Do you keep your Folio books separate from books by other publishers?

Do you separate books from Folio from other books on your your bookshelves? What about other publishers that make similar looking volumes that look nice next to each other, like Library of America, Everyman's Library, and maybe Easton Press?

I wanted to organize my shelves by genre, but that would mean mixing and matching books from these publishers instead of keeping them together for a more uniform look. So for instance, for those who have history books from Folio Society, would you put them next to your other history books from Everyman's, Easton, LoA, and other publishers? Or would you put books from these publishers together?

I actually do but only because all my Folios happen to fit on a particular set of shelves. Once I get a few more, I guess that's over with, sadly.

Everyman go with Everyman, LoA with LoA, so on. Publisher > genre for me.

I mix them all together by genre. Spine ripped paperbacks right next to slipcased beauties!

I keep all my Folio Society books together, and Taschen, and LEC, and Suntup, and Thornwillow and ……..

I have bookcases for different kinds of books, and then sort the books inside that bookcase. My FS has their own cases, leather and gilt books have their own case, oversized art books get their own case. Basically like with like. These are nice cases with glass doors. The pedestrian softcovers and assorted hardcovers get to live in the the open bookcases.
I've had all kinds of systems over the years. Alphabetized, genres, even tried by size and colour at one point. Now it's more of a web of relations that only makes sense to me.

I also follow >4 wcarter:'s method though all my fine/private press books are shelved together as I don't own enough from each individual press for them to have their own space.

I would keep them altogether - I have my library fairly rigorously classified and shelved to keep track - but my wife so dislikes the look of Folio books (they're very monoblocky and generally dark, I have to admit) that I keep the fiction (shelved in our sitting room) in a separate 'Folio Fiction' section (in my workroom). Other non-fiction books are OK and mixed in as they are shelved in rooms my wife doesn't use as much.

I keep publishers separate, though some of my LECs are mixed in with older FS books. To me, mixing would just look weird. I do mix my genre books that come with dust jackets (Subterranean Press, NESFA, Tartarus) on the same bookcases. I’m at the point now where I have to reorganize and have no idea how to go about it.

Where they fit.

For example:

It's easy for me - I only collect Folio.

>1 Silver-Books: I keep my Folio Books apart from all other collections. I used to be a member of this Society and receive their Review. Hours in a library

I keep limited editions separate, but otherwise the standard editions of FS, EP, and Franklin Library look good shelved together by genre. I have a separate bookcase for Library of America.

I have my "nice books" together, and while that category is mostly Folios there are some interlopers from other publishers. Beyond that, my system is limited to "where's there's space" and "what looks nice together" - no thematic or alphabetical system whatsoever. It's chaos, I tell you.

I keep books by what looks most aesthetically pleasing. Usually this means by publisher and series.

Folio Society are not really a uniform size or design so can fit in various places.

I used to, but I've started to move away from that somewhat. I mix and match books by author or general subject as long as they're decent editions (FS, Macy, EP, etc). Paperbacks and undersized mass market hardcovers are filed elsewhere.

I have a lot of them together, but definitely not all. I go according to genre, author, and also where they fit. They just have a tendency to end up next to each other. As they years have gone by I have replace paperbacks with hardcover and hardcovers with nicer FS editions, so some publishers just got phased out with time and FS editions are prominent!

Well, if my other books can blend in, then I don't mind. So far, I only have Folios and paperbacks, and they don't blend at all, lol.

Books of a similar nature cluster together, with author, genre, size, appearance and publisher among the influencing factors. So, I've one bank of shelves entirely for the largest books, almost all of which are Folio LEs: a number of shelves entirely of Folio books, among them the Dickens, Trollope and O'Brian sets: several other shelves that are roughly half Folio and half other volumes, among them LEC books and some larger 19th century leather bindings; and plenty of shelves that are entirely Folio-free, for instance a wall of currently unpopular 1890s-1940s fiction where there's hardly an author the FS has ever included.

My bookshelf is an orgie. Everyone's touching and mingling.

I order my books by height. Publisher and genre are irrelevant to my OCD, lol.

For the most part I keep my nice books together in the same part of the house, and try to shelve together by publisher to the extent possible. But sometimes this breaks down because, for example my tall books, only fit on the bottom shelf. As the collection overspills a bookcase there's also some inevitable mingling with lesser books on the adjacent bookcase (until that too is completely colonised...)

While my Folios "slum it" with the paperbacks, I have recently added a new bookcase dedicated to private press books and similar.

I shelve my books by genre and size alphabetically, so the Folio are mixed with other publishers. I have bookcases throughout the house, and so are my Folios.

For instance, I recently made a "Russia" section on on of my bookshelves. I mixed FS, LEC, and EP together. Nothing looks terribly out of place to me. I also have the new Dr. Zhivago, but there wasn't quite enough room. It's on the shelf directly above.

I group by publisher, for my non-trade books. All of my folios are together, separated into fiction (organized by author last name, with a separate section for children’s books), and non-fiction (organized by subject). My LECs are together, but largely grouped by height. My fine/private press books are mostly in one bookcase, but largely organized by height to maximize shelf space. My Franklin/Easton books are all in one bookcase, separated into fiction and non-fiction. My graphic novels are on one bookcase, largely organized by publisher. My LOA and Everyman are each together, but aren’t particularly organized.

