Moments of Weird Organization

Maybe it is the ‘librarian’ in me, but I have this thing about books, music, and movies being organized.  I was a substitute librarian for two years, ran the library for a month during reorganization, so I blame part of that, but I love for my books to be alphabetical by author, then works.   That’s for fiction.  If it’s non fiction, I want it to be by the Dewey decimal system.  And yes, I actually know where most books go by that system.  I guess the shelving books thing got ingrained in me.

Right now my books are far from being in that situation.  I’m very disappointed I don’t have the room to organize my books that way.  Right now they are grouped in weird spots.  I have the favorites shelf.  All my books that if there was a fire, those would have to go.  My copy of “The Lay of the Last Mistral” by Sir Walter Scott, because it was my great grandmother’s.  My Emilie Loring hardbacks.  My two copies of “The Sea is Blue’.  And others of course.  I have about 20 on that shelf, and it’s categorized by what is most important.  So clearly not following my ‘rules’.

Then there is the paperback shelf.  My Janet Dailey’s, Amanda Quick’s, and any other romance book that is my fluff reading.  Okay, that’s not quite true as I have half of those in a closet because the shelf isn’t large enough.  Do not start laughing anyone, I have my girl moments, thank you very much.

The Zane Gray’s are in boxes under my bed.  They should not be under my bed, they should be on a shelf.  I need shelves.

So, as you can see, just from that blip, that most of my books are not organized.  I had my most used books organized in one area by my specifications.  It was lovely. I adored it. 

Ok, my stacks are not this bad...

I ran out of room.

So I tried stacking them.  It doesn’t work.  You try getting those three large astronomy books  on the very bottom of the stack.  Yeah, it’s kind of hard.  So that system had to go as well.  Right now it’s kind of  a mixture of organized(sort of) and stacked(the non important books).

As for music, it must be by artist then title.  My family and I have a fairly large collection of music, and I am forever trying to keep it in order. My sister is notorious for putting the wrong cd in the wrong case, and in the wrong spot.  (though I should mention she has down syndrome, so I can’t get mad at her too much)  I try to keep my cd’s organized as well.  Hey, I have to be able to find them.

For movies/dvd’s I like it by genre.  I know, you would think title right?  Well, for some reason title doesn’t seem to be the right way to do it.  Disney should be with Disney.  Action with action, romance with romance, etc.  And my movies are in my section.  Yes, I have my own section.  Well, my parents aren’t as into the Jane Austen’s and British movies.  The Audrey Hepburn’s.  So I put mine in their own reserved spot.

P.S. (I used to wear heels when I worked at the library. Dressed a lot like this)

Now, relating this back to being a librarian.  I didn’t used to be that ridiculous.  Ever since being one though, I want books organized.  I still even shelve books that are out of place at the library if I see one in the wrong spot.  When I organize books for anyone else, I want it to be alphabetical or by type.  I have issues.

You would think that me liking things like this organized, my life would be.

I wish!

Signing off

~Kate

10 thoughts on “Moments of Weird Organization

  1. I can empathize with you! I also like my books to be organized by height (tallest on the left ascending to shortest on the right), but still organized by category. I have a background in Library Science too, so perhaps that’s the common denominator.

  2. You will both be as appalled as I was to see people advising that you should sort your books by colour or only buy white books recently. What fresh perversion is this? Books are functional first, decorative second for me.

    • Well, white books, that’s ridiculous! I sort of get why sorting by color is nice, and I did post some pictures of gorgeous bookshelves organized by color. But for function, it wouldn’t work well. You try and remember what color all your books are.

  3. Hi! This is a lovely post. If you’re interested in books that organize weirdly, or books that are weirdly organized, you might like my blog, thestrangestbooksicanfind.wordpress.com. It’s about the Strangest Books I Can Find.

    • Wow, thank you so much for your comments. And thank you for inviting me to visit your blog. I love it. How you find some of those books is probably pretty interesting itself.

      Thank you so much for reading. 🙂

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