Book Blogger Hop No. 93: Bookshelves -- To Re-arrange or Not To Re-arrange Them?

Welcome to the Book Blogger Hop,

hosted by Billy @

Ramblings of a Coffee-Addicted Writer!

For more information, and 

to find out the topic of next week's question, click HERE.

This Week's Question

Do you re-arrange and move books around on the shelves or move books off of your bookshelves to another area after a certain amount of time, or do you just leave them the way they are?

(Submitted  by Elizabeth  @ 

Silver's Reviews)

My Answer

So at last we have a question about the bane of every bookworm's existence -- those bookshelves! Lol. Thanks, Elizabeth!!  :)

I think all of us who have an obsession with books do move them around from time to time. In my case, I never do that, even when I need to dust them.  I'm quite content to let them remain where they are. The thing is, I need my precious time for reading. So I don't obsess about where my books are located on the shelves. Some people are such neat freaks where books are concerned that they actually arrange them by topic, or in alphabetical order, by the author's last name, or even by size. Now, that DOES matter to me -- putting books together according to size. It just looks so much better, more aesthetically pleasing. But, once arranged, I will leave them thus, and not move them around anymore unless absolutely necessary -- which isn't the case, most of the time.

There are also those people who catalogue their books, the way libraries do. While the advantage is that they know exactly WHERE a book is, and can locate it in a second, I just feel that this type of thing is also a big waste of time that could be much better used actually reading!

There's another reason why I don't re-arrange, or even organize, my bookshelves. Whenever I start dusting off my books, I inevitably get sidetracked, because I'm distracted by the books themselves. Since I have collected SO many interesting books that I have not yet read, when I'm dusting them, I can't resist opening a really interesting one and skimming through it, telling myself that "this will only take a second". Yeah, RIGHT. I start getting into the book. Then I hastily stop myself and continue the dusting, only to have the very same thing happen with the next book I come across. So you can imagine that the whole project of organizing and/or re-arranging my books would be a HUGE disaster from the start, as well as a HIGHLY frustrating experience! 

My bookshelves are currently pretty full by now, anyway. I have tried to stop or even slow down my book buying, but that doesn't look like a likely event. So I've been putting new acquisitions on top of books arranged vertically, as there's some space available there. Lately, I've even resorted to putting books inside purses I'm not currently using. These purses are hanging in two closets....lol.

I need to go through my collection -- this is long overdue -- to see if there are any books I need to get rid of. I know that, from time to time, I have come across books and have asked myself, "Don't I already own a copy of this one? Yes, I'm pretty sure I do. I wonder where the HECK it is!" (I'm a great conversationalist when I'm talking to myself.) 

Sometimes, I get a hankering for a certain book, and I start going crazy looking for it, wondering if I even own it. ("Highly illogical human behavior!" Mr. Spock would probably mutter to himself, on his way to give Captain Kirk the latest statistics on the Romulan-Klingon war...) It's just that I'm not in the running for the title of "World's Most Organized Person", lol. 

My mom gave up on me years ago, when I used to live at home. She would organize my room (I had FAR fewer books then!), but it would go right back to its original state of chaos a couple of days later. I DID know where everything was, though.

Having said all of the above, I must admit that I do admire bookworms who are able (they have the patience I don't) to organize their bookshelves. Having organized shelves does make it much easier to locate books. But, again, I just don't have "the organizing gene"....Lol.

It's such a relief when, after feverishly searching every single volume on my shelves, I can finally locate a book! However, if I CAN'T locate it, and really NEED to read it, my only conclusion is that it's probably in storage. (When we moved into our condo 2 years ago, I had no choice but to put a LOT of my books in storage, boo-hoo......) Well, in such cases, if I MUST have the book, I simply buy myself another copy! You see,  I cannot possibly NOT HAVE a certain book when I want to have it at hand. I want my book when I want it!! Lol.

So there you have it, folks......my very LOGICAL and totally UNDERSTANDABLE explanation for why I do what I do, or don't do, with my babies. And oh, yes, I ALWAYS HUG my favorites!! Then I put them right back on the shelf, in the exact same spot.

Below are two pics of part of my book collection. One of them shows a closeup of my beloved reading nook. (This is where I do my blogging, as well. I have a lap desk that I put my laptop on, as the small table next to me is there for the sole purpose of holding MORE books...) These are the books currently in our condo. The pics were taken about a month after we moved in.

I included these photos in a previous post, but decided to do so again, for two reasons: 1.) I'm HUGELY proud of these beauties, and 2.) Some of you fellow BBH participants may not have seen them on the previous occasion (occasions?) , so I'm bragging about them again!

 

                     

What are your thoughts on

this topic?

Please leave a comment!

If you're participating in this meme,

I'll go comment on your 

own BBH post.

If not, I will then comment on one 

of your blog posts!

Thanks for visiting!!!