Dewey and His Lovely Decimals

Today's project is one I started a few weeks ago - reorganizing the library. It hit me one day when I walked in to look for something new to re-read that you couldn't really see the books that were shelved properly because of all the books stacked on top of and in front of them. Thus, since I'd really like to keep the book habit from overwhelming every aspect of our house, it was time to purge and reorganize.

The purge actually was pretty easy. Sometimes I find this the hardest part of a reorg, because so many of my books are my friends. And they're the friends that I love. The ones who never whisper about you behind your back or say nice things to your face and then send you poisonous emails out of the blue. These are real friends that never let you down - especially if you've already read them once, because you know exactly what you get with a book you're re-reading, and there's that comfortable sense of belonging that comes from settling into a chair with an old friend. So very often, trying to purge books is a terrible chore because it's like deciding to dump a boyfriend when, honestly, there's no good reason for it. Still, this time around, there were books that I could look at and toss into a box because I knew that I would never read them again. More and more I'm finding that the books I pick up hoping to find a jewel are actually just a kinda fun romp through some pages that, once finished, are just taking up space and catching dust. Don't get me wrong, I've still found some keepers, but I feel less and less obligated to keep something simply because I spent a few fun hours between its pages.

Anyway, boxes of books were packed and carted down to the basement while I tried to decide what the best final action would be - Good Will? A used book store? Many options. The used book store nearest us is...ridiculous. So it's not really an option. Plus, I don't even go there for books because their prices aren't really used prices - why spend $5 on a book with torn pages when you can get it crisp and new for $6.50? By the time you read through the 700 page policy about bringing in books, you're surprised they have any stock and, frankly, I'm too irritated to have to bother going through each book to see if it meets their bizarre criteria. Regardless, I happened to remember PaperBackSwap.com and for now it seems like a reasonable thing to try, so I'm slowly putting a few books up there and seeing how they go. I suspect some of the ones I've purged are going to be too old to garner any interest, but we'll give it some time.

In the mean time, with all the glorious free shelf space that's been created, it's time for the reorganization of the library. Last time through (maybe 5 years ago) I divvied things up by genre and then alphabetical by author. In some ways, I'm tempted to go that route again, though in other ways it lacks the...hominess? Whimsy? ...that I'm really in the mood for. Granted, it makes it pretty easy to find what I'm looking for, but it removes that happy serendipity that comes from looking for one thing and stumbling across something else entirely that just speaks to my soul. So, I think this time around, I'm settling for straight alphabetical - though I am, at least at this point, separating out fiction and non-fiction. And, lest you scratch your head and wonder where the whimsy is in that, I think I'll also do some intermingling of favorite series here and there, regardless of alphabetical restriction.

I remember reading the blog of someone who shelved her books by height (I'd link, but all the various blogs she had seem to be defunct, which is sad in and of itself) - and maybe one day I'll try that, for all that most of my books are paperback and, therefore, roughly the same size. And if, by some strange happenstance, I end up needing desperately to embrace whimsy full on, then perhaps I'll just chuck it all and organize them by color.