21 January 2009

Makeover!

I was staring at my lovely bookshelves at home, and watching (for the umpteenth time) "84 Charing Cross Road". I decided to add to this melange of activity by reorganizing my shelves properly.

So, tons of questions come up as I'm trying to makeover my shelves: Should I separate paperbacks from hardcover? (yes, especially with fiction) What about non-fiction? How many subdivisions should there be? (turns out quite a few: there's the tea section, the histories, biographies, travel, anthologies, cookbooks - though most of those live in the kitchen). Where does poetry fit in? (they're in a class by themselves. Some put them in fiction, but why? When I write poems, they're usually about my life. Is that fiction? No, for the most part.)

Okay, this task should never be commenced at night. Information overload is worse than caffeine when trying to get some shut-eye. I managed to complete the fictions and do the rest the next evening. I have to say, the non-fictions still need work. At some point I simply jumbled a few categories together, because they looked good that way.

All in all, the project turned out well. My library is my running pet project, and has been for the past 3 years. All that's truly missing is my dream chaise lounge, but otherwise it's a pretty complete literary refuge. Photos will follow soon.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yakaakaa. Talk about floating!

My "84 Charing Cross Road" is "Sense and Sensibility". I've probably watched it at least 30 times.

Mr. Nauton said...

It is nice to sit and read with a view of a great bookshelf, isn't it?
My shelves are long overdue for an organizing and weeding... how do I decide which books to keep, which ones are just there and I'll never read/re-read. Can't keep 'em all, can I?
Great blog!

Marie said...

Projects usually make your head spin, especially organizing projects, but from your pictures and description, I can tell you did a good job with the aranging. :)

Anonymous said...

i usually do my organizing while watching all my "Sherlock Holmes" episodes (Jeremy Brett, of course, don't give me none of that Basil Rathbone crap). Plus, those shows remind me of Dad, and that's always a good thing.