Thanks for all these interesting comments. Fascinating how differently readers organise their books. I also do have heaps of books on the floor, bed, sofa, everywhere but those are mainly books I need for work. And as I'm half-Japanese I internalised the art of tsundoku: buying books to pile them up at home without reading them (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundoku" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundoku</a>;).

I have a big bookshelf with four shelves.

The top two are fiction. The bottom two shelves are non-fiction. Books that I've already read are stashed behind books that are not yet read or completed. They are in order to "look good".

So for example all of my Colleen McCulloughs are grouped together because they are paperbacks and all around the same size, height-wise. Then I have about three Barry Eisler books that don't quite make it to the end of the shelf if they're stacked with the spines vertically, so I stack those ones sideways, so the spines are horizontal. Some books are hardcover and might be raised higher, so I leave those ones on the ends so that visually, they don't just stick out in the middle, grouped by author if necessary. Laying them flat and stacked or grouping them together upright entirely depends on how it pleases me when I look at the bookshelf.

Non-fiction is an entirely different section to organize. Sometimes I find myself lingering more in front of the bookshelf, so I chose to have these books on the bottom so I can sit down in front of them. For fiction, usually I take what I want and leave. Non-fiction, I'm usually picking at a few and looking at them right then and there.

The other thing about my non-fiction books, is that they are in sections of the subject. Now, I still group larger hardcovers on the ends (such as my atlases, or coffee table books), but my other books are grouped by subject and then arranged the same way I arrange the fiction. They need to look esthetically pleasing to me. Some are grouped together, and some flat and stacked, depending on the flow of what looks nice. Also, within each subject if I can keep the same authors together, I will.

I never gave any of this much thought before this discussion! But I seem to always do this the same way, every time I move and need to reorganize my bookshelf when I unpack. Great topic! :)

I give them back to the library. Otherwise by function, such as cookbooks near the kitchen.

I do that by the size of the books so that it looks neat and tidy. Hercule Poirot would have approved. However, within that scheme I also keep books by the same author in the same place.

What a nice topic! and the article was great. I liked it.

The way I organize my books is based on the language first. I have Some English novels that I put the one I want to read first and then the next one and so on. For the books in my native language, mostly I organize them by the genre, and also if I have 2 or 3 books of one author, I put them together.

Arrange the books with the author's birth dates! That's amazing and very unique way. :)