BS: How organised is your home library?

Subject: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 06:41 PM

I am doing something I've always wanted to do, but never had the time to do. As I unpack our library, I am entering the titles, etc. into a great FREE software program from www.abebooks.com, so it will finally be catalogued!

Anyway, it's had me thinking about ways to arrange the books on the shelves...this is unchartered territory in this house and it is kind of exciting to think of different ways to go about it. I usually have them grouped by subject, although in a slightly haphazard fashion; someone, a kid or one of us, or a borrower, invariably would put them elsewhere. Now, I am thinking maybe all fiction in one area, alphabetised even(!), non-fiction on other shelves, etc. Or, just alphabetise the whole thing according to author/title? Who knows?! I have plenty of time because I am only entering a few per day.

So...I'd love to hear how you manage your library, please?

Thanks!

kat

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Ebbie
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 06:48 PM

Oh, dear. Not quite as bad as my photo collection but chaotic.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Les from Hull
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 06:49 PM

I would love to have an organised library. I know all about organisation (honest). But unfortunately I have to organise mostly by size, to get the majority of my books on the shelves. The rest of them just hang about in odd spaces giving me nasty looks.

Do we Dewey? Here it's not so much Dewey Decimal, it's more Dewey Avoirdupois!

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 06:55 PM

"Organized"??? "Organized???" What's that?

My language-related and other reference books, like the ancient unabridged dictionary, the etymological dictionary, medical dictionaries, are in one book-stand in the livingroom.

Cookbooks (lots and lots and lots and lots) and a few historical type books are in another bookcase in the family room.

Computer-type books and manuals, along with yet more cookbooks, are in a bookcase in the room that serves as my office/computer room with the two computers.

Some more cookbooks and bound copies of years and years of Gourmet magazine, plus some magic books left over from when I was an active magician, are in a bookcase in the garage.

Miscellaneous music books, and juvenile books (quite a bit of the Oz series, as well as Nancy Drew, Wind in the Willows, and on and on) left over from when our grown kids were kids, are in what used to be my daughter's room.

Everything else is in some built-in bookcases in the family room, in no discernible order.

I may be forgetting some locations and some contents. Actually, it's more organized than I thought when I started to type this post.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 07:12 PM

LOL, that's it for you lot! Here I am trying to reform and all I get...**BG**

Actually, Les, I think we are going to have to do some of them by size to save space, too.

And, Dave! That sounds about like what I've always had, except that for the most part, in our last bigger house, all of the bookshelves were in one large room. This house is so much smaller, I have visions of running shelves along the tops of the doorways and windows, etc. as I've seen done in some of the old New England houses, although their ceilings were a lot lower. I am going to ahve to carry around a step stool regardless.:-)

Night Owl as you may remember, lost everything to a house fire. She's been very encouraging based on her experience with the insurance company and not having an intact catalogue of her really incredible library to go by. If nothing else, take pictures of their spines, in your bookcases, and send them to a friend or put them in a bank box, just so you have some kind of record. There is also a place online which will let you build a catalogue online, accessible from any computer, for about $20 per year. I suppose if one was a bookseller or something that would be helpful.

Thanks a bunch!

kat

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 07:17 PM

The books we use frequently, specifically music, art, gardening and Buddhist studies are well organized. Everything else is survival of the fittest. Haven't seen some of them in years.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Sorcha
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 07:20 PM

Cookbooks in the kitchen (of course!); Celtic Studies/Irish in one bookshelf (fiction and non fiction both--not alpha); SciFi in another, alpha; General fiction in the bedroom; Reference and biography in another in the bedroom; encyclopedia, Western History in the back room; atlas and maps under the TV in the back room. Library books on the music table (the music books are there too of course.) Dictionaries by the computer.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Deda
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 07:23 PM

I have all poetry in one place, all Latin & classics stuff in another (not in perfect order), all children's books in another room (a favorite topic), all bios & autobios together (except for what's with classics), general history stuff all together(ditto), spiritual stuff and whatever I'm currently reading on a bookshelf next to my bed. Adult fiction alpha by author, and everything else on one large bookshelf, pretty much in sections (Shakespeare & drama, foreign languages, dictionaries & reference books, etc.) When I was first confronted with this (when I was first divorced & living alone) I went to the library and got a handout on the categories in the Dewey decimal system, and used that to give me an idea of categories. If I had just done fiction/nonfiction, I would have had too much of a mish-mash. The basic set-up I did years ago has worked pretty well. Have fun! It's a luxury to be able to do this.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 07:32 PM

The general stuff is a complete disaster and we are currently cleaning it out.....If I haven't seen it in years, it goes. We love books but the general stuff is like books fo books sake and just ridiculous.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Don Firth
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 07:37 PM

Hang in there, kat! We've got ours separated first by fiction and non-fiction, then by subject. We haven't got them alphabetized, but within each subject they're categorized pretty much by size to make good use of shelf space. We haven't cataloged them (probably should), but we can usually remember what's where. One thing that helps is that Barbara has worked for umpteen years in the Seattle Public Library.

Both Barbara and I are book nuts, and I don't know how many volumes we have, but most of the walls of our apartment could collapse and we wouldn't know it because of the rows of bookcases (not to mention piles on the floor). Weirdly enough, most of them we've actually read. When some people see our apartment for the first time, their eyes start to glow with envy. Other people think we're nuts!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: harvey andrews
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 07:44 PM

Ah now, books are my real passion. I have a room in our house which is my library. I group by subject for non-fiction and by author for fiction. I award each book I read a score of one to five, if it fails to make five (and there are five+ and five++ categories) it goes to a second hand dealer I sell to, except those fiction authors I collect, Hardy, Simenon, Gissing, Cheever, and Stanley Middleton.But fiction is only a quarter of my library. Favourite categories are music, history, current affairs and biographies and autobiographies of anyone creative in the arts. I've sold complete collections of others like Graham Greene knowing I'd never re-read them at my time of life! I have a record of every book I've ever read since 1973 and if they were still in the house we couldn't move, but the ones I love stay with me.An ideal day out is Hay On Wye, the book village here in Britain, but every town now has its charity shops and its remainder outlets and I'm amazed at what I can sometimes find for a pound or two. At the moment I have some 700 books I haven't yet read on all manner of sunjects. I love them as artifacts..the way they're made, printed, smell, feel.. I could go on, but true bibliophiles know what I mean! Sorry to go on, but it's a passion!!!

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: artbrooks
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 07:44 PM

Paperback SF in the bedroom...about 50 linear feet...alphabetically by author. Hardbound SF (Anne McCaffrey dragon books mostly), mystery (Tony Hillerman) and adventure (Patrick O'Brian) in the living room, songbooks and histories (sorta grouped by era) in the den, cookbooks (3 shelves worth, in no particular order, only two books ever used) in the kitchen, craft books in Jenn's studio.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 08:11 PM

when I was in college and studying, I had a real 'library', and did pretty well by subject matter...now only the SF and cookbooks and music books are 'together' (and Ferrara's art books and bird & flower books, which she uses for design)...

the rest are in boxes or shelves according to best fit!...Tedious!...old Philosophy texts next to guides to beer making and Erotic art...but it can be fun just digging thru and looking--I always find something I had forgotten about.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 08:42 PM

kat, I cannot help you with cataloging (katalogging?) your collection, but if you need more bookshelves, I can supply you with details of a modular system which I invented many years ago (probably been ripped off by now) involving threaded rod and plywood. ULTRA CHEAP and (IMHO) attractive (in a semi-industrial sort of way).

Murray

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: maire-aine
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 10:35 PM

For what it's worth, shelf 1: fiction and poetry(mostly Irish) in the living room; shelf 2-3-4:Irish Art (1600AD+), history & politics, gardening-cooking-crafts and some misc. CDs, between the livingroom and diningroom; shelf 5: music and books waiting to be read in my bedroom where I keep my guitar on a stand; shelf 6-7-8: more cookbooks, Irish language, mysteries and leftovers from college in the spare bedroom. Most everything that I didn't care about went to the used bookstore when I moved. Now I keep a box for the friends of the library and I take that in about twice a year.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 11:00 PM

Organized? Not at all. Messy is the word.

~Masato

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 11:58 PM

Let me put it this way -- how organised is a small town in Kansas the day after the tornado came through?

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Bert
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 12:16 AM

About 50%

The rest is in boxes.

The organized part has a full bookcase for music books and another for cook books and another for home improvement and woodworking stuff.

We have about 1/2 a bookcase for gardening and 1/2 for crafts.
Shelves are allocated for poetry, history, geography, needlework (which has it's own shelves, separate from crafts).

There is one bookcase full of fiction which is completely disorganized.
There are about a dozen boxes of books in the library which are partly organized. Partly meaning that all the non-fiction is organized but the fiction is still in boxes.

Upstairs there are twenty or more full boxes which we haven't got to yet.

Every week we declare a moratorium on buying books and then we go to Goodwill and _ Ah well, you know how it goes, there's this cookbpok for 25 cents and this book about something else and there's maybe a Dick Francis or a Hammond Innes that we can't resist.

WELL YOU DID ASK!!!

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 12:18 AM

The ugly ones - or ones we're not likely to want immediately - go in the 28 bookcases in the basement. This includes old textbooks, reference stuff, and lots of paperbackes that have gotten rather scruffy.

