MY THOUGHTS ON ORGANIZING BOOKSHELVES

This week I’m participating in a new meme created by the ever lovely, friendliest blogger Charvi from Not Just Fiction. Although I love writing discussion posts, it so happens that I often get stumped with topics, so I’m grateful to the bloggers who take the time to create prompts and host a monthly meme.

The prompt for this week is on thoughts we have while organizing our bookshelves. As I always do, I didn’t stick to the prompt exactly but adapted it to a discussion on my thoughts about the judgement and bookshelves.

Have I made you curious?

Off Tangent Thoughts (OTT) is a bi-monthly meme run by Charvi @NotJustFiction that has a basic list-based format. Bloggers express their points in the form of a short or long list with the points under the list being merely a couple lines or even complete paragraphs.

The pleasure I get from organizing my space always makes my partner chuckle. He called me a whirlwind the other day which, knowing him, is a compliment. He’s a bookworm so he knows the satisfaction that comes when a book slips perfectly into the shelf, and the joy of seeing your books comfortably at home. Every bookshelf if a piece of art. Look at any bookworm’s shelf or stacks and I bet you, you get a glimpse of their personality.

That is why it irritates me to see judgement passed on how bookworms decide to arrange their bookshelves. Whether we choose the rainbow-scheme, the backwards look, or decide to leave our books on tables, bookworms are relentlessly judged for the way they keep their shelves. Which makes me wonder – how much of our personality do bookshelves really show? And why does it bother people?

Truth be told, when organizing all I’m thinking about is the aesthetic. When organizing my bookshelves, I don’t think on what merit this book or the other holds. I don’t see my bookshelf as a declaration that I am, yes, a bookworm. I don’t see it as a symbol of my literary intelligence. In fact, my bookshelf organization is all about comfort and the ease of finding a book.

For me, rainbow schemes don’t work and neither do an alphabetized system. I’ve always stacked my books by genres which I find fitting to the mood reader I am. I have unread books shelved together; my favourite classics are cramped into a wall shelf, and my review copies take up a precarious position on my temporary shelves. It’s an organized mess.

So what does that say about me?

The judgement people pass on bookshelf organization is, in my eyes, ridiculous. I’ve seen people be called monsters or idiots on Twitter and Facebook groups for their choice of organization. The lack of books being even more appalling as if a bookworm has to keep a certain number of books to earn their badge.

It’s ironic that for people who claim to value the reading experience above aesthetics – they seem disconcertingly distressed over someone’s choice of housekeeping.

Bookshelf organization isn’t a topic for debate anymore than the organization of my underwear drawer is. 

How do you organize your bookshelves? 

Do you keep your unread books separately?

Before you go, why not visit Charvi @ NotJustFiction and support their latest blogging endeavour Off Tangent Thoughts (OTT).

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