I'm a book nerd
The first ting I did after moving into my house was to put up shelves for books and CDs, and those books and CDs were the first things moved in.

Books have to be shelved in order. For example, we start with things like Gilgamesh, the Upanisads, the Bible and the Koran. Then we move into poetry, starting with The Rubayiat of Omar Khayyam and Basho's haiku, then on into Homer and Virgil, and thence moving into Icelandic sagas. This gives a linguistic bridge to Mallory, Chaucer, Gawain and so on, and so to English poetry. Shakespeare comes next, followed by other English-language playwrights; then foreign language playwrights, then critics and theatrical writers - Artaud and Bloom. Then we start on English prose, arranged chronologically.

From English prose, we work through to German literature, then Yiddish, Czech, Polish and a large chunk of Russian 19th-century stuff. Educated Russians at the time spoke French, so we go from there to French literature. French is a romance language, as is Spanish, so we go from France to Spain and Latin America. Lots of Borges. Italian stuff comes next, and then far-eastern literature.

Fiction done, we move onto autobiography, then biography, then history. After history, the classical historians: Herodotus, Josephus, Suetonius and so on. Next comes essays: Montaigne, Brillat-Savarin, Emerson, Borges' non-fiction, George Steiner. Finally, natural history and science books.

I tend to by books in bulk, and one of my favourite activities is rearranging the shelves to make way for the newcomers. Unread books are shelved upside down so I don't forget about them.

Oh, yes. One last thing. I tend to have a reading sequence, so that, say, 18/19th C English will be followed by something in translation, something non-fiction, then modern English, then a 19th C piece in translation, then perhaps a piece of classical literature. I don't like breaking the sequence. Imagine reading Fielding and Austin too close together! Heavens to betsy. That would be somehow terrible.

For some reason, my shelves still don't look quite right. The books were in exactly the right order at my old house, but there's something amiss now. I can't quite figure out what it is, and that worries me more than it ought.

I'm not an obsessive. Honest.

EDIT: if anyone has a copy of War and Peace in the old Penguin Classics format - the edition with the yellow bar at the top of the spine - and is willing to sell it, please gaz me. I don't dislike the new covers, but they don't fucking match.



Oh, god. I am bad, aren't I?
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 6 Mar 2008, 11:22, 14 replies)

Snap
Just what is wrong with spending your evenings in the eighteenth century anyway? Or spending a day every few months re-organising books by author/field? Or taking boxes of books down to the lockup so I can bring back the ones I haven't read for a while? Or reading up to six at any one time? Or installing a bookcase and missing a part so that two shelves worth collapse on top of your two year old as he tries to climb them (sorry junior)? Oh yeah, that one was.

Classic sci-fi, military, naval, historical, biographies, cheap pulp thrillers, shooting, old textbooks from when I thought I might have a career as a graduate, the categories are endless.

I can't walk past a second hand bookshop without having a nose. The septuagenerian assistants practically wet themselves when they see me at the local Hospice Charity shop as they know they'll get some shelf space back.

The back row of the bookshelves contain the cheap tat, with the more 'brainy/arty' stuff at the front. So the complete collection (almost) of Sven Hassell (war-porn for the un-initiated) hides discreetly behind the Shakespeare. Clive Cussler lurks behind Fisheries Ecology. However I like to have the Asterix next to something highbrow just to confuse guests.

Junior has 4 shelves of his own and hasn't even hit his fourth birthday yet.

Typing this has made me realise that I may need to get out more. A lot more. Once I've finished my book of course....
(osok Rebel without a clue, Thu 6 Mar 2008, 11:52, closed)

Did you...
drop something? ;)
(Countryslicker, Thu 6 Mar 2008, 11:53, closed)

Oh Enzyme
I find it perfectly unsurprising - I do this myself (though I never buy books in bulk and all mine are secondhand and I never have unread ones and sometimes I group all the Penguins together just because I like the splash of orange it makes).

What I do find ironic though is that you catalogue your books in such a manner and yet you include Borges in that categorisation - Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge, eh?
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Thu 6 Mar 2008, 12:22, closed)

Oh, Dr CHCB
You do make me ROFL... Award yourself 10 points.

I used to arrange my books according to those which belong to the emperor, those that from a distance look like flies, those that have just broken the water-bowl, and those not included in this classification.

Anyone else who gets this can have 7 points.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 6 Mar 2008, 12:27, closed)

I sort of fit in..
Although my reading matter may not be as high brow as you, I do get a panic attack if I'm coming to the end of a book and I haven't got another one lined up to follow.
( girlinthehole, Thu 6 Mar 2008, 12:32, closed)

I can do you the War and Peace
if you like, since I finished my copy ages ago. It's got the yellow bar.
( Sonic the Hedgetrimmer doesn't care what you think, Thu 6 Mar 2008, 12:50, closed)

Oh dear.....
I can identify with this so much so that it's creepy....for it is exactly how my train of anal/obsessive thought works..
The logic of your system and the progression of categories is top-notch Mr Enzyme. I'm particularly impressed how your language section goes from English prose to foreign lit, then you order the next bit according to the romantic index of the langauge.

And an extra *click* for The Rubayiat of Omar Khayyam** - my mother used to read that to me as a nipper and I used to know it by heart. Sadly, since childbirth my cranial capacity has diminished somewhat and my "recall" function is totally fucked...

**must borrow that from me Mam & have another read of it.
( Tourette's ( . )( . ) has a monkey hair in her fried egg, Thu 6 Mar 2008, 12:52, closed)

Come round to my house, pleeeease
I know for a fact that a book on Knitting (called "Stitch and Bitch", btw) is rubbing shoulders with a book on the Aztecs.

We really need them organised, but it is a pleasant surprise from time to time discovering lost books...

About the only thing we do have organised is all the Terry Pratchett books, in hardback/softback order.
( DrPrunesquallor is determined to post more as of, Thu 6 Mar 2008, 16:29, closed)

hmmm
Mad, bad and dangerous ?
( hedge_diver, Thu 6 Mar 2008, 17:53, closed)

Good god...
That's insanely sexy.
(Rem Sir, why are you thrashing about on the floor?, Thu 6 Mar 2008, 19:41, closed)

ooooo...good idea
I never thought of going ahead and shelving the new books but leaving them upside down. What a great idea! I always keep the new books in a stack and don't shelve them until they've been read.

I too have a fairly strict organization and I often will re-arrange everything when I run out of room in any bit of the organization. My main rule though is to keep the books printed before 1940 on separate sets of shelves and in a different room......they might not like the younger interlopers on my other shelves.

While all of these other people are daydreaming about their computers, programs, coding, etc....I'm daydreaming about the new bookshelves I want to build. I am almost ashamed to admit that I only have 9 sets of shelves with my kids using 2 of them for their books (they are 5 and 7).

*must acquire more shelves of books*
( flirting with badgers What? It sounded good at the time., Fri 7 Mar 2008, 1:55, closed)

Do you give lessons?
Every now and then I try to organize mine in some kind of logical order but it only lasts a few days before they are once again shelved/piled randomley. And me a virgo too!
The only exception is my sheet music, which is alphabetical.
(misspiggy In danger of having to get a job, Fri 7 Mar 2008, 11:35, closed)

?
Are you on the pull?
(Emily Bruce-Dickinson http://jovialfellow.blogspot.com/, Fri 7 Mar 2008, 21:49, closed)