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A to Z
Thread Title: sorting books
Posted By: do i started to sort my books alphabetically this weekend. now i am amused by myself as i am not sure what to do with "Leon de Winter". is he a D-author, or a W-author?
how do you sort your books? --- Reply: 1
Posted By: kat My books are sorted alphabetically.
Everyone I know think that I'm weird.
I'd put de Winter in D. ---
Reply: 2
Posted By: iru De Winter would go to W with me. I don't sort my books (or cd's). Mostly because I guess I don't have enough or at least it doesn't bother me that they're unsorted. I like the chaos. --- Reply: 3
Posted By: orka By Colour!
Looks really cool on my bookshelves, and makes it easier to find.
I will often know what the book looks like, but not the author (especially with non-fiction) --- Reply: 4
Posted By: shir on my shelves it would be a W, but it does have to be said orka's shelves look really cool! --- Reply: 5
Posted By: eina I'd put him under W. Like German "von Buelow" or the like under B. Not to be confused with Walter von der Vogelweide (W) though. Mine used to be sorted according to broad subject area, and then according to author and when and where I read them, who gave them to me etc. Same with my CDs (in order I bought them), and not to be re-arranged by anyone else. Now I only have a handful of books though, thus no arrangement necessary really. --- Reply: 6
Posted By: ley My books here are all muddled up, I probably have less than 100 here so its easy to find things. It drove my sister crazy when she stayed with me, after a few days she had to sort them alphabetically, she's a weirdo. When I have all my books, filling a room, I sort them alphabetically just so it doesn't take all day to find a book. I would put de Winter under W. The same as for any von or van or van de, the last part of the name is the distinctive part. --- Reply: 7
Posted By: chi I sort mine by height order - CD's & DVDs are sorted alphabetically --- Reply: 8
Posted By: do until now, i had them sorted by book-series, and with that, also roughly in themes. and then there's one board with the books i read in the last year, one next to another. but i keep searching for books, so i thought i try the alphabetical version. and maybe that way, i will also get better in remembering the author names, instead of the shelf place / colour of a book. hmm. now what to do with Winter.
i think i put him under W. --- Reply: 9
Posted By: psy I sort mine by slinging them on the shelf/floor/table/kitchen table/toilet lid. y'all are weird --- Reply: 10
Posted By: kiwi Is he Dutch or Belgian?
It does, believe it or not, make a difference. My Dutch colleagues with "de winter" type names would say that the family name begins with W, and the "de" is a "tussenvoegsel" (bit in between), so de Jong and Jong end up being filed together. My Belgian colleagues consider the name to begin at the beginning, and would put "de Winter" under D. So if I have a Dutch and Belgian colleagues with the same family name they could be filed under different places on the global directory.
Occasionally this quirk of the Dutch leads them to file Scottish/Irish names in bizarre ways... McDonald gets put under 'D' and then you're lost in a bureaucratic black hole. And yes, orka's books look lovely.... mine are split into fiction/non-fiction and that's about it. I don't even manage to keep books by the same author together. --- Reply: 11
Posted By: jen Mine are sorted by genre - my mother was a librarian. I'm not weird, psy - I'm anal! --- Reply: 12
Posted By: soul Mine are ordered by subject: poetry, murder mysteries (female authors), murder mysteries (male authors), murder mysteries (Indian authors), travelogues, art, biographies, romances, hobbies and so on. Books of different languages are kept apart. --- Reply: 13
Posted By: kiwi So, soul, what do you do if it's an Indian woman that's written a murder mystery? --- Reply: 14
Posted By: eina ... --- Reply: 15
Posted By: chi psy - I know I'm weird, my friend tells me all the time - she doesn't even have books grouped by series - I was shocked that she didn't have all the Harry Potter books together for example - Madness! --- Reply: 16
Posted By: shir okay, i just looked at my books again.... fiction A-Z, then separately non fiction A-Z, travel guides by country and music by genre and then A-Z. I am anally retentive. --- Reply: 17
Posted By: chi That reminds me CD's are A-Z then chronological - and with artists where I have a lot of their albums it's done in order of release, for example, Beatles 'Please, Please Me' through to 'Abbey Road' --- Reply: 18
Posted By: psy I am starting to feel very inadequate.
I must go home now and categorise things. --- Reply: 19
Posted By: chi It's quite therapeutic, psy!
Though not having things in order would drive me mad - but I'm a virgo - I've got an excuse! --- Reply: 20
Posted By: iru I feel the same, psy!
