OK, the serious post: The size of books vs shelves messes things up a bit. I have one nice wooden bookshelf which is old and can ONLY hold small books. So it has 50s paperback histories (E.g. Horrock's autobiography) etc. I have managed to broadly separate my books by theatre. I haven't got enough books on the war at sea or in the air to need to subdivide those. Tanks as tech go in a separate category.
In theory, subjects are in vertical slices across differently-spaced shelves. In practice: what's organisation?
Do you really need the Dewey Decimal System, or equivalent, for a home library? When I have 12,000 titles to manage I may consider it. For a few hundred books it's overkill. Put them where they fit.
Bearing in mind almost everything is under 940, most of the spines aren't wide enough to accommodate the necessary level of precision. I suppose I could label them along the spines, though.
This. And this. Some are stacked behind cupboard doors, some are upright on shelves, some have even had their dust jackets removed by me cos I hate those anyway. I've just enough to be embarrassed by lack of space even across two rooms and too few to fall into the trap of buying doubles by mistake. I don't separate my books, either by subject or by using dividers. In this house, they all fall under one category: Mine, don't touch!
I used the proximity system whilst I was doing the MAs on WW1 and 2 - every thing relevant to the current essay or dissertation under way was crammed in my study within reach and afterwards a new bookcase was opened elsewhere in the house. So I have a Holocaust bookcase, a Warsaw Rising bookcase, a Normandy bookcase, an Indian Army bookcase (actually 2 ), a Mesopotamia bookcase, a Haig and his generals bookcase etc etc. Now that I've graduated for the 2nd time ( a short leap ahead of the lock down) I sit amongst those relevant to my dissertation on the War in the Teme Valley but I have plans for one more bookcase. I really ought to stir myself and try and reorganise all the books I have accumulated but ....
Roughly by theater, then by size of the book. Within those constraints, biographies and the like together and general information together.
I wanted to be organised, but I became overwhelmed. So I'm with idler ...what organisation? Apart from my political based books which are downstairs, all my library exists in my little office, so I'm never more than 5 feet from what I need.
Steve, 5 ft all to yourself. You lucky man. Mine are scattered around the house. Some stored in containers. Some books are to be tasted,others to be swallowed,and some few to be chewed and digested. Veronica.
Not ... I had a neat system of arranging books on subject in two long bookcases: Ancient Warfare - Medieval - 18th/19th Century battles (Napoleonic wars, American Civil War & Prussian Wars) - WW1 - 1940 - NW Europe 44/45 - Eastern front 41/45 - Arnhem 44 - Ardennes 44/45 - Rhineland 45 - Liberation of Holland 45. But one day the missus decided to arrange them by colours ... I gave up!
I once had a tutor who organised his books so that authors with whom he agreed were close to his desk and ones he did not were cast into outer darkness. For him this worked as, like Mr Corbyn, he hadn't changed his mind in over forty years. Like underpants if you don't change for a long time it gets a bit whiffy in there
Mine are just a mess, but I more or less know where they are...as long as they're vertical, I'm happy....I hate books laid horizontally on top. However, I'm in a minority here and I've run out of shelf space. Basically, books are everywhere and it's simply not possible to tidy them all up at once.
Everything around here eventually swirls down the entropic drain, but I do try to organize my books. Most of what I have is softcover (cheaper, lighter, easier to store). The larger format PBs occupy one large bookcase (No. 1) and 1/2 of a second, the pocket books two shelves of bookcase No. 3. Sticking to military stuff only, general organization of bookcase No. 2 is: 1. General Military 2. Medieval & Early Modern 3. Napoleonic 4. Misc 19th C wars (Mutiny, Franco-Prussian, Sudan, Zulu, American Indian Wars) 5. Korea & French Indochina 6. US Civil War 7. WWI WWII is all in bookcase No. 1. 1. General & Biographical 2. Naval 3. Air 4. 1940 in the West 5. Desert and the Med 6. NW Europe 7. Eastern Front 8. Pacific & Far East Bookcase No. 3 is falling apart and half the military PBs which were on it are sitting around waiting to find new shelf space. I have three drawers full of hardcovers (sorted by WWII, Civil War, WWI & all other conflicts) and lots of military reference books sitting in the drawers and on top of the dresser. I have stacks of the old Ballentine WWII books which are arranged by topic/theater, but I don't have shelf space for them yet either.
Not just a joke... Cleaner reorganises library books in size order Not American but taking the fifth amendment on the disorganisation of my book shelves.