Newer stuff, for general reference and current reading, in the 8 bookcases in the living room. Special sections for the music books.

Business stuff on a half-dozen 6-foot shelves in the office.

Total: 308 lineal feet of shelves, last time I added it up.

What doesn't fit in the bookcases is in piles on various flat surfaces (of course, just waiting to be put away).

Inventory of the more useful stuff (a little less than half) is 1961 titles (as of yesterday evening)

I keep a brief summary of the most recent 1500 or so clipped to the visor in my truck, updated about every third "acquisition trip" - for reference when we go browsing and can't remember for sure if we've already got one.

MY books would be a lot more organized if my partner would just get rid of some of her TRASH!

John

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Sorcha
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 12:24 AM

John's post brings up an interesting question--how many book shelves and how much linear space do you have? I haven't measured the linear, but I have 8 book shelves, most with several shelves. No idea how many books......

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Bert
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 12:35 AM

Ya know I'm beginning to like that John-in-Kansas guy!

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: harpgirl
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 12:43 AM

...my mother made me feel guilty ALL my life for saving anything, especially my books! You people have helped me HEAL! Halllelujah! I only have eight racks of five shelves each at home and three racks of six shelves each at the office...I love books! And it's okay!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Sorcha
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 12:46 AM

Of course it's OK. Alliekiwi has offered to ship me from NZ the British editions of Harry Potter.....she sent shipping prices but not book prices. Waiting to hear that......I do clear out once in a while to make room for new stuff but I am pretty selective about what I clear!

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Blackcatter
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 01:25 AM

Mostly in some sort of subject order - but I just moved and they're in less order than before, because it was important to get them up on shelves and out of the garage. I have several bookshelves in my office filled with religion, history, philosophy, music, art, mythology, folklore, poetry, fiction, literature (there's a difference in our home), general reference, cookbooks, biography, travelogues, archaeology, palentology, etc.

I have my "coffee-table" books on a high shelf now that I share my world with 3 cats who think the coffee table is theirs. My collection of SF & Fantasy short stories collections is in its own cabinet (14,000 + different short stories) as is my Orlando/Central Florida history collection (my job). They are all grouped, with really big books over out of the way, but not alpha-ed within the category.

I spent 3 years shelving for the Orlando Public Library (4 million volumes) so I cna be organized when I need to be. My girlfriend, with whom I just moved in is stunned by the amount of books I have. She's a reader, just not a collector. She's also stunned by the 600+ CDs (200+ Celtic), 35 mm & 2 inch slides, 8mm & 16 mm movies and dozen scrap books I brought into her home.

I love media...

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Sorcha
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 01:37 AM

You're lucky in some respects, blackcatter. My cats think anything on a bottom shelf represents a litter box.......books, videos, knick-nacks.....etc. I totally forgot about the comparative religion, antrho & archaeology texts, herbals and gardening books. (I know what I have and where it's at---it's just the OldBrain not working!)

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 02:33 AM

Hey JIK, do I get to put in MY two cents worth?

The "scruffy" paperbacks in the basement include my lifetime collection of favorite authors: every John D. MacDonald book written, including his two sci-fi novels; some ungodly number of fantasy books, including the 1960s editions of the Tolkein books, well-read (maybe they DO qualify as scruffy); and more mysteries than I want to think about. I don't dare go down there; I'd be lost for days reading the ones I'd forgotten I had!

Upstairs are the (mostly newer) hardbacks, sorted by author name (at least on my side of the room). Until recently, I only had three authors I'd buy in hardback, but that's definitely changed.

Anyone who takes a quick scan of our collection(s) will be able to tell immediately whose is whose. John reads NO fiction; I read very little else. Both of us read too damned much, since neither of us can bear to throw or give a book away once it's in the house.

We desperately need a couple more bookcases to get rid of the ones piled on every flat surface (true story). Unfortunately, the blasted windows take up too much room in this house!

Is there a 12-step program for bookaholics?

Lin

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 02:48 AM

Ah...little puss-pussy ...your library will be organized about the time you start harvesting your garden....the garden you longed for in late winter of this year.

How does that go?
About the girl...who wouldn't hoe?

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Kaleea
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 02:53 AM

I JUST moved, and all of my books, except for about 2 of 'em, are in boxes, unpacked cause the room has a very & tacky deep blue paint with some scary white sponge rollie thingie all over it and the landlady is supposed to paint it. Normally, I organise my library of books according to subject. When I have several books by one author, I place them together. I have very little fiction, except for just a few of the so called "classics." I used to have many more times the books, but after all the unusual circumstances which have had me galavanting across the country in recent years, I have had to let go of many, many favorite books. Sad, cause I love reading, & I love having favorite books around to reread, & rereread again. Now, when I shop in the 2nd hand stores & used bookstores, & see a copy of favorite book which I used to have, I just have to get it for my future reading enjoyment. I have about 3 bookcases with 5 shelves about a yard wide, mostly filled with books. This does not include my music library! That is all in my music studio, and the subject of a bit different topic.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: greg stephens
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 03:53 AM

Recently moved house. Music books are fairly neatly on one set of shelves, but unfortunately you cant get to them as the room is full of heavy cardboard boxes and a giant carnival puppet. My Patrick O'Brien's are however safely lying on the bedroom floor and accessible. First things first.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: harvey andrews
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 05:26 AM

I'd rather read a book
You know I never tire
Of the feel and the look
Of a loved and treasured book
It's all that I desire
And if I have a dream
To which I could aspire
It's just for a little nook
Where I can read a book
Alone and by the fire

Chorus of "I'd rather read a book"

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: harpgirl
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 08:26 AM

but see Scorch, I'm still getting over being raised by Mrs. Earbore of Grosse Pointe. She has pristine white carpet in the ancestral condo.

On a happier note, I have been adding to my Gertrude Stein collection lately from E-Bay. What joy! I have "A Wife has a Cow" now with Juan Gris lithographs.......hg

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 10:48 AM

Like many other people, my Beautiful Wife and I are always overcrowded in our book storage.

From time to time I'll say, "We've GOT to get rid of some of these books!" And I'll name a number of them that we both know we'll never read or refer to again.

Her answer is predictable: "But THAT'S a CLASSIC!"

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 11:04 AM

Hahaha...Mister-At-Your-Fingertips-Masato, you expect us to believe that "messy" stuff?! If so, it must be a well catalogued messy! **BG**

DaveO, we used to have the same conversation. Now, I really am downsizing. I have piles to go to kids, to friends, to auctions, and to shelves. When I get done there will still be plenty on the shelves!LOL..

kat

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Wesley S
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 11:07 AM

Yes - all of the music is alphabetical by style. The books are a little less organized but I know where everything is - usually.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: MMario
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 11:31 AM

can you say "no organization whatsoever" - I've got about 5000 I haven't unpacked from the move 20 years ago - a couple of bushels of books sitting in the woodbin - three walls of bookshelves in my room - several garbage bags full in the closet - and maybe a hundred probably in the car.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Sorcha
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 11:37 AM

I'm probably gonna get in big fat trouble for this, but do you guys know about Half.com? It's an ebay site. Lots of goodies and you can make a Wish List.....

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Ironmule
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 12:18 PM

If there's a twelve step program for bookaholics I don't want to know about it...let my heirs try to deal with the collection.

I suffered great trauma when I had to sell my library about fifteen years ago. I couldn't afford the freight to move from Oregon to Florida with more than I could pack into a Datsun pickup. Then I got a job as a bookstore clerk and the bookaholism previously contained by poverty, ran wild.

17 sets of bookshelves comprising 194 linear ft. About 20ft of LP's, tapes, CD's. 20 boxes of scruffy books, magazines to be clipped when I get around to it, clippings to be sorted and filed. Oh, yes, the mantle over the fireplace has 4ft of the books I meant to read next.

My first pass through the ERHamilton catalog this past month resulted in $600 worth of books I MUST have and my attempts to trim the order were interupted by the arrival last night of the new book catalog.

My name's Jeff and I'm a bookaholic.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: MMario
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 12:22 PM

Just send me one of everything in the library of congress - it'll do for a start.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 12:34 PM

Kat: I don't know why you disbelieve Masato, Many people will have a messy desk, or work area, with everything piled on top of everything else (or vice versa), but if it stuff they use they will be able to put their hands on an item almost immediately.
"A tidy desk is the sign of a sick mind!"

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 12:37 PM

LOL, I was just teasin' him, Nigel....you should see the top of my desk, er....if you could that is!

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 01:03 PM

For my library to be organized, I would need a much larger room (rather rooms). Part of my books are in cardboard boxes in other rooms and the storeroom. Sometimes I can't find a book which I think I have for days or weeks, or even don't know whether I've got the one or not. All information is in my brain only. My room, from the eye of the ordinary people (my wife is one), is definitely "messy," which I'm not proud of.

~Masato

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 01:26 PM

Masato, please know that I did not mean to offend you. It's just that you are so knowledgable and swift with answers to queries that I thought to tease a bit. Please accept my apology.

Thank you,

kat

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 02:41 PM

MMario, try the Vatican Library. It includes pretty much all of the LOC and a lot of 'disappeared' materials as well.

