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Smiling Shelves

Reorganizing My Library

2/22/2018

12 Comments

 
I've known for quite a while that my personal library needed a major overhaul. I decided to finally tackle that this year. I started by going through all my shelves and purging books that I would never read or that I had read and didn't need to keep. I ended up giving three boxes of books to the used bookstore by my mom's house, six boxes to Goodwill, and I added a stack to my Little Free Library stash. I have to admit that I was pretty proud of this, because in the past, I found it incredibly hard to get rid of any books. I guess you just have to be in the right mood!

After purging, I decided to reorganize. I don't go all-in and alphabetize all my books or anything. That would be an insanely big project, especially with a one-year-old following behind me to undo everything I did. But I tried to loosely group books by genre or subject. And I just love the way it all turned out, so I wanted to share it here with all you fellow book nerds!
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This is the shelf of my favorite books and authors, everything from C.S. Lewis to Adriana Trigiani. Not too much changed on this shelf in my reorganization process. I did demote a few books and moved them to a different shelf, and there was a stack that got promoted to this shelf. But other than that, it's the same. My favorites don't change too much. :​)
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This shelf got cleared off completely, and the vast majority of the books were given away. Now it's my middle grade and young adult shelf! This is the set of shelves right next to my comfy chair. I love glancing up at it as I read. Middle grade books are the best. My only problem is that it's already full. . .​ 
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The top half of this bookshelf holds my collection of travel narratives. Yeah, I have a lot. I love traveling, both in real life and vicariously. I organized these by country/continent, which means that I now know that the majority of my travel books are set in France, Italy, and the U.K. Hmm, the three European places I've been to the most. Coincidence?

The bottom two shelves hold books about books and such.
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These shelves are only sort of organized. The top shelf is all my books about music (yup, music geek here). Then I have pretty, old-looking books. Then most (but not all) of the remaining books are nonfiction.
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Other than the pretty, old-looking books mentioned above, these shelves hold my classics, along with some other assorted books and series that had no other place. The hole in the middle shelf is where my son pulled books from to amuse himself during this photo shoot. :​)
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This is my Christian fiction section. My husband actually added a third shelf to this set of bookshelves for me, and it's still crammed full. You can barely see it, but on the second shelf, there are two horizontal books above the rest. It's the only spot in my library where that happened. Also this and the middle grade section are the spots where I'm in the most trouble if I buy new books. There is no more room, but these are the sections I'm most likely buy books for!
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And finally, these two shelves are mostly fiction, sorted by author as much as possible. This is where my new acquisitions go, if they don't have an already designated section.

So there's my library! It was so much fun to spend hours organizing it. My little guy and I would spend about an hour or so after lunch up there every day moving things around. Now he likes to stand in the middle of the room, spin in circles, and say, "Books, books, books!" :)

This wasn't quite the end of my project, either. Once everything was organized, I cataloged it all. Hee hee. I'll save that project, along with its glorious statistics, for another post!
12 Comments
Lois link
2/22/2018 11:57:47 am

So cool! I've been buying a lot of books recently but thankfully since we got more bookshelves recently I still have room. I do alphabetic by author's last name but that's how I grew up and then I sort non-fiction by subject matter. I'm so excited that now I can designate a bookshelf to picture/kids books!
On another note I can't believe your baby is already one! How fun! Time flies!

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Julie @ Smiling Shelves link
2/25/2018 03:17:30 pm

Alphabetical by author's last name would be a lot of fun, but I could never let my son loose in my library again! :)

Watch out for those picture books. They tend to multiply when you're not watching! ;)

He's actually almost two now! Time really does fly, indeed!

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Lindsey link
2/22/2018 05:15:21 pm

I love seeing how other readers organize their books! I'm about to go through a similar process, due to some rooms being rearranged in my house. I think I might make a feature shelf of favorite books too. Thanks for the idea! :)

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Julie @ Smiling Shelves link
2/25/2018 03:18:07 pm

Reorganizing bookshelves is so much fun! I hope you enjoy your project and I look forward to seeing a post about it someday! :)

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Joann Downie link
2/22/2018 07:41:17 pm

Very nicely done-I could so stay there in all them books!! LOL

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Julie @ Smiling Shelves link
2/25/2018 03:18:31 pm

It's definitely my favorite spot to read in the house! :)

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LuAnn Braley link
2/22/2018 10:24:04 pm

That's quite the library, Julie. And good on you for donating the books that no longer quite 'fit'.

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Julie @ Smiling Shelves link
2/25/2018 03:20:04 pm

Thanks, LuAnn. It was hard for me to donate books, but I'm glad I did. Now I just need to read the remaining books so I can do it again! :)

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Emily link
2/24/2018 03:19:16 pm

What a fun project! I love that you have a bookcase with all your favorites. I like to keep all my favorites together too. Right now I only have my *very* favorites all together on one shelf, but one day when I have more room I'd like to gather more of them together into one case like you have!

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Julie @ Smiling Shelves link
2/25/2018 03:22:22 pm

I figure my favorites deserve to be front and center in my library, right? After all, they turned me into the reader I am! :)

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Christine @Buckling Bookshelves link
2/25/2018 01:56:10 pm

I love getting a look at other people's shelves! I'm impressed you only had those two books stacked horizontally on top -- let's just say, I can't say the same thing for my own shelves!

If you get a chance, I'd love to see what you do with your little guy's picture books! Ours are all over the place :)

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Julie @ Smiling Shelves link
2/25/2018 03:25:30 pm

I wouldn't have been able to have only those two horizontal if I hadn't finally convinced myself that it was okay to get rid of some books! Now I just have to see how well having no horizontal books works as a book buying deterrent. Not very well, I'm guessing! :)

Oh, our picture and board books are a mess. Talk about horizontal books! That's my next area to tackle, though, so we'll see what I can do about it. :)

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    My name is Julie, and I own a lot of books. As in, they are stacked on the floor because I've run out of room on the shelves. And those shelves? There are so many books on them that they smile -- not sag; smile. This blog will cover book reviews and all manner of other bookish things.

    You can contact me at julie@smilingshelves.com.

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