I would love to do this except, well, I'm far too anal-retentive to do anything other than by genre and then alphabetically by author. And because I don't necessarily have time to stand around and attempt to remember what color my copy of So Long and Thanks for All the Fish is... (Though the real reason is mostly because I would end up spending hours trying to determine if they should be organised as a spectrum, and where in the world black and white and grey would go, and whether pink should come before red or next to violet...
I have to keep mine by genre also. It's sort of like a roughed-up version of Dewey. I had a friend once who thought I should paper over all the covers and organize them all by size and shape. She just couldn't figure out why I didn't want to have to open two dozen books to find a copy of a criminology text I wanted to quote.
I've always been way too lazy too organise my books properly, leading to the "where did I put that book" search requiring total ransacking of my house, but something in this speaks to me. I think I'd be able to find them better because I can *always* remember what the book looks like, and never where I put it last.
I'm a professional organizer AND a book lover, and I'm sorry... but this is just, well, it just seems wrong.
This might be ok for books that exist only as "accessories" but if you love your books, well, I can't imagine any other way but alphabetical by author, with maybe side groups by genre and then alphabetical by author.
Wow. I can't believe how opposed my brain seems to be to this books by color filing system.
Part of me loves it, part of me boggles at the thought. But I liked it because I am so disorganised that the only criteria I have for my bookshelves is size, meaning I have to rely on memory alone to find books, so questions of genre don't really worry me. But yeah, I've got a friend who will only buy the Penguin classics with matching spines because she wants her bookshelf to match her bedspread. THAT is wrong.
That is so pretty! I color coded my dvds because I remember books, cds, and dvds by their colors more than by their genre. When I'm searching for something I always think "Okay, I'm looking for green.. green, green?" So this would be ideal for me! I want so badly to color code my books, but my fiance likes the whole hod podge, nothing near each other related to anything approach. Plus some books only fit on certain shelves...
that's really cool. totally impractical if you need to find a book and you've never paid much attention to the color of its spine, but it looks really good!
That's really cool-looking, but I think it gives the impression of being more concerned with books as decorative accessories than interesting things to actually read (I know, they can be both). Still, I was almost on board with the idea, and then I looked up at a shelf and saw all my Harry Potters sitting in a row. I pictured splitting them up by color, and it just seemed wrong.
Well, to be honest, I can only read so many books at once, so if they are just going to lay there on a shelf, it may be interesting to have them work as a design element. My furniture does the same, my bed does the same, the position of the paintings on the wall do the same. But I do focus on visual things. I'm not saying everything does or has to.
I think these pictures are appealing, because books are nice and pretty colors are nice, so therefore the combination of the two results in a very, "oooh, shiiiiney!" response. But this isn't terribly practical, and it feels a little demeaning to the books themselves. Ha, I really can't talk, though. I tend keep my expansive book collection in my car, you know, JUST IN CASE. I may need them. They are all in neat, safe boxes. For this reason I have no actual backseat to speak of, nor trunk for that matter.
Well, that's the thing - it's practical if you think in terms of color, shape, spatiality - that sort of thing. Give me a book, I can tell you what color it is and then, where it is on the shelf. I can probably sketch the book cover before I could find it alphabetically - and that's exactly what's I'm doing in my mind. Saves me time. Would it work for a city Public Library? Probably not, but then again, it is fun to see which books end up near each other (and then again I don't run a city public library).
Books don't really have feelings either. If it makes it easier for you, I think that really does add value.
It's pretty, but I need to actually find books now and then. This isn't doable with a couple of thousand books, unless we also register all the books in a database with shelf number and whatnot.
It looks pretty, but I have always had my own crackpot way of organizing books (equal parts of genre, author, size and my own associations) and I wouldn't be able to part. And as someone pointed out, I couldn't bear to part series like Harry Potter. The owner of the bookcase in the sneak peek apparently had no problem with that. I spy Dutch editions of at least the Philosopher's Stone and the Goblet of Fire in there.
Wow, I'm surprised by the number of people who think that having an aesthetic value is demeaning to a book. Since when is combining beauty, organization, and one own's style a bad thing? There are plenty of comments that indicate that this can work for individuals as an actual organizational method (I've thought about it myself, as I do remember the colors of my books spines), so I don't understand what the aversion is all about.
Shoes and clothes are as utilitarian as books, yet there is no aversion to color coding them for ease in finding. Is it because those are more inclined to become vanity items and a book is supposed to be the antithesis of that? Is it less of the vanity, and just more of our own programming towards one way (genre, author) that we're comfortable with and stepping outside of that comfort zone is well, uncomforting?
Not trying to be flame-y, it's just really surprising how strong the reactions are in some cases, and I'm curious to the motivation behind it.
I too was surprised. Then I thought, well, there isn't actually anything wrong with liking the look of something as well as the content - I mean, I buy Folio edition books because they are pretty, and a book *is* actually a work of art, and we should stop thinking of books as some kind of spiritual-ether things because they are physical objects with a presence and an aesthetic which is why we like buying books and not just reading stuff on the net, etc etc, wank wank... so last night I did it. and it looks awesome.
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naoskopi) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif?v=92.2){kind=small}
hipsterbookclub,
March 4 2008, 23:59:57 UTC 4 years ago
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This might be ok for books that exist only as "accessories" but if you love your books, well, I can't imagine any other way but alphabetical by author, with maybe side groups by genre and then alphabetical by author.
Wow. I can't believe how opposed my brain seems to be to this books by color filing system.
March 5 2008, 00:39:46 UTC 4 years ago
But yeah, I've got a friend who will only buy the Penguin classics with matching spines because she wants her bookshelf to match her bedspread. THAT is wrong.
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Well, that's the thing - it's practical if you think in terms of color, shape, spatiality - that sort of thing. Give me a book, I can tell you what color it is and then, where it is on the shelf. I can probably sketch the book cover before I could find it alphabetically - and that's exactly what's I'm doing in my mind. Saves me time. Would it work for a city Public Library? Probably not, but then again, it is fun to see which books end up near each other (and then again I don't run a city public library).
Books don't really have feelings either. If it makes it easier for you, I think that really does add value.
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I'm not visually oriented that way at all.
March 5 2008, 10:13:24 UTC 4 years ago
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March 5 2008, 14:37:21 UTC 4 years ago Edited: March 5 2008, 14:50:41 UTC
Shoes and clothes are as utilitarian as books, yet there is no aversion to color coding them for ease in finding. Is it because those are more inclined to become vanity items and a book is supposed to be the antithesis of that? Is it less of the vanity, and just more of our own programming towards one way (genre, author) that we're comfortable with and stepping outside of that comfort zone is well, uncomforting?
Not trying to be flame-y, it's just really surprising how strong the reactions are in some cases, and I'm curious to the motivation behind it.
March 5 2008, 22:00:31 UTC 4 years ago
so last night I did it. and it looks awesome.
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