I am considering moving so that I can have more wall space for my books and paintings. My current categories include: Maritime general reference, maritime history, maritime fiction, music, sea music, musical history, music magazines, religion and philosophy, classics, books that should be classics, science fiction [My collection of Analog/Astounding used to go back to the '50's], fantasy, mystery, John D. MacDonald, labor law and 'other.' The floor is almost full because there is a pleasand perversion in some areas of Brooklyn--when people are done with a book, they put it and its kin on the stoop so others can pick through them. Books don't get shelved until I read them and decide whether or not to keep them. I am so far behind I may never die.

Some stuff is still not unpacked from my last move, 6 years ago.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Hollowfox
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 05:32 PM

Ask WYSIWYG when she gets back what my place looks like. *g* I'm down to 40 boxes of books I don't have room for on the bookshelves, but a couple of years ago it was 257, so I'm getting there. The subjects are starting to migrate to recognizable places. In a week or two, I'll start putting more stuff on the aucion.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 10 Aug 02 - 05:17 PM

I'd need at least another shelf, but by and large I know my way about my books! Far from realissing my dream of entering them ALL, with ALL particulars, including key words, into the database! (The d. is there - it can even distinguish between books, articles and magazines, and tell me who I lent all the missing books to ...)

Back to music:
Harvey, would you pleeeease post the rest of those lyrics??? They're the only ones missing from the sleeve of my Hypertension LP, and I'd love to have them.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Aug 02 - 08:44 PM

Mine is organised to the extent that all the books are in one house.....

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 10 Aug 02 - 10:16 PM

Blimey, I thought I had book problems! Small, as it turns out, compared to some of you lot. Mind you, the loose stuff in box-files is getting a bit out of hand, and my desk (nearly the size of a double bed) is pretty well invisible most of the time...

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Blackcatter
Date: 10 Aug 02 - 11:56 PM

Did yall know that the Vatican Library is the best place to go for books about naughty things? The problem is they really don't let you come in and browse. It's interesting that an organization where nearly every employee is supposed to be celebate has the world's most extensive collection of sex books.

One thing my girlfriend and I are trying to resolve - she reads Horror and I read SF. We both read Fantasy, but radically different authors.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Aug 02 - 12:52 AM

It used to be fairly well organized...music books here...spiritual/new age/yoga/and so on there...airplane books there...books about ships there...biographies there...

Oh, and the William Shatner wing, which of course was/is massive... (heh! heh!)

Lately it's not so well organized as before. That comes from living under 2 roofs, and going back and forth all the time.

Beam me a bookshelf, Scotty!

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Hrothgar
Date: 11 Aug 02 - 06:54 AM

It might be a good idea to move to a bigger house to have room for the books, but what if there are too many books to move?

And it's no damn good saying "Get rid of a few" because if I didn't want them, I wouldn't have bought them in the first place!

I don't think I'm in as much trouble as some people, though. All I have is about 200 lineal feet of books, and about 40 feet of LPs, CDs, and tapes. The big decision will have to come one of these days - instead of sleeping in the big bedroom, and using the small one for a library, I'll have to swap.

At least I have them sorted - fiction in alphabetical order, non-fiction by category (and even sub-category, as the song books are broken up into Australian, English, Scots, Irish, American, and other, as are the folklore and history).

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Aug 02 - 10:42 AM

Hahaha! Hrothgar! That's what we've already done! We moved into this house and took the really small bedroom so that we'd have room for a "library/office" in the bigger one!*bg*

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Schantieman
Date: 11 Aug 02 - 11:22 AM

Fiction in one bookcase (with a bit of poetry & drama at the end); songbooks, humour and stuff like that in another; one for reference, biography & history & one with sailing, other nautical/naval stuff, climbing (inc. guidebooks) & other sports. (Climbing and sailing are surpassed only by cricket in the quality of writing about them, and probably not by much!). Oh, and cookery books on the kitchen windowsill (leaving room for the basil).

There are always those that fit into more than one category though. What do you do with Chichester's autobiographical account of sailing round the world? Or historical stuff about the birth of rock climbing in the 1880s?

The problem is repeatedly having to find room for new acquisitions as I can't bear to throw away books. I have been known to rescue them from skips!

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: DMcG
Date: 11 Aug 02 - 11:27 AM

All your books are in one house? The books I still have are organised to the extent that I can find them but the books I've lent to other people are another matter. I generally have not a clue who I've lent things to, or when. I only get them back when someone else tidies up their bookshelves ...

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: GUEST,Burke
Date: 11 Aug 02 - 02:36 PM

This thread is great for me.

I moved recently, so my books are almost all still boxed up in the 'dining' room. My old place had built in shelves so I need shelves before I even begin to unpack!

I keep an eye out for large flat boxes, about a paperback deep. I put the books I've read in spine up, trying to keep authors together, & slide them under the bed or stack them in a closet.

Cheap shelfing suggestions are welcome.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Blackcatter
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 01:23 AM

I've mostly given up lending books to people - It seems that 50% of those lent never make it back to me. I've slowly gotten rid of those friends over the years who have not returned books - for some reason I can't bring myself to ask for them back, but that's another issue.

Umm - when I say that I've gotten rid of friends - I just mean that I don't really include them in my life anymore. Books are important, but killing someone over a the autobiography of the Dali Lama seems a be extreme.

I have too many CDs, but a couple years ago I went to a 400 CD changer and my life has been simplified in so many ways. I have rid myself of all the storage space for 400 CDs in cases, recycled their cases, put their booklets in a couple CD storage albums which friends enjoy looking through, I listen to more music now than ever because with the pressing of a few buttons I have nearly 400 hours of music at my fingertips, I don't touch or drop the CDs and I almost never lend them out because it's a pain to remove them (at least thats what I tell people). My only limitation is that I have over 600 CDs, which means I still have a bunch to deal with, but a lot of them are odd things, holiday music, 50s & 60s pop compilation CDS I play mostly at dances at church and the such. Those I can play in my DVD player. Of course, I might need to get a DVD changer as well...

yeesh. Thank goodness my honey loves me.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 02:48 AM

Oh, oh, kat - you're raising a big problem for a professional librarian with a vast private owned library. Shame on me!
When I inherited my grandfathers library at the tender age of 15, it was well organised in a big bookshelf 3 m broad, 1,80 m high. It contained mainly the famous greenback edition of German classics (including Shakespeare because of the classical poets translating him), a lot of books about modern art (1900 - about 1914), and history, general and local. It is sorted alphabetically.
Then I started to collect books and soon I had to remove some books to the atic into an old big cupboard, now full.
I added 7 m of shelves, 2 m high, and there isn't a free place any more.
I sorted the books into subject groups: Classic literature, Greek texts, Latin texts, modern literature since 1900, linguistics (subdivisions: classical, semitic, pidgin, and other languages (each divided into dictionaries, grammars, texts)), history (general, local, county, land, state, military, universities), local poets (mostly writing dialect), field manuals, German and foreign armies, soldiers' language. Those I try to put into my central library room.
The literary texts are sorted alphabetically, the other ones according to subjects and epochs. The field manual section is sorted in epochs and numbers.
Pocket books (subdivided German and English) fill a lot of meters, sorted alphabetically.
In the bed room I have stowed some favourite poetry and the erotic books (where else?).
The musical section is on a hanging shelf in the stairway, in another military fiction.
Books not needed so often are also in a lot of boxes, crates, and valises in the attic.
The new books are on my desk, on the floor, on cupboards - help, I'm asphyxiating in books! If I wasn't a librarian at an university library, I would buy more and more.
Are there Bibliomaniacs Anonymous somewhere? Tell me

Wilfried

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 04:26 AM

LOL, Wilfried...I think someone else, earlier in the thread, did the "Hi, I'm (insert your name)and I'm a bookaholic/biblioholic." I say wherever two or more are gathered, eh?**BG**

Blackcatter, I don't lend books anymore except to my oldest sister. She knows I want the ones back which have my name, otherwise she is free to do whatever with them. Those are mostly popular fiction, mysteries and the like.

I have taken great pleasure in giving books away. It's liberating and feels so good because the giftee is someone who shares my love of books.

One thing good, after this thread Rog can never accuse me of having too many books! I feel quite sane when I read the amount some of you have!**BG** Though, until I get mine unpacked, maybe i shouldn't be gloating too much. What seemed like just a few books to me has already filled 24 linear feet and, at that, they are piled on top of each other.

Murray, I made need those cheap bookshelf plans!!

Here's another question for you all: how many of you have your own bookplates and what do they look like? OR, do you just scrawl your name inside. Any favourite sayings? My dad used to write:

Read me, bend me,
Tear me, lend me (or, burn me),
But, damn your hide
Return me!

kat

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Escamillo
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 06:24 AM

Organized home library is an oxymoron.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 10:28 AM

BTW, isn't moving large quantities of books grand fun? The only thing that beats it IMO is moving a really huge vinyl record collection. I helped a friend do that once...Johhny Death. He has about 50,000 vinyl albums. It took a group of 10 people all day to do it. I fervently hope he never moves again.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 10:43 AM

I don't have bookplates and never put my name in a book. IF I ever decide to sell it, writing ruins the value. Not that I really buy books as an "investment" anyway....just a quirk of mine. I have one friend I will loan books to--she feels about them the way I do.

