straight alphabetical. Not only do I enjoy the funny juxtapositions of all the genres, it makes things a hell of a lot easier to find.
Just because I can’t think of a reason to reorganize, it doesn’t mean that I don’t feel the urge. Maybe it’s because I’m a librarian. I have been scratching this itch by shelf reading here and there at work. Perhaps it’s more what reorganizing means. It means an opportunity to take each and every book off the shelf and think about where it belongs. Is a book a mystery or historical fiction? Do I have enough thriller-ish books that they need their own section? Etc. etc. I love thinking about those kinds of questions.
I suspect that, most of all, my jealousy is really about the opportunity to take all my books off the shelf and remembering what it was like to buy them and read them. Touching them again will tempt me into re-reading them. For the books I haven’t gotten to yet (someday I will read East of Eden, I swear), it means bumping them up the to-read list. And, honestly, who doesn’t love just sitting in a giant pile of books, reading the blurbs on the backs or book jackets?
God, I’m a nerd.
My books are in strict order and i remove and dust them a lot.I even cull a few when i buy more.I have under 500 books.Pleased to see a blogger who is tidy.I could not live in chaos.
I know what you mean about the joy of organizing a personal library! I have the books in my office categorized by a heavily modified Dewey Decimal system created by one of my seminary professors, and most of my others by genre (either alphabetical or chronological within genre) scattered across 10 bookcases of varying size. I recently started cataloging my personal library with Readerware software and it’s been a great excuse to rediscover books that I really meant to read and then forgot about.
That level of organization is exactly the sort of thing that makes me jealous! 😀