I just spent some time rearranging my bookshelves. It is so, so satisfying. I do eventually reach a point where everything is in near-perfect harmony, but then furniture gets moved around, shelf length changes, books come and go.
For years I've arranged by books based on theme/mood (primary) and binding type/height (secondary). A lot of times book with similar themes will have similar color schemes, so it works even better.
Right now it's something like:
Economics --> Lewis Mumford, Moby Dick --> Post-colonialism --> Catholic Social Justice Teaching
Next shelf:
Childhood fantasy that left a deep impression on me --> medieval studies --> disaffected poetry --> disaffected novels --> motherhood --> women in the middle east --> the gulag archipelago
Next shelf:
T. E. Lawrence --> Islamic Studies --> the modern middle east
Then nursing books --> health, meditation... hoodoo...
I'm really, really happy that Onegin is next to The Unbearable Lightness of Being now, and Baghdad Burning is next to Solzhenitsyn.
It's like... making seating arrangements for a dinner party that brings together all of my favorite people.
Bookmarks