So. Tell me about book sorting! My problem: around 800 books across a very, very wide range of subjects, with two subjects (anthropology and science fiction (top level genre)) dominating. How finely grained a sort do you find useful? Are thematic sorts useful? (For example, I have a collection of books to do with London, and another to do with Cambridgeshire.) I tried a simplified Dewey system but Dewey totally breaks down with fiction, and is past the point of usefulness for social sciences.
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Date: 2013-07-08 02:30 pm (UTC)From:Since my last move in 2006, I've kept a few shelves deliberately heterogeneous. These shelves generally represent most of my book collection, and also always have a few books from the "to read" pile.
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Date: 2013-07-08 02:59 pm (UTC)From:Now, I use the "it's all in a big shitfuck" method, which offends me just barely not enough to do something about it until I finish painting the house and move all the bookshelves again.
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Date: 2013-07-08 03:27 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2013-07-08 05:07 pm (UTC)From:Non-fiction is broadly by subject then title. (Not author because I'm more likely to remember the title if I don't remember both author and title. That is, "That book with the bad teapot on the cover...The Design Of Everyday Things", not "That book about design by Donald Norman...") Choose subjects that make sense to you; you're not making a library for other people; if you can find what you're looking for, that's perfect. The system is by nature an extension of your idiolect.
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Date: 2013-07-08 08:57 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2013-07-08 06:01 pm (UTC)From:the rest is mixed randomly, depending on where I had room to stick something after I was done reading. I more or less remember where to find specific books because the spines are all so different, I tend to remember glancing over them while trying to find something else. Paiv is trying to introduce some semblance of order into my library, but... meh!
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Date: 2013-07-09 07:44 pm (UTC)From:As for heterogeneous shelves, do you see much value in adding dividers or spacers between groups? Labels maybe?
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Date: 2013-07-09 08:13 pm (UTC)From:for me personally spacers would be pointless - I wouldn't stick to labels [barely care enough to put briefs and socks into their respective drawers], and other types of dividers would eat up valuable real estate. they might be handy for more organized people, though.
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Date: 2013-07-08 08:41 pm (UTC)From:Types: SF/F, metafiction, romance, erotica, YA/children's, poetry, plays, tie-ins, mysteries
Formats: novels, collections, general anthologies, awards, yearlies ("Best of SF/F 2011")
There's probably more I'm missing.
For non-fiction, we haven't gotten there yet. It's mostly grouped by what it's for: language, crafting, mythology (general, religious, Arthurian), mathematics, that sort of thing. I'll probably use LCCNs, unless Rose stops me.
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Date: 2013-07-08 08:43 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2013-07-08 08:49 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2013-07-08 08:52 pm (UTC)From:/opinions
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Date: 2013-07-08 08:55 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2013-07-08 10:20 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2013-07-09 05:45 am (UTC)From:I would start with a section of frequently used books, alpha by author.
Next I would sort into fiction and non-fiction and then group within. If there's cross-over, group them together in subgroups - for example, if you have both non-fiction books on, say, French history and novels based on French history, you'd have a large group of French History that would start with the non-fiction alpha by author and then the fiction, alpha by author or title (whichever works best for you). If you have a large enough group - say, 30 books about World War II, you could break them further into sub-groups: books about the Euro theater in one group, books about the Pacific theater in another.
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Date: 2013-07-09 06:59 pm (UTC)From:My scifi and fiction are in the same bunch, and science/reference books on their own shelves.
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Date: 2013-07-10 02:55 pm (UTC)From:General Fiction
SF/F
Anthologies (inc. both fiction and none, since I typically use anthos to pull articles from when teaching, so want them in the same place)
"Beautiful Writing" -- includes both poetry and lyrical prose, and sometimes big photo journalist books with good writing
Visual
Academia
Then in ewach category they're alphabetical by author. once I do the primary sorting, if I keep looking for something in one category, but it's in another, I just move it.