Cheap shelving--bricks or masonry blocks and 1x6 utility pine (for paperback) or 1x12 for larger books. Even cheaper shelving--heavy duty cardboard boxes all the same size. Something like orange boxes or heavy waxed chicken boxes. These usually have nice lids. Sometimes they still have a little blood in them but because they are waxed you can scrub them out carefully.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Mr Red
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 10:54 AM

Folk - its in a box, all the loose music is in a box file but that's as organised as I get.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Llanfair
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 11:09 AM

It's amazing that you chose now to tackle this subject, Kat, because I'm just in the process of rationalizing my collection.

You see, husband Jim took over our sitting room for his computers/studio/music room, so we have been using the dark back room to sit in. I had the brilliant idea of knocking the back two bedrooms into one large sitting room to overlook the garden. Our house is set in a hillside, you see.

Of course I can't clear the space until I've sorted the books.....hundreds of them....into the new bookcases I've had made out of battening and pine floorboards, and they are everywhere!!!!

Perhaps someone with some time on their hands could organise a GREAT MUDCAT BOOK SALE online to boost the funds!!??

Cheers, Bron.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 11:23 AM

re: Lending books I have found it simpler not to lend any book I want back. Part of the solution is to buy a duplicate for a friend I would really want to allow to read a book of mine. On the other hand, there are a very few friends (not acquaintances) with whom I pass books back and forth regularly. While I do not value the books above my son, even he is not exempt from this rule.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Ironmule
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 10:54 PM

As said by EBarnacle, I buy books for friends who ought to read something I liked. When I was a lender I ended up buying some books three times, in order to re-read them when the urge came over me. The library I had to sell was 3000 or so paperbacks I'd read twice or more, plus a couple hundred I'd read once and was thinking about: keep or trade (twofer) at the used bookstore. I usually could give directions and quality reports on the used bookstores for three counties ;^)

I used to write "This Book Stolen From the Library of Jeff Smith" in the front of my books, but my friends just borrowed them anyway and laughed.

Hi, my name is Jeff,,,and I'm an unrecovering bookaholic.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Blackcatter
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 01:04 AM

I used to use milk crates "liberated" from grocery stores (they were inherited from 2 roommates in college) to prop-up my pine boards for bookshelves. It opened up even more space than concrete blocks and they were easier to move. The problem was that I put so many rows of books on top of them that one day a few years ago, one on the bottom actually gave way and my books toppled to the ground.

I now have real bookshelves, but not enough of them, so I use pine boards to bridge the gap between the shelves. One thing I did to spruce up the pine boards was to wrap them in fabric - using staples underneath to hold the fabric. The fabric also keeps books from slipping.

I've always hated spending money on storage media - shelves, tape cases, etc. - I keep thinking that if I spend money on storage, I could be buying more things to store instead.

My name is Tom and I'm a biblioholic.

pax yall

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 01:49 AM

This time I am determined to keep all of the shelving away from the floor...too near "spray" level for the macho, yet neutered boy cats. So, we have bought the metal rods which attach to the wall with screws, they are actually flat. There are metal supports which fit into slots at either end, as many as we can fit, fully adjustable, on which long shelves rest. We have one wall with that now and it goes to the ceiling with five shelves, so I now will have to get a sturdy ladder to reach. There are plans for more of those as time to put them up and budget permits. Now that I am cataloguing there doesn't seem to be too great of a hurry!:-)

Llanfair...your room sounds lovely!

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 01:49 AM

I have a few ideas on a) classificatory sorting and b) efficient shelving which might be of use, Kat. The sort system should really be determined by what you have rather than the LC system: it sounds obvious and it is. The question is: how do you think of your books? What sort system is already in your head? My stuff is mostly non-fiction, and I collect in my areas of interest, but these of course are not fixed. If someone gave me the start of a library of spot-welding, why, that's what this week's reading would be. My main area of interest is European history 1914-1991 (what Hobsbawm called I think "the short 20th century") but I've also got lots of other stuff, c. 800 linear feet (not all of which is mine: I'm also archivist of our Vancouver Folk Song Society). As to the efficient shelving: I've got a few thousand Penguins and Pelicans (including nearly all of the first 1000 (1935-1960)), and these I shelve floor to ceiling in shelves fractionally bigger than the books. It makes it hard to get a single book out, but you can get a whole lot of book in a fairly small space (it gives you an insulation of about R12, too!). The rest of the books are also floor to ceiling on most walls of the house, though the living room and kitchen are book free. I sort by subject and then subsort on two adjacent shelves for height: a paperback shelf and immediately below it a shelf for bigger books.

My personal belief is that a book in a box is not a book, so all my books are out and visible (though many I don't refer to/look at for ten years or so!). Success with your planning!

Jon Bartlett

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: harvey andrews
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 06:18 AM

As I thought, for many Mudcatters books are as important as music. Is there a Mudcat type place for bibliophiles? It would be great to have this sort of forum on literature, authors, collecting etc.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Big Mick
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 10:59 AM

There are people that have disappeared into my office/library and have never been seen again. The books are jammed into nooks, crannies, shelves, cats, dogs, under things, on top of things...............going to have to move the kid out to the shed and make room for more........I simply must own every written word ever written.......

Is there a better moment with a kid than when you have them smell the pages of an old book, and then watching there faces when you show them that they can be anything, do anything, visit anyplace, just by reading these pages? Or when you effect the characters for them, create the moods for them, just by reading?

Is there anyplace better on earth that a used bookstore............except heading for a hill with a whistle and a good book?

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 12:34 PM

Ode to a book (needs a little work)

Let me slip into something comfortable
Between your pages there,
Amidst the knights of olden times
And all the ladies fair.

Or, I'll join Spider in another space and
Time will be a distant past
The future the here and now
In imaginations cast.

(The rest won't come just now...please feel free to add on!)

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 02:02 PM

In my collection there is the virtual organization and then there is the collection of boxes all around my house that is being remodeled. If you're serious about cataloging your books, Kat, find a copy of Endnote. I use that for scholarly applications, and can organize anything there--photocopies, journals, etc. I just make a note in the entry about what it is: book, copy, journal, not in my collection (if I couldn't buy a copy, etc.)

I am working on shelves, staining a set of nude shelves out in the garage. One's in the house already. Not the best stain job in the world, but heck, once I get the thing into the house and fill it the only part that will ever show is the outer edge, so I'm trying to be really neat out there. ;-)

I am the daughter of a reference librarian, my mother was an avowed biblioholic, so there is no hope for me. I work in a university research library where, despite all of he innovations on the internet, we still have well over a million BOOKS.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: GUEST,Wordless Woman
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 02:45 PM

I've thousands of book organized by subject, two-thirds of which have been catalogued in an Excel spreadsheet that includes such details as purchase price, first edition, antique, used, etc. The catalogueing takes forever - I always want to dip into the book I pick up. Most are neatly stowed on shelving in logical areas: computers and business in the study, cookbooks in the kitchen. If you're having a clear out and decide to scale down by a book or two, check out bookcrossings.com. You can register you book before you release it into the wild. When you think back, wasn't learning to read one of the most joyous events in your life?

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 01:17 PM

Well, I thought I'd report back on my very slooooowww progress. We finally got another long shelf up last weekend and promptly filled it to the ceiling. Today, we've put up four more and I am ready to unpack.

I have failed miserably at cataloging...only put a few in, then realised how tedious it is and something to be saved for wintertime, perhaps.:-) How's that for procrastination? (Well, I was working on two books of my own, too.:-)

I also do not have them in any order at the moment, but my rationale is, I unpack, put them up, see what is where, THEN put them in catagories. I don't know why they weren't packed that way, as they were shelved that way before we moved.

Anyhow, reading that Joe Offer has 4-500 songbooks alone and knowing what the Paton library must be, HEAVEN!, as well as Masato's, prompted me to refresh this. It also gave me an opportunity to point out to Rog that we really have whittled our collection down so that it doesn't seem so ponderous.**BG**

Thanks,

kat

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 04:37 PM

Unless one hires a full time librarian, cataloging the books is a lost cause. 20 years ago the books were starting to get out of control; today I can't even store them in boxes in any kind of real order. It's too late for me but you may still have a chance; no matter how rare, how wonderful, how desirable that book is, get rid of it as soon as you're done with it. I have 37 full cartons of books scattered around the house and the shelves are still over flowing. There is no hope for me.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Tinker
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 10:06 PM

Kat what a wonderful thread !! Fourteen years ago when we moved to Jersey the movers told us not to call them again unless we got rid of the books..... We moved around the block two years ago by ourselves and the books continue to multiply.
We tend to divide them by rooms.The family room overflows with children's books up to about grade five. After that they get kid specific and are usually in bedrooms. The Living room gets history, pre-WWII girls series, poetry, biographies and classics ( and current reads) The Den has hubby's business books, my religion books, child development books and some music. The Dining room holds the rest of the music and the instruments. Overflow business books live in the foyer with a few classics, Mysteries, Science fiction and Espionage overflow in the master bedroom. The upstairs landing has a miscellaneous hodge-podge. My sixteen year old discovered an old box of romances (bubblebath books) that seem to be claiming space in the bathroom.

NO attempts to cataloge have ever been successful, but we've mostly been able to file them in the right room.

And yet I have two middle school boys who can look me in the eye and say there is nothing in the house to read... go figure...

