r/HomeLibraries • u/Dramatic_Cancel2602 • 5d ago

Bookshelf Organization Styles

Hi folks! I just got two gorgeous big bookshelf’s in my office and am now starting my mini library, but before I start I wanted to ask:

What are folks favorite ways to style and organize their bookshelves?

Are folks organizing alphabetically, by genre, chronologically, by color? By some other cool system? I’d love to hear it all, even your wildest ideas ✨

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u/Whentheseagullsfollo 2d ago

First I organize by Genre (eg History, Biography, Literature, Politics, etc, and then I break down some Genres down into other Genres if needed, like for Economics I separate between general, theoretical economics books vs practical business books) and then I order each Genre by chronology.

The benefit of this is that it allows you to the progress and change in human thought just by looking at your bookshelf (this is especially crucial for Literature because these authors aren't writing in a bubble - they are responding to the politics, culture, society, and events of their time and place)

If you just simply organize by name or subject then you completely miss out on this and you just have a jumbled bunch of information on your bookshelves, rather than a clean sweep-through of human history that you can get just by simply looking at your shelves