My serial books are also all over the place. If anything, I order them by height - out of necessity because not everything fits on every shelf. --- Reply: 21
Posted By: ele I tend to keep fiction and non-fiction apart, and group books by the same author together, but that's about as far as my organisation goes. --- Reply: 22
Posted By: soul "What do you do if it's an Indian woman that's written a murder mystery?" -
I'd say: we'll cross that bridge when we come to it! --- Reply: 23
Posted By: lan I separate my books into fiction, non-fiction and reference, then into broad categories/genres within each class, e.g. all the biographies together, all the travelogues, mysteries, fantasies, classics, etc. Each author's books go together, unless they are different genres. I do not alphabetise as it prevents me from using shelf space effectively. Instead I put them on shelves by size as much as possible. It mostly works because fortunately books in the same genres tend to be in the same format, but I did have a problem with my Terry Pratchett collection when I got The Last Hero and the art books because they are larger than the other books, but I solved it by laying them on top of the others. I keep my unread books separate from the rest. They are separated into mysteries and "other". The mysteries are ordered by author and series, the rest I arrange by colour so I will have something attractive to look at. --- Reply: 24
Posted By: ands I don't have too many books, but mine are arranged one shelve for my pretty, valuable books, author by author, but not alphabetically but in order of size/convenience on shelve. My granddad had hundreds of books, all over the place. When he couldn't get around much anymore, my mother and I arranged everything alphabetically by author, throughout the groundfloor all the way up to the attic, and hauled all the books around, starting at A in living, ending at Z upstairs. --- Reply: 25
Posted By: tuu By colour. Looks nicer. --- Reply: 26
Posted By: pic I sort books by genre, works by same author go on same shelf unless shelf height restricts. They're not in alphabetical order of any sort, although I recently did a list of all the books that I have (around 250, it turns out). mr. pic probably has twice as much, and we're rapidly running out of shelf space. I keep saying eventually we'll have so many books we'll have to fit a book case in the bathroom. Now that would be great (yes i know I'm weird, but I never sell any books I own). CDs? iTunes automatically sorts albums alphabetically by artist ;) --- Reply: 27
Posted By: do thanks for all this feedback - i hadn't really expected any answers to the post! i should go and write a short story on how to sort books. "Is he Dutch or Belgian? It does, believe it or not, make a difference." - i don't know what he is! but this makes me think - for a while, i sorted books by country: travel guides next to books set in that country. --- Reply: 28
Posted By: ella My are sorted by color. Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet Black White Grey As for the de Winter - I'd put it where you'd remember it. --- Reply: 29
Posted By: voy I just put books together if I feel they would like each other. As for the author that puzzled you, just remember that Mrs de Winter was called Rebecca. --- Reply: 30
Posted By: caro Mostly by size and I try and put books by the same author together. Non-fiction are in vague categories. I know where they all are but mr. caro thinks I have some weird witch-like ability to find them as he cannot understand my logic. ....he could be right. --- Reply: 31
Posted By: luno nonfiction generally by author/subject/them fiction ... autobiographically.... --- Reply: 32
Posted By: jade sort....? books....?
what an outlandish concept. when mine aren't packed up in my suitcases (current location) they're haphazardly piled on top of stuff. I think I used to sort them by size when I was a teenager, tough... --- Reply: 33
Posted By: meg Oh God. Apart from shir, everyone else thinks I'm weird. Mine are (normally) sorted by fiction/non fiction. Then by genre. Then by author, alphabetically. And then by date of publication. And yes, this does mean that every time I buy a new book - about twice a week on average - I have to move every other book in the house. Don't care. It's neat, and I can always find books. Oh, and I keep half a bookshelf for books I've borrowed, to ensure I return them. (I say normally, because at the moment, they aren't, since we've run out of bookshelves and have no room for any more). --- Reply: 34
Posted By: elo Mine are sorted roughly by subject. I keep all of my graphics design books together, my New Age-y books together, poetry etc together. The tall shelf at the bottom is for the "coffee table" books and photo albums. --- Reply: 35
Posted By: pic Ahhhhh! All the sorting! Make it stop!
*rocks in corner* --- Reply: 36
Posted By: shir mr. shir thinks I am insane when I sort the books I can now tell him that i am not. or at least: not the only one! --- Reply: 38
Posted By: amo If a book won't fit on the normal shelves, I put it on the big shelf. That is where my sorting ends. --- Reply: 39
Posted By: meg All I can say is it puts one off buying books by any author whose name is in the first half of the alphabet. Moving a thousand or so books just to accommodate a new one is a bit of a pain, sometimes...
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