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 01:43 AM

Tinker,

That's actually an excellent layout you describe. I grew up with that kind of setup, books everywhere, but with some design going into in what room general subject matter lived. But right now I'm unpacking boxes and using Kat's approach--just get them out of the box now (I hired a couple of students to help me pack three years ago, so they put things in according to size, not subject). Once they're out, I'll figure out 1) how many subjects I want to sort them into and 2) how many bookshelves I want to build around the house. I already have plans to build a tall set that straddles the window in the front room (tv and piano live in there). That will house a lot of paperbacks and history stuff. I wonder if a wall of books help or hinder accoustics of the room?

We have tons of journals of various sorts, things the kids were given subscriptions to that are now cannibalized for photos for reports, etc. And though I take them in to my office regularly, there is a critical buildup in both bathrooms of The New Yorker. ;-)

Maggie

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 02:28 AM

My system is simple.

- If I've had it recently, it's on the top of the pile.
- If I haven't had it recently, it's at the bottom.
- If I can't find it, it's the wife's fault.

Doug C

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 11:14 AM

A wonderful story our late Latin teacher told us:
In the park, on a bench, he talked to a retired judge, about 80 years old. This man had his house burned down by accident, and with the house his entire library of several thousand volumes. "Finally I'm free" was his comment on the sad story.

Wilfried

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 03:23 PM

As much as I love books, I have recently found another way to get at new books without taking up room at home. I go to Barnes and Noble and sit in one of their nice, upholstered chairs and read.

Upon finishing it, if I like the book enough that I will want to read it again or refer to it, I buy it. If not, it gets reshelved. I have saved myself from buying quite a few average books this way.

Libraries are good, too. the only problem is the deacquisition bin.

My son is learning the system, too, as his collection is already outgrowing his available volume.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: SharonA
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 03:51 PM

Organized????? Hahahaha HAHHHH hahahaheeheeheehahahahaha Oh, that's just too funny....

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Schantieman
Date: 05 Nov 02 - 12:39 PM

When we moved house several years ago the removal man came to do an estimate. On looking at the library he said, "Hmm. You've got more than three books."!

...which raises the question: If you could have only three books, what would they be?

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Nov 02 - 01:01 PM

Dictionary, a BIG, unabridged one, probably OED; a collection of my own writings:-); and, either a THICK collection of Shakespeare (I have two volumes from the early 1800's with a few plays in each.) OR, my grandma and my dad's stories in book form. I never tire of reading their stories.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: SharonA
Date: 05 Nov 02 - 02:25 PM

I'm with Kat on the unabridged dictionary and a book of the complete works of Shakespeare (with a magnifying glass to read both books!), and I suppose the third would have to be a book of the complete works of Mark Twain.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Schantieman
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 09:39 AM

...and a friend of mine suggested the Bible as one. Even for a devout atheist like me, there are some good stories in it!

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 01:52 PM

My parents moved summer a year ago out of the house I grew up in -- 40+ years in 4 bedrooms and a full basement -- into a two-bedroom apartment in a retirement community. An amazing quantity of stuff is crammed into that apartment, and they rent a storage unit of some size, but I know that large quantities of Stuff, including *lots* of books, just went to the dump. I live on the other side of the continent and couldn't really help much.

The thought of all those books... it was a cautionary experience. Sort of. (Says she who's got several e-bay-purchased books in the mail as we speak, and that order coming from Andy's Front Hall, and the CDSS order that hasn't found shelves yet, and...)

My name is Becky and...

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Mooh
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 02:42 PM

Books by subject (generally), except fiction which is sorta by author. Recordings alphabetically. Music books by size to available shelf space, or genre, depending. All else by forgotten piles. All subject to change. Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 04:09 PM

Last night, a friend asked me for an information file that was not yet officially sorted [after 6 years] and I was able put my hands on it in less than 5 minutes. Amazed me, too.

Who sez it should all be neatly arranged?

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: SharonA
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 04:28 PM

The Lone Arranger, I guess!

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 04:36 PM

For those who need more bookshelves:

I recently noted that the shelves built in by the former owners in our office were beginning to suffer "book fatigue." A "tallish" book that would fit at the end of the shelf wouldn't go in in the middle.

I solved the immediate problem by cutting some inserts from scrap plywood to the (original) distance between shelves, and standing them up in the middle to spread the load. (My trusty bumper jack was a big help in raising the shelves to wedge the spacers in.) Once in place, they're quite securely "clamped" so I didn't feel the need for fasteners.

The shelves in question are "real wood," a full 3/4 inch thick (x 7 inch deep) but have a span of about 5 feet. Fairly typical for "decorator style" bookcases often found in furniture stores. These shelves, and many commercial bookcases, are not meant to be filled with books.

I've had good success with home-built rough shelving (the stuff in the basement) with shelves up to about 32 inches long at anything over 1/2 inch thick, wood or particle board; but anything longer (or thinner) than that will eventually sag - sometimes enough to dump the contents.

The 16 "rough storage" bookcases I built some years back were all made from "round-nosed shelf" particle board, which is available in the lumber section, 5/8 or 3/4 inch thick, usually 10 inches wide, currently at about $.80 (US) per foot. Half inch thick without the rounded edge may be found for around $.30 per foot. Either of these works fairly well up to the 30 inch span, but if you want a longer "unbroken" shelf length I would strongly suggest that you insert a "spacer" every 30 inches or so. (If you cut a piece of the round-nose off and paint it - it looks like a book.)

For comparison, in the "shelving" section, the nicely laminated 1/2 inch thick, 42 inch long "shelves" are about $6 - $9 each at my local suppliers. And they will sag at the lengths commonly sold if you load them with books.

After extensive "comparison shopping" I concluded that I cannot buy the wood necessary to make the wooden bookcases for less than the $100 each we paid for the "commercial" (Oak Express) units we got for the living room. (finish and trim would be extra).

At the time, I estimated $32 each for 6 foot tall by 32 inch wide particle board units with 6 shelves, including the "clip strips" and clips to make the shelves adjustable. That would probably run nearer to $40 or $45 now.

The only tools used for the first few units were a "skill saw," hammer, and screwdriver. (It did get a little easier when I acquired a table saw.)

If you want to consider the particle board option, there are a few observations that may be helpful:

1. A "normal" saw blade doesn't last very long. Get a carbide tipped blade - $4(US) each in "contractor" grade. (Although you can spend up to $40 or so for one, the cheap ones are good.)

2. I used wallboard screws (meant for plasterboard) for structural joints. They are "self-tapping," with a "drill point" and they even have a little ridge under the head that "cuts them in" so they go flush. They will occasionally "break out" when you drive them into the edge of a particle board panel though, so it's good practice to drill a pilot hole first. They are a lot cheaper than other kinds.

3. Wood screws don't work very well, since they're tapered and "expand" the hole as they go in. If you can't find the wallboard screws, sheetmetal screws (no taper) work better than wood screws.

4. Nailing should be limited to brads. Even a #4 nail frequently spits a 5/8 thick board if driven into an edge. (predrill a pilot hole, if you must use larger nails.)

5. Particle board should be used only in dry locations. This means nowhere that the humidity stays above about 70% for any extended period.

6. Always cross-brace something like a bookcase, even if only a 6 inch wide strip of plywood or laminate across the middle. You can't make a corner joint strong enough to prevent "paralellogram sag" /_/ otherwise.

Movers refer to particle board as "explode-a-board" because it comes apart so often. I hate using it, but it's the cheaper (? less exhorbitantly expensive ?) material, and it works within its limitations.

John

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 04:45 PM

Gee, my </i> is all there in my Word version that I pasted, but only the > came through the past. Apologeeezes.

John

stuck them back in for you no worries - el joeclone -

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 09:57 PM

John,

All good advice. I bought some "nude" bookshelves on a sale over Memorial Day and finally moved the last one into the house last month. Staining them out in the garage took me a little while. These are double wide, with furniture grade plywood and veneer throughout. They look good, and are very well balanced. I'm going to be building more shelves as I need them (let me rephrase that--I need them already--I'll build them as I have time) and will be raising the base off of the floor and making sure it is level. These new ones stand straight (don't lean back) and feel very solid. The footer on these is important to their stability. The weight of the books as it fills are what keep it in place so well. These WERE built for books, not for display shelves!

One of the do-it-yourself shows had an episode on building tall shelves that look built in. It involves a base to set them on and a topper (don't know the architectural term for the board that continues up the from and meets the ceiling and makes it look built in). This is because you can't set shelves up in a room if you build them elsewhere if you build them as tall as the room itself. You have to take into account the angle required (front bottom edge to the top back edge, when viewed from the side) to put it in place (assuming you bring it through a door lower than the ceiling and have to tip the shelves back upright).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 01:23 AM

SRS -

You can find good solid bookcases for fairly reasonable prices. The "unfinished" stuff is often pretty sturdy. As mentioned above, I really wanted to build my own for the living room, just for the pleasure of making something nice. But the cost of materials made it a whole lot more sensible just to buy them. (Of course, it took a lot of comparison shopping to find the good deal.)

And, as you pointed out, the longest diagonal of the case needs to be less than your ceiling height if you're going to get them in.

