My shelves are empty - please help.

I've just moved house so all my books are stuffed in wardrobes, closets, drawers etc while my bookcases stand empty.

You can see my books and you can see my bookcases so here's the deal... you tell me on this thread where to put what. I'll do it, re-photograph them in stages and re-post the photos.

Go to it,

Jim

Why don't you send me your poor empty bookcases and I'll fill them up with my books! ;-p

No, that wouldn't work. Some of my books are scared of the dark and they need to be out of the wardrobes and drawers. At least one needs to come out of the closet!

edited to change a non-functioning touchstone (fancy that) to a link.

PS No, I don't feel that I need to explain owning that book!

Well, it looks like your bookcases are basically in the same room. I'd put cooking books near the kitchen, possibly with wine, gardening, other home arts and crafts, repair manuals, personal finance, etc. That "practical" stuff.

Um, you might put your Sun Tzu, naval history, politics, etc. together in a history/social studies type of section. Humanities vs. sciences. Or you could do the rainbow covers thing. (8

Makes sense to keep the spec fic together, just how to organize within it? Author, or break first into sci fi and fantasy, or what?

How do you use your library? I guess that's the most important question. Do you need a separate reference section, or TBR pile? Or do you browse among "departments"?

Cook books are actually in the kitchen. Sorry about that, photo will be forthcoming.

Yes, I think I should put the naval history close to The Art of War but does than mean that the Chinese dictionaries and other Chinese language books need to be close?

You're correct in saying that the book cases are in the same room, except for the really big one which is just outside that room. This means that I can call that room "my library", and perhaps you guys can understand just how good it feels to say that!

I don't make a huge point of difference between "Science Fiction" and "Fantasy" and the big bookcase is used to holding both, sorted by author. Ideally they would be sorted by publication date within that author bit, but in fact the only one I've ever done that for was Pterry Pratchett and that was only because he's one of the few authors whose books I bought in order, as they came out. The first Thomas Covenant series was another, but that is because I was travelling, sans books around Australia at the same time as they were released here. I've since come to despise them!

I'll go and take the kitchen photos.

Keep the ideas coming please.

Jim

If the science fiction/fantasy fits without crowding, I would be inclined to put them back in the same bookcase.

Yes, me too. I still think that I want to move that bookcase around the corner into the entrance hall. There is a little electrical box on the skirting board which needs to be moved first.

Kitchen photo posted, cookbooks are taken care of, unless anyone has any other ideas...

PS, don't try to tell me to place any books tagged "@Wislist" unless you also tell me that your gift copy is in the mail!

Jim

Just get them all out higgledy-piggledy. Just get them out now. Then sit back & look at them & smile & have lots of nice memories & thoughts about them then rearrange them any old time. Get them out of the cupboard!

Now there's a great thought. I must admit that I've sneaked a few out (kind of randomly, because I'm not sure where anything is) just to hold them.

But seriously, it's only been a few weeks. I'm strong, I can do this in an orderly fashion. I can...

OK, I moved the big bookcase to the front hall. It looks much better there (link to photos in original post). Starting to fill this one with F&SF. What fun!

In the month since the last posting I have in fact put some books on shelves, but... I started a bit of a thread about dedications and so I started collecting them on my Wikipage, then I noticed that some of the covers were not correct, and hey, I just bought this wifi printer/scanner,... then I wanted to make sure that all my books were imprinted with my imprint stamp (thereby reducing the value of them unless I get famous before I die),... then there was the introduction of the First/Last words CK fields, and seeing as I was almost handling my books one at a time and the laptop was just there..., and then there was the teaser/requests for information about collections and how they would be used (which meant that I just had to make sure all the books that are missing from series were tagged Wishlist)...

In other words, I'm still working on it... but I'm really, really enjoying it as well.

Jim

I lean toward #4 (sounds a lot like my system!), but also #8, for the sheer pleasure of it...

How's the process going?

Slowly, very slowly. As each handfull came out of the cupboards and drawers, they were checked in LT to make sure they were catalogued, horrible Amazon titles were fixed, covers were changed or scanned and uploaded, dedications were put on my WikiThing page (and where positive ID could be made, the dedicatee's Wikipedia page was edited), first and last words were put into CK, the rest of CK was checked, some relevant Wikipedia articles were updated (planets in Heinlein's books, star systems in fiction etc).

Oh yes and I went to work sometimes too!