My trade books are separated by paperbacks (stacked in piles on top of my bookcases due to lack of space) and hardcovers (separated into categories - biographies, spy novels, fantasy, sci-fi, military history, general fiction, and general non-fiction).

The bulk of my non-fiction books are shelved by subject, so Folio books are mixed in with other publishers. That means that some Folio sets are also split, for example the so-called Victorian Explorers and Exploration series. Aesthetically, this is unfortunate, but my library is more of a tool than an ornament. Fiction is shelved alphabetically (as far as the exigency of size dictates), so by and large Folio sets stay together even if they appear on shelves containing other publishers' editions.

Hardcovers on my main shelves, paperbacks on trolleys and other surfaces around the house. I don't separate by publisher.

I have four bookshelves which contain my prettiest books like Folio Society, Taschen and Limited Editions Club (and smaller publishers like Lyra, Amaranthine, Centipede, Imprint Society etc.) all mixed up according to what looks prettiest with what.

I then have an antiques bookshelf, a first edition Arthur C. Clarke bookcase and a first edition Tolkien bookshelf (not containing the Hobbit or Lotr unfortunately).

Depends. My Victorians live together no matter the format but others are shelved based on size usually (easier to stack other books on top of them). That keeps a lot of Folio books together. If there is space left on a shelf and a book fits, almost all bets are off though. And then there are some books that just need to stay on the bottom shelves (due to weight) so there it is really size and weight that matters, not the publisher.

It is my library - I don't really care if it is a ratty paperback or an expensive Limited edition - they are here for a reason so they get treated the same.

I've struggled with this but landed on the following system that works for the amount of shelf space I have remaining for now:

1) Folio Society books on the very top shelf because a) they're the signature books in my library, b) the text on the spines is usually quite large and can be read at a distance, c) the distinct style of each book doesn't look out of place with the rest of the library below, and d) keeps small fingers away and is just the right height to hint to random guests, "look but don't touch without asking." These are organized roughly chronologically but grouped by subject within a chronology, e.g., ancient China, ancient Greece, modern science fiction, science non-fiction, etc.

2) Everyman's Library books have their own (new!) bookcase, organized chronologically by color and chronologically within each color (dust jackets removed).

3) Oxford World's Classics have their own case, organized chronologically above the rest of my fiction and literature, organized by when I read it.

4) The rest of my library below the Folios is non-fiction organized and labeled by general theme, subject, and sub-topic using my own classification system, then by book height within that sub-topic (serving as a bit of divider between sub-topics).

5) Business book library is in my office, organized and labeled by topic.

You can hopefully see some of what I'm talking about in my profile picture. It's clearly an evolving and bespoke system that's a labor of love and trying to balance practicality, organization, and aesthetics.

Not really - just where they look good next to each other.

Broad organisation is by nationality of author, actually - for fiction. Europe is all in one area (which tend to be English translations), Australian, British, American...then other genres which are far less than fiction are clumped together: philosophy, poetry, history/myth, writing techniques etc.

Then in the other room, I've got some genre bundles: fantasy/Sci-Fi, 'Adventure' etc.

It changes.

All my fine press books in English go together - from standard Folios and Westvacos to LECs and a mix of various Private Presses such as Foolscap, Arion, and Yolla Bolly. Below is an older pic, but it gives an idea. Since then a few books have been booted off, such as the Penguin Clothbound Dickens set, and all the gaps filled with more Folios and other fine press volumes. Everymans, LOAs, and other lesser books are shelved elsewhere. Non-English Fine Press books are stored separately.

Within the bookcase, the whole right stack is fiction. The other stacks are organized thematically, each getting at least one full shelf - archaeology, history, myths & legends, medieval writings, travel, science, biography & memoirs, WWI, WWII, large books.

>31 elladan0891: Oh, my. That is a thing of beauty.

Folio editions are largely shelved with other folios. However there will be other nice editions mixed in (e.g. limited editions club, thornwillow press, other fine press etc). I don't really organise my books (by author, genre or title), although will move things around to make it look nicer on the shelves and generally keep my favourites together somewhere so I can easily stare at them all when I'm meant to be working.

I only own 150+ fine books (mostly Folio, EP, LEC, Heritage, FL) and display them separately from trade books, organized chronologically by publication/composition date. From Homer to Toni Morrison. But I suspect that even if I owned substantially more such books, I would stick to the chronological ordering. It just makes the most intuitive sense to me.

Just following up on a private DM by spindrjr asking to post close-ups of my WWII and travel shelves. Things changed a little since the pic above was taken. The travel shelf really needed some space to grow, so some reshuffling was necessary. So the books from the children's shelf were booted to my son's room, etc. Now travel and exploration take up two shelves, and that's the only shelf of this bookcase with some space left...

WWII, sorry for the bit of the fish-eye effect:


Travel:

I'm in the "together by press" camp, with (nearly) all works by the same press shelved together. The exception is the very tall books, which go into their own shelves. So one of those tall shelves currently has a FS book (Sir Gawain and The Green Knight), an Old Stile Press book, a Book Club of California book, and several Beehive books, among others. But in general each press keeps itself company.

My bookshelves mirror my life - random and mixed-up , but full of pleasant surprises and distractions.

>34 Eumnestes: I organize my books the same way, chronologically by original publication date. I'm glad I'm not the only one!

>1 Silver-Books:
In general, my library is organised in a loose Dewey convention, bar my FS, LOA, and EL editions, where I gather each of them together in volumes by publisher.