Another caution that should be mentioned: lots of newer homes come with wall-to-wall carpet, because it's cheaper than a real floor. This means that there's a nailer strip along each wall - sometimes to as much as 2 or 3 inches out. This strip holds the back of a tall piece of furniture up enough to make the danger of pulling it down on top of you very real. If you want them to stand straight, you may be forced to set the base out a couple of inches. If in doubt - screw them to the wall - so you don't end up with flat children.

I solved the nailer strip problem on a few of the homebuilts - the ones that we used "indoors" - by notching out the back "footer;" but this may not be a reasonable thing to do with the way most "store-boughts" are put together.

I've never thought it "efficent" to go for the "built-in" look, because the top of the case is another shelf - expcially for those odd sized things that don't fit a normal shelf spacing.

The other "good tip" I've learned after we started running out of walls: If there's an electrical outlet on the wall where you're putting a large piece of furniture, always plug a short extension cord in before you place the furniture (bookcase) and leave the end where you can get to it. Eventually you'll want to plug in a lamp to look for a book.

John

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 02:49 AM

Flat chldren? LOL!

We had good solid prebuilt from a discount store, but I hated the shelves going all the way to the floor as the books gathered so much cat hair and dust. Also, one boy cat thought they made a great place to spray, even though he was neutered. So, even though he has passed on, I still didn't want them so low. Easier to get to them and to keep them dusted. This time, to keep it cheap, for the moment, at least, we just got raw boards from the lumber yard, though we had finished partcle board ones for the other wall. For both we got those metal strips which you fasten to the wall, then hang brackets to hold the shelves at whatever height fits. We won't have a sagging problem because on the longer shelves, we also put a middle bracket. The first shelf is about waist level. So far we have eight shelves, with both of the tops ones piled to the ceiling. i thought we'd done so well this past Sunday, unpacked 8 crates, then Rog checked and told me there were many, many more to go! *groan* Ah, well we've got one large wall space left in this room, along with two small wall spaces, so maybe we'll get some more done this weekend.

Thanks for all of the info, JohninKS; really quite kind and useful.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 09:47 AM

I put them by catagories my wife puts hers by titles.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 10:04 AM

Kat,

I hope those brackets are attached really well! The old tried and true bricks and boards is another way to have solid shelving. You do best for those if you paint several coats of enamel on the bricks first. They're easier to dust and smoother on the books that must rub up against them. You can find some nice ornamental wall blocks and pavers out there to use.

John, I agree about the top of the shelves. Even as you typed that I was probably looking up at the tops of my new shelves and wondering what would look good up there that I don't need to take down often? I could simply do another row of books, but I have lots of family antiques. If I can set them close enough to the front edge to be seen, that may be the place they go. But it's also tempting to fill it with stacks of paperbacks. I have so many of those around here, especially since I have a bunch from my parent's houses now also. There's a little voice in my head: It's time for a garage sale. . .

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Wesley S
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 10:12 AM

I need to sing the praises of Scandia shelving - it's the only thing I've found that doesn't bow under the weight of 2,000 plus LP's. It's pricy but worth it. We got ours at The Container Store.

And SRS - PM me if you have that garage sale.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 10:25 AM

SRS, yeah, I know what you mean. I *supervised* Rog putting them in, first using the stud finder like a good "dewbee," then using 3 inch screws in almost every hole there was. (Boy does this sound bawdy or what?!) Anyway, they are really solid.:-)

I have refused to go with bricks and boards since our fist big move in 1983. Fortunately Rog agrees with me. 1) The carpet in our house makes it a pain, 2) too heavy, 3) the look just reminds me of too many years of "make do" when I didn't have the money for anything else.:-) I know there are some really nice ornamental bricks and stones we could use now and painting them would help, but that would also put the books low to the floor, so...it's brackets for me...that's my story and I am sticking to it!**BG**

Thanks, though!

kat

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 05:38 PM

Wesley S,

I agree--Scandia is very nice. Very pricey, and the Container Store is a great place, so I do try to find the same things at discount stores. Do you know anyone else that sells Scandia in the area?

I have lots and lots of mysteries that will probably go on the chopping block, garage-sale-wise. I'll have to do a little research first--do you suppose there is any marketablity in having an entire set of John D. MacDonald paperback mysteries? Or Ian Fleming? Many others. ;-D

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Hrothgar
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 10:40 PM

Amazing what can be done with second hand pine from shipping crates. Comes in 90 x 40 mm and 140 x 90 mm sizes, lengths up to 2250 mm. Shipped out of Minneapolis - thanks, Yanks.

Only drawback is that i have to break up the crates, knock out the nails, sand back the timber (love the scent of it) .... Lucky my time comes cheap.

The are going to warp under the weight because the shelves are up to 1500 mm, but there are two solutions: (a) just turn the planks over (they are not screwed in), or (b) put a support in the middle of the shelf. The uprights sre screwed to the wall, and supports screwed to the uprights hold the shelves. Basic, effective, and not ugly because of the natural look of the pine.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Schantieman
Date: 09 Nov 02 - 10:12 AM

A few random thoughts on book storage (thread drift?):

Wrap the bricks (like a parcel) in brown paper, followed by a decorative layer if you like.

Prop up the front of the bookshelves 1/4" , ideally with a tapered length of wood but more often with a bit of folded cardboard. This helps prevent flat children too. (Bitter experience!)

1" square battens screwed round the three sides on an alcove will support any weight of books on a suitably sized plank.

A thin batten underneath the front egde of the shelf will discourage bending (but make it tricky to get out the biggest books on the shelf below).

...but you knew all these. didn't you!

Arranging them? Tallest on the right, shortest on the left!

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Nov 02 - 11:39 AM

LOL...I've been doing that left to right thing, too!

Hrothgar, we just built a cat run out our bedroom window using packing crate lumber, too. They love it!

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: GUEST,vectis
Date: 09 Nov 02 - 07:20 PM

Big uns on the bottom shelves, small uns on the top.
Most frequently used the easiest to get to.
Try to remember where you last saw the book you're looking for and what it looked like. Make the whole family look for each book that can't be spotted first time.
Keep intending to clear out the shelves a bit to cut the library down to just one room.

Not organised, but workable.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Jul 07 - 11:50 AM

Just heard a story on NPR about a man who was temporarily evicted from his apartment because his landlord feared his books were a fire-hazard. Wonder how many Mudcatters might have worried landlords/spouses/neighbours!**bg**

here's the blurb: John Puchniak loves books so much they prompted his temporary eviction from his home in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. His landlord worried that the thousands of volumes Puchniak owns were a fire hazard. He shares his current reading list. And, a link CLICKIE.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Jul 07 - 12:12 PM

Have any of gone to Amazon.com to order a book and got the message that you had bought a copy on such-and-such a date? I have.

Organization- whut's thet?

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Alice
Date: 29 Jul 07 - 12:17 PM

Anyone hear the re-run Prairie Home Companion this weekend?
The librarian in Lake Wobegon decided to re-arrange all the books
according to colors, rows of green, blue, etc. Residents
came in to see the beautiful color striped shelves and started randomly
picking out books to read.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Rapparee
Date: 29 Jul 07 - 05:52 PM

First you arrange them by size and THEN by color. That makes it faster to find for the people who ask you for "the big red book I read about twelve years ago, it had black letters on white paper pages."

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Jul 07 - 06:39 PM

I actually went to a used book store run by a guy I knew many years ago and asked for a "brown book"... a dull, brown book. He didn't even bat an eye, but handed me "The Illustrious Life of William McKinley"

I wanted to hollow it out to hide 'stuff' in....I still have it somewhere.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: SharonA
Date: 29 Jul 07 - 06:39 PM

The arrangement-by-color idea reminds me of a scene from the TV-movie "Finnegan Begin Again" (1985 HBO movie starring Robert Preston and Mary Tyler Moore). Sentimental, endearing movie! Haven't watched it in years, so I'm describing the scene from memory: Preston's wife, 10 years older than he, suffers from dementia and passes away, leaving a sizable amount of cash somewhere in the house they had shared. He and love interest Mary Tyler Moore determine that the money is in the library and that his late wife must have had some sort of dementia-driven filing system. Did she hide large bills in books on the same subject? by the same author? etc. They finally discover that she had put the money in all the black books!

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Rapparee
Date: 29 Jul 07 - 08:24 PM

Back years ago we had someone call and tell us that she'd left several hundred dollars in one of the romance paperbacks and would we please go look for it? She'd left it there, she was sure, about two months back. Since we had at the time a couple thousand of the things, we told her that she was welcome to come look herself and that if had been in one of them that long the money now belonged to someone else.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 29 Jul 07 - 09:19 PM

Many years ago, an English Gentleman named Uriah Heap had a Library.

His filing system was later rationalised by an Indian Scholar.

I use the Ran Dom Heap filing system...

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: lisa null
Date: 29 Jul 07 - 10:04 PM

Charlie Baum and I have a fabulous library which was once organized but it has long since outgrown our shelves and has invaded almost every nook and cranny of our house. Every time I try to sneak books out of the house, Charlie discovers them anew and they take a new lease on life. Our vinyl and cd collection is even worse --either the cd's disappear into his black briefcase and rarely reappear or they sit on every square foot of available space.
Mostly we have folk stuff, music and popular culture, history, anthropology, poetry, and a few well-loved novels. I keep trying to winnow the collection down but one or the other of us loves everything we've got. We have surrendered ourselves to our books and recordings which should keep us well-satisfied forever.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Diva
Date: 30 Jul 07 - 06:14 AM

Books everywhere, all over the house, in book shelves in every room, in piles on the floor. I keep meaning to organise them but I'm too busy reading...honest. You'd never think I'd worked in the Uni library

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 30 Jul 07 - 06:27 AM

One of the joys of having a disorganised book collection is the serendipitous rediscovery of forgotten books. It usually happens while I'm looking for something else entirely, resulting in the original quest being forgotten.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 30 Jul 07 - 08:04 AM

Folk music and Folklore in the front room.

