For some people it is not something that matters much, but for others it is imperative to the owner's happiness. Organizing one’s bookshelf is as important as the rest of the décor of a room and is of personal importance. From aesthetically pleasing to practically organized, there are many ways to structure your library.
Author’s last name. This is a very common method of organization, and it makes it very easy to find what you’re looking for if you are have many books by the same authors.
Title alphabetical order. If you don’t often remember the names of the authors of your books, this way is more helpful, especially if you don’t own many series of books.
Year published. Having your shelves organized based on when the books were published gives you a snapshot of history. This can help you imagine societal progress and changes more fluidly. Mary Shelley’s "Frankenstein"and Andy Weir’s "The Martian," while just on opposite ends of the science fiction timeline, are quite different based on their time periods. Having two centuries of other novels between them can help illustrate how humanity’s concerns have shifted from playing God to extraterrestrial survival.
Series. Many of us hold certain book series dear to our hearts, such as "Harry Potter" or "The Lord of the Rings." If most of your collection consists of series, you can organize them based on the year the first one was published, the name of the author, or the title of the series, as well as other methods.
Height. It can be rather irritating when books next to each other are of very different heights, and it’s always a good feeling to see the tops of books level with each other. Tall books can be put at the left end of a shelf, and they can get progressively shorter as they get to the right side. This will make your shelves look neater and much less jagged.
Length. Sometimes you decide what to read based on the number of pages a book has. At times you feel like reading a long book, and other times you want to read a book in a day or two. Doing this will help differentiate between the shortest and longest read without having to open each book and check the pages every time you feel like reading something.
Rainbow based on the covers. This is a very beautiful method of organization, especially if you have a particularly large bookcase. Books come in a wide variety of colors and even patterns, and putting them in order according to the color wheel gives a very satisfying flow to a room.
Genre and type. Sometimes you just want your books to keep familiar company on the shelf. Jane Austen would probably rather be near the Brontë sisters than next to Jack Kerouac. Gothic novels and physics journals don’t really go together, so it’s best to keep them with their own kind, for your sanity.
Personal favorites. Like liquor, many people would rather keep their best, or favorite, books on the top shelf, and the ones less liked can be on the shelves that are a bit out of the way and get less attention. Ranks can change with time, and you can always reorganize your shelves if you find a new favorite or rediscover a golden oldie.
Country. A lot of classics, as well as newer books, were published in other countries. Some common foreign books Americans read are from England and the rest of the British Isles, as well as France, Germany, Russia and Italy. It can be beneficial to organize a bookcase by the country of publication, because the ideas and authors can have similar backgrounds and motives for writing. For example, Franz Kafka and Virginia Woolf are very different writers, and this is partly due to where they lived.
These organizational methods can be combined for optimal use or satisfaction. There’s something very personal about your bookshelf. It can display not only your interests but also your style. It can illustrate to others what some parts of your mind look like, and it can keep your mind organized for your own future reference.
