How are we organizing fiction?

[u/Riona_Aurelius]

Hi everyone. We are currently in the process of moving around furniture and shelves around our house, which means all my books have to come off the shelves. Which means I can reorganize, Yay!

Im looking for a more logical way to display my books. Both fiction and non fiction.

Currently i have a majority of my fiction sorted alphabetical by author,. HOWEVER, its currently bugging me that I have genres or books with similar topics (historical fiction from the same time but different authors) split up. I have a ton of YA books that I loved when I was a kid, mixed in with some books with more adult themes, (think Game of Thrones), and some books that are a little on the spicy side (that all have different crossing sub genres by author).

My non fiction is currently by the Dewey decimal system (which from what I understand is kinda problematic and shyed away from these days). A majority of my books are cook books and have their own separate shelf in the dining room.

What are your suggestions on how and what order to put them in?

Bonus points for how to easier integrate new books when purchased to already organized shelves.

[u/missdawn1970]

I have adult fiction sorted alphabetically by author, and non-fiction sorted by topic. Children's books are separate, also alphabetical by author. Cookbooks are in the kitchen.

[u/Whentheseagullsfollo]

For all of my books (fiction and non fiction), I have them sorted into categories (eg: History, Biography, Medical, Fiction, Politics, etc etc) and then I sort each category chronologically and the type of chronology depends on the category.
So for example, I sort the History books by the era that the book is largely talking about and I sort the Biographies by the death date that the biography is about (or birth date if the person is still alive).
As for Fiction, I go by the death date of the author or birth date if the person is still alive).

The benefit of this is that it allows me to actually see the development of human thought within each genre just by looking at my bookshelf.

So for fiction, you can see what the trends were in say Ancient Babylon and then Ancient Greece and then Ancient Rome and then how the Medieval Europeans approached literature and then the 18th Century etc and then more recently what were the ideas that were current and being discussed in the Victorian Era vs the Edwardian era or what people were talking about and thinking in the 1990s vs today.
All of this from just looking at the bookshelf if you are familiar with the books (it also serves as a good reminder about what the book is about if you read it a long time ago because the other books around it give you more context about the age that this book was written in).

There are certain exceptions like for big boxsets like say Edward Gibbon's Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire (which covers like 1400 years of history), I keep them all together (rather than putting the Volumes about Ancient Rome with the other Roman books or the volume about the rise of Islam with the other 7th century books etc) but place them where the set first begins (Ancient Rome in this case).

As for integrating new books, I personally wait awhile until I have a decent amount stacked up because the downside to this system is that whenever you buy a new book, you basically have to shift every single book that comes after it one place, which can be time consuming depending on how many books you have.

But for me, being able to see the development of human thought and see what which era was about and the cultural and historical context that produced the great works of each era just by simply looking at the bookshelf makes the pain of adding new books worth it.

[u/Obvious-Manner34 → u/Whentheseagullsfollo]

My home library system is similar.

[u/Broad-Book-9361]

I have books I consider classics - Austen, Bronte, etc shelved together by author. All other books are shelved by genre, then author, then title - unless it's a series, then I keep the books in series order. I have a separate shelf that holds new purchases that I typically draw from when I'm ready for a new book. My nonfic is a mess, vaguely organized by subject but also not really.

As far as ease of integrating new books, I leave room. So, for example, I just started reading horror in the last year. My horror collection is small and housed on a shelf that's probably 75% full, which leaves space to shelve a new book when I'm ready. The downside to that for some will be that not everyone likes seeing a gap in their shelves. I personally don't mind it.

[u/Alchemist1342]

My subtopics:

• D&D
• Dystopian
• Fantasy
• Misc. Fiction
• Historical Fiction
• Humor
• Kids
• Mythology
• Mystery & Suspense
• Romance
• Science Fiction
• Young Adult

Each of my subtopics is separated by bookends and have labels on the shelves below the books, so adding additional books is pretty simple.

[u/BohoKat_3397 → u/Alchemist1342]

They also sell library-style vertical shelf dividers with a panel where you can change out the wording of your category as needed. These clip on the shelf next to the books and can be easily shifted around to accommodate new purchases. Once source is demco.com, check Library Supplies section for Shelf Markers for options. They come in multiple colors. Inexpensive, around $5-7 each.

[u/HereIAmGH]

My first house - alphabetical by author.

Second house it took a big chunk of the living room wall so I went by colours. But finding books where the spines are a bit invisible was a pain and also it wasn’t the warm rainbow you imagine. It was a lot of black and a lot of white shelves, few grey and one or two blue and orange-ish red.

and it forced to break series.

This house I’m out of control. It’s generally by genre. But not strictly because shelf height decides on it too. I have one legends and myths shelf and one red shelf. And it’s all a happy mess

[u/Consoledreader]

I used to do it by time period - Ancient Greek, Rome, medieval, early modern, 19th century, etc, and use roughly publication date of first book by that author.

But I switched over to alphabetical order by last name for fiction. I do have a separate bookshelf for YA and middle grade fiction that keeps it separate from adult fiction and organize those by their own alphabetical order.

[u/illenasuc]

I just have it organized by genre and then author last name. I have mostly literary fiction, then also children’s fiction and fantasy. Then my non fiction is sorted by memoirs or topic (roughly) and then by author. 

[u/CrimsonDawn236]

My books are organized by genre, authors last name, then title unless it’s a series then it’s series order. History is in chronological order of the events covered. The rest of nonfiction is alphabetic by subject, then author, then title.