Books on Native Americans and the Fur Trade; The English Countryside;
Natural History, Botany and Gardening; The Balkans and Turkey in the back room (this room also houses my computers - I call it my 'shed').

SF and Fantasy paperbacks in one spare bedroom.

SF and Fantasy paperbacks and magazines in the other spare bedroom.

The overflow in my bedroom.

When I was a kid I always wanted my own library - but now I've got one, I can't help thinking it's a bit of a liability. Books are heavy and take up lots of space - and what do you do with those you don't want anymore (except give them to Oxfam)?

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 30 Jul 07 - 09:15 AM

Harvey, could you please tell where the poem, "I'd Rather Read a Book" may be found? You mentioned it 9 Aug. 02, at 5:26 AM. I know I'm going back a bit. Thanks.

Sheila

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 30 Jul 07 - 09:26 AM

Totally disorganised, although all important books like folk artist boigraphies are in the same pile. All my wife's travel stuff is in one bookcase, and all my downloaded live music is on an excel spreadsheet for easy manipulation and saved to DVD. All my circuit diagrams are in piles - all over the place because that's how it's always been.

Whwn you walk down our road the only item on the wall is a flat tv screen - always on of course and no sign of any books - and in the recycling box, copies of the Sun & Mirror!!!

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Tinker
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 08:55 AM

I thought there was a thread about LIbrarything. I'm sure that's how I found out about it, but I can't seem to find it.

Anyway as a slightly early resolution I'm organizing My Library My kids are laughing that the books so far listed don't even make a dent. (I've asked Santa to bring me an scan cat to make it faster. But it's great fun to see what combinations of books you share with others. And which ones no one else has.

Kendall's Book Already had cover uploaded and was ready to go... The tag on my books that says 1L or 2D etc is the floor and room of hte house. 1st Floor Living Room or 2nd floor Den. NO not a single room is actually completed, infact at the moment not even a single shelving unit is completed, I keep getting distracted.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 09:03 AM

I'm a librarian.

My home library is sorta organized, in a vague and general way.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 10:24 AM

Libraries.

I organized my personal library like this: I gave it away. Well, we gave away 90% of it. After our 2000 housefire we re-thought a lot of the stuff packed into this rented old farmhouse. The sailboat-themed guest room some of you have slept in used to house the library after our kids moved out, and it still had all the homeschooling books I'd been stockpiling as well as kids' classics in reissue as well as in vintage print. Some of that went to Hardi's young brother to share with his new son; some of it went to friends according to topic/interest; most if it was boxed and dropped off at a used bookstore.

I kept things I was pretty sure I could never find online, things I wanted to read again, and a few things I thought future houseguests might find relaxing as bedtime reading.

Our shelves of MUSIC books are well-organized and even have their own room where they're out of the way till we want one, and it's nice to have them available.

My professional library is boxed in my archive room-- books and periodicals related to the various fields I've worked in and which I refer to or loan from, sporadically, that are irreplaceable. Hardi's professional library lives at his office.

The newer professional stuff lives near the music books in their own bookcase, since the room they are in also serves seasonally as a home classroom and reading room when we have a class organized.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 10:34 AM

Scholarly and thesis materials are all in one set of shelves. Music is all clustered in one room in two very large sets of shelves. Reference stuff is more or less all in the shelves behind and beside my computer and beside the kids' computer. The rest is a crap shoot in several rooms.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Susan of DT
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 09:09 PM

Thirty years ago when I was moving and the moving company estimator came in and looked at my books, I said "I have ton of books." He looked and said "Yes, you do." And I hardly had any books then...

I counted my bookcases and shelf length in 2004 (I only added a couple since then). At the time I had 5 small bookcases in the living room corner (fantasy and other paperbacks); 7 very tall bookcases in the dining room/library holding history (mostly medieval Britain, shelved by time period and/or location), King Arthur (fiction/history/lit), historical fiction (by year of story), and some miscellany; 4 bookcases in my office/computer room holding music and computer books; 5 bookcases in the upstairs study holding science and higher education books; one in the bedroom; and one in the other unused bedroom (study is also supposed to be a bedroom); for a total of 23 bookcases and 260 linear feet. I have moved some of them around since I retired and need different collections in different places and then Dick moved in (we had been commuting for 20+ years). I am currently trying to organize our joint music book collection that runs 15 shelves.

Most of my bookcases come from Ikea, with their better grade of bookcases in the dining room and their cheaper ones in my office. Some are hand made. A friend's boyfriend was a carpenter and I said I was thinking of buying some bookcases and said what they would cost. He took the bait and said, "I can make them for you cheaper than that."

At some point I had started cataloging the books in askSam, the same database we use for the Digital Tradition. I did not get terribly far and at some point when I got a new computer I failed to copy that file. I recently bought a cheap program called Book Collector that presumably looks up and enters all of the book information from the book number, but I have not yet opened the program to see whether it works.

I do take some books to the second hand paperback store, but come back with more than I dropped off. It is so hard to part with books, even such useful, current books as molecular biology from 1970...

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Joe_F
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 09:45 PM

Reference books, sorted by subject
Religion
Sex
Magazines
Other humanities, alph. by author or biographical subject
Fiction anthologies
Fiction, alph. by author
Poetry & plays, anthologies
Poetry & plays, alph. by author
Art
Science & technology, sorted by subject
Cookbooks

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 10:03 PM

Six years ago, I moved into this house with eighteen bookcases and not much more. Need I say more?

I have tired to build a database of my music books, but I haven't been completely successful in keeping up with it. I have 518 music bootks listed - I'll bet I have another 500 that excaped the database.

I suppose I ought to catalong the Bible and religion books, but I'm not ready for that yet....

Help!!!

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 12:07 AM

Susan and Joe, I found the program for booksellers at ABEBooks was fairly easy to use. It does look up the info for you about each book, though it's not really much good for older, out-or-print with no ISBNs. For those I take a look at addall.com.

I would really love a hand-held scanner (don't want much do I?)'cause it's much too tedious to fetch a pile of books, sit here and log in each one with all of its info, then repeat ad infinitum and I don't have nearly the amount I used to; in fact, I hardly have any compared to a few of you!**bg**

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: GUEST,maire-aine
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 10:29 AM

Looking back at my post from 2002, gosh! if only it were still that organized... Oh, well.

From underneith a pile of clutter,
Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 03:21 PM

I think programs like Endnote will also retrieve a lot of information if you enter the ISBN. If your books are new enough to have an ISBN, that is.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: autolycus
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 03:28 PM

Let's put it this way.

it's a little difficult to get to bed.

   And I read about some medieval monk who had a library of 17000 books. (Just have to keep treckin')

Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Beer
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 03:50 PM

In one of my shelving areas I have my Canadian history collection which numbers 320 books.

Another shelving area I have 111 of my favorite soft covered books

Then I have a little over 200 old hard cover books that I try and sell on e-bay. Although this I haven't done since last July. Lazy I guess.

Another area I have 39 (mostly old) books on birds.
also have hundreds of song sheets in binders and filing folders .

No real system but one I'm comfortable with.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 01:44 AM

subject*, alphabetic**, size & room

* well some subjects are single, others are combined.

** some alphabets are slightly upset by the partitions on my 2 big bookcases.

I designed the 2 big bookcases - solid pine 2.18m high x 1.45m wide, with 6 different hight shelves each. Around one & a half shelves hold other stuff than books, majority of the books are on Historic Costume. Some social history & doll/bear/dollhouse books are also filed with them. I have one & 1 half shelves of children's books (octavo & foolscap sizes) & half a shelf of Asterix books (almost all of them!!) & about half a shelf of art history/archaeology/Dr who anniversary books (20th, 25th 40th etc) & other books.

These bookcases are in my bedroom along with a 3ft x 3 ft bookcase containing half a shelf of Tolkien books & similar space of large picture books on the making of the movies. I also have half a shelf of Outsize craft, costume & other books.

In my living room I have a storage cabinet with 6 deep book shelves almost a metre wide, again designed by me. It contains books on meditation & mythology (1 shelf), dictionaries & word books (half a shelf), translations of classical Japanese literature (half a shelf), lacemaking, embroidery & craft books (2 shelves, both doubled up with smaller books in front), social history & folklore (over one shelf + 2 pamphlet boxes filed under a small side table) & photo albums (2 shelves with assorted books in front of albums).

Another bookcase used as a display cabinet has half a shelf of vintage dressmaking books, and a full shelf of pamphlet boxes containing craft books, booklets & photocopies, and more photo albums.

I also have a very small bookcase 3 ft x 2 ft that contains paperbacks - science fiction/fantasy, including all the Harry Potter book & many of Andre Norton's books, humour, a few thrillers, & some more Outsize books.

