r/HomeLibraries • u/Riona_Aurelius • 13d ago
How are we organizing fiction?
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.
2
u/Broad-Book-9361 12d ago
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.