I have piles of library books on the floor next to my table, along with the other books I'm reading/looking at.

In the kitchen I have 13 cookbooks, rarely used, 2 kitchen/cookery enquire-within-for-almost-everything-ya-need-to-know books.

I don't have any books in my bathroom!

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: theleveller
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 03:28 AM

I've just got books everywhere - in piles, in boxes, under the bed. How boring having them all arranged on shelves. Where's the serendipity of going to look for a book and finding one that's far more interesting? And as for counting them - what's the point of that? How many books have I got? A f**k of a lot.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Gulliver
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 02:38 PM

My books are all over the place--every so often I bring a stack of them down to the local charity store but it doesn't make much of a difference. Have bought only a handful over the last two years, as I now download anything I find interesting and read it on my laptop.

The mention above of LibraryThing has given me yet another thing to try out and play with, although I wanted to check it out anyway as I do work for a library. Anyway, I started by listing some of my German books, which was slow going until I started getting the hang of the search utilities. They're at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Hohenloh . There's no way I'd get all my books up there!

Don

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 02:51 PM

Masato Sakurai once described his library to me, and I worried then that he'd disappear into it someday; hmmmm.... it's been awhile since we heard from him........

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Becca72
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 04:48 PM

I feel much better about my collection after reading this thread! I have 4 bookcases in my studio apartment, plus a couple piles on the floor and dresser...

The only organization to speak of is that all of my Stephen King books are in the same case and all of my Star Wars books are in the same case. Other than that, it's a free-for-all.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: autolycus
Date: 15 Dec 07 - 03:30 PM

No books in your toilet - I'm sorry bathroom ?(same thing in my place.

i keep a lot of humorous books in there to enjoy while I'm waiting, not straining.

Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Ron Davies
Date: 15 Dec 07 - 04:26 PM

Some parts better than others. Several shelves of North American (mostly US) history, chronologically, from the early European colonization through LBJ. Similar, smaller sections for the various parts of the UK and Ireland, France, Germany. A stab at organizing world history chronologically.

Main problem with this is that any new addition in any of these categories seems to necessitate reorganization of the shelves. And the height of books further complicates the situation.

Also need more shelves-- for sure.

The one part which is definitely organized is the choral music section. I'm determined not to buy a score twice. So choral part of any substantial piece goes into alphabetical order, by composer. If we do the same piece years later, I can just pull it off the shelf. And my markings are already in it.

Has proven worthwhile.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 15 Dec 07 - 08:16 PM

Since the 5 year old survey, we've shown remarkable restraint¹ in only adding about another 20 lineal feet of shelf space, bringing us to about 330 lineal feet. Some of the "tops" of the tall book cases have been "reorganized" by laying some flat. (You can make a stack taller than the average height of a book, so you squeeze a few more books in, and there was all of 3 or 4 inches of wasted space in a few places. There isn't any more.)

¹ The "restraint" is perhaps less remarkable when one observes that there are no more walls where more shelves can be put. We do, after all have a "small house" with only about 3,500 sq ft of floors to put walls around.

LiK has developed a new method of organization, particularly for her more recent acquisitions. The newer books are generally placed near the top of a pile on the floor, with older ones further down - unless one of the cats (or dogs) have tipped a pile over, in which cases she uses the method where the ones closest to where the pile must be rebuilt generally end up lower down and the ones that landed where they're harder to reach end up nearer the top, or occasionally remain where they landed as the start of a new pile.

An orderly sorting into sub-categories results from the tendency for the stacks of books she's read in bed (most of them) are in stacks in the bedroom, which seems quite logical to me. The books she intends to take elsewhere "to share" are generally in paper sacks (often "shopping bags" - up to 3 or 4, although rarely as many as 5) by the back door, while the ones she brought back with her (from friends who shared) are in separate sacks and/or torn up boxes in the same general vicinity (some of her friends fail to provide truly adequat packaging).

(Many of the ones she brings back, that friends insisted she "must have," go directly to the "ready to go" stashes for re-distribution. She says some of her friends have "less literate tastes" than hers.)

The "Index" that I previously kept when I was really busy seems to have terminated some time ago at 2,127 titles, mostly mine. Since my "retired" lifestyle doesn't demand as much organization, I feel I have an excuse - but I don't know what her claims might be. She has her own index but I don't think she's kept it too well up to date. I would suspect that she has at least 2,000 titles "somewhere" but I'd have to count the stacks on the floors for an update to my guess.

Ultimately, the only surviving organization really is just into two categories formally referred to as "somewhere" and "elsewhere."

John

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Dec 07 - 08:29 PM

JohninKS, LOL...a small house is more like ours...about 875 sq. ft! (If Rog had a penny for everytime I say "this house is too small" he'd be rich!)

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Dec 07 - 10:38 PM

Ivor - over the years in Oz & probably in Britain too, we have been amused when Americans refer to the "toilet" as the 'bathroom". In recent years more Australians use "bathroom" instead of "toilet" due to increasing American cultural overload.

click here for more than you ever wanted to know about that item of water-flushed vitreous china variously known in USA as toilet, commode, bathroom or closet

Anyhow, my Australian bathroom contains a bath, basin, toilet, washing machine, dryer & cupboard! As well as lots of plants, sea shells & toys used as ornaments. Specifically plastic teddy bears & yellow plastic ducks!

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: autolycus
Date: 16 Dec 07 - 09:37 AM

Mines got bath, toilet, basin, toiletries, a few things Hannah, my older young lady, left behing, tiolet brush, and about 30 funny books, especially B.C., Wizard of Id, Joys of Yiddish, funny one about cricket, and Dilbert.


Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 16 Dec 07 - 10:43 AM

Kat--are you familiar with the Library of Congress shelving system? I am. All my books are shelved not that way. Here is used the JotSC haphazard, put 'em wherever system. But I at least I know where a particular title is...approximately.
My fiction collection is very small, only a few books I really, really like. New fiction must replace a book I am through with, else my storage system becomes unruly.
Old books make great kindling for cool autumn fireplaces. I generally choose great classics like the Bible, Huckleberry Finn, Tropic of Cancer or Fahrenheit 451. Controversial books give the most satisfaction per BTU emitted.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Dec 07 - 10:52 AM

LMAO, JohninKS! Sounds like my system sans the bonfire...what vanity!

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 16 Dec 07 - 11:29 AM

I think you're mixing your Johns, Kat.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Dan Keding
Date: 16 Dec 07 - 12:20 PM

Well, I've got about three thousand books in my office on folktales, fairy tales, ballads and folklore. I arrange them by type - all the English ballads on one shelf, Irish folktales on another, Japanese folktales on another, folklore on another, academic books on another, etc. I do try and keep the folktale collections in the same geographic area on the same shelf if possible - China next to Japan and Korea; England, Scotland, Wales etc. I keep the ballads separate from the stories. I try to make sure that when I need something I know just where it is so I can quickly lay my hands on it. I do not arrange by author because I can't keep track of all the authors in my library. I've never put them on a data base but it probably would be a great idea.

The best way to arrange a library is the way that will be fastest and easiest for the you.

Dan

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Joe_F
Date: 16 Dec 07 - 07:51 PM

I forgot songs! On the top shelf, next to the art.

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Dec 07 - 08:10 PM

Oh! Sorry about that JohnSunset:-) I loved your post, nevertheless!

(Mixing my Johns sounds naughty!:-)

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Tinker
Date: 30 Dec 07 - 08:17 PM

Okay, I figure if there's folks who post to hit 100. I can celebrate breaking 1000. I confess I'm doing all the "easy" newer books with IBSN numbers (and my kids are still taking odds the job will never be done) The Pre-Library of Congress Numbers take a little more effort. But the first milestone was accomplished before New Years. Now if I can just stay motivated...


1200 books and counting...

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Dec 07 - 09:24 PM

Wow! Good for you, Tink!! Congrats!

One thing I love about the used bookstore I go to: they keep a list of all of the books I buy, so all I have to do is ask for a printout and copy from that OR, hmmm...wonder if they could copy my records to disk. That's be even easier!

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Goose Gander
Date: 31 Dec 07 - 01:33 PM

My 'libary' is completely disorganized, like the rest of my life. Piles of books and papers stacked on top of, in front of, and behind other stacks, blocked off by chairs to keep the dog away. In another decade or so, I fully expect my house to look like the set of "Sanford and Son."

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Gulliver
Date: 01 Jan 08 - 01:33 PM

I was just looking through Tinker's catalogued books on LibraryThing and thinking it would be nice if you could just click on a cover and the book would open up on your PC. I suppose that's the way it will be in the future--all books (or should I say data/information?) will be available online.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Jan 08 - 06:35 PM

Might not be too long form now, you could be reading them THIS WAY. Not quite the same, though, is it?

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Gulliver
Date: 01 Jan 08 - 08:39 PM

It looks interesting, but there's well over 10,000 books on Gutenberg and similar sites for free (of which I've downloaded around 500) and am happy to read them on my laptop, usually in bed.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: How organised is your home library?
From: Tinker
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 06:13 PM

.....2011 and counting

Okay, I confess my daughter is home from college and working her way through all the "bubble bath romances" that got her through some rather pain filled illness a couple of years back...

Maybe, just maybe we might have gotten to the half way point...but I keep getting distracted by some book I've forgotten....

Tinker