Illustration by Seth
Dawn Promislow’s bookshelf essay last weekend sparked a flurry of letters from readers, who were eager to share the ‘rules’ that governed their own bookshelves. Turns out, almost anything goes – except for one thing: organizing books by colour. (Says one reader: “Horrors. Never.”)
I inherited my father’s library. He was a lawyer, and fortunately he donated his extensive law library to Queen’s University before he died. Still, a taxicab pulled up to my small house in north Toronto and unloaded several oversized boxes of books that were now mine and once his. To give the lives of great jurists and famous trials the respect they deserved, I had custom-built shelves installed for my newly inherited library. I’ve read a few of the books and may read more, but I am not a lawyer. Lord Denning, Lord Halisham, Lord Birkenhead et al are not my first pick for bedtime reading. I don’t know what will happen to them after I have gone to that great bookshop in the sky. But for now, I take pleasure in looking at the books on the shelves next to me. They bring me closer to my father and to his love of books, which he – and my mother, I might add – passed along to me.
-Anthony Pepper, Toronto
Beverley Kort's study and online therapy office bears a striking similarity to her father's.Supplied
I really enjoyed the piece on people’s bookshelves, which got me thinking about my own bookshelf (left) and my father’s (see below). He was much more organized than I am, as you can see in the photo. In his first career he worked as a chemist, so his books are all in topics and sorted alphabetically by author. Mine are sort of organized by topics on shelves. I have my current therapy books, my older books that I have not looked at for years but can’t let go of. The fiction books are on shelves together and my cartooning and graphic novels and drawing books are together but that’s as good as it gets. My very current books are lined up along the floor by my bed and on my bedside table with a leaning tower of New Yorkers. Thanks for getting me to think about this part of my life.
-Beverley Kort, Vancouver
The study in Beverley Kort's childhood home held her father's books, which had a strict organizational structure.Supplied
I’m not sure how my wife would organize our books, but I organize them by topic – history, memoir, environment, travel, fiction et al – and then alphabetically (author’s last name). I track them on a spreadsheet recording their location (primarily on a wall of shelves in our sitting room) and nothing whether we have lent them out*. In the last year or two I have also noted who gave a book to us and when we acquired it.
*I’ve become selective about lending books because I have found some friends very slow to return them and others who didn’t really want a book “pressed” on them!
-Richard Holland, Grafton, Ont.
The house my husband and I bought in 1970 came equipped with many bookshelves: in rooms, in closets, even one hiding in a tiny space behind a bedroom door. In the den, three of the four walls are encased in bookshelves from floor to ceiling. This is no doubt why we ended up in this house. Organizing the shelves has become willy-nilly, although earlier in my book-reading life an attempt was made to have certain shelves contain books written by Canadian authors. And, yes, history books are more or less together. Organizing by colour? Horrors. Never.
-Sharon Rogers, Ottawa
I have four main areas for books: my “working” shelves, containing contemporary volumes and much-loved older ones; shelves in the spare bedroom which hold big art books, history and travel books; an antique glass-fronted bookcase which houses books from my childhood as well as old tomes handed down from long-dead relatives – much too interesting, beautifully bound, or connected to my heritage to let go; and lastly my bedroom stash of library books which I struggle to read before their due date (good management of library holds is essential).
-Wendy Bonus, Thornhill, Ont.
I live in a house filled with books, which until fairly recently were loosely arranged by category, with books by the same author usually together. My book-loving teenage daughters, however, determined that book reorganization was a perfect COVID project. My husband and I agreed to this venture, but with some trepidation, since they chose author’s date of birth as their organizing principle. The result is wonderful in some ways. Our bookshelf tells our particular version of the evolution of the novel, beginning with Cervantes and ending at Edugyan. The books seem comfortable with their neighbours, for the most part (Thomas Hardy is next to Henry James, and Kazuo Ishiguro is beside Colm Toibin). It’s easy to find a book on our shelves, and one learns about each author’s contemporaries. The only difficulty is putting a book back ...
-Andrea Mills, Kitchener, Ont.
Steve Zan's bookshelf, which was made by him and his son, comes with a ladder for reaching the top shelf.Supplied
My wife and I have been collecting books for decades, resulting in piles of them all over the house. When I retired, my son and I built a large bookcase from scratch. Even after some culling, it became obvious that the wall-to-wall bookcase wasn’t enough. The non-fiction had to go elsewhere and so I built a second, smaller bookcase in the same room. Books are arranged in approximate alphabetical order so we can find them, with some key mementos of our lives scattered amongst the titles. But the key is the rolling ladder, something I just had to have. The room is now known as the Library.
-Steve Zan, Ottawa
Where do I begin? I have six custom-made bookcases that house approximately 1000 books. Two-thirds are fiction, the rest are non-fiction. The fiction are sorted by mystery and non-mystery, then by country of authour (if they’re Canadian, I sort by province, too). The non-fiction are sorted by topic. All of this makes it easy for me to select what interests me at the moment. I always have two books on the go, one fiction and one non-fiction. I love to read, both for entertainment and knowledge.
-Janice Knickle, Blockhouse, N.S.
My books are definitely arranged in some sort of order. All the Graham Greenes are beside each other and so are all the John le Carres. Shakespeare practically has his own shelf. Pan paperbacks are grouped together, and the same goes for my Penguins. As you may have gathered, I like older, 20th-century books. I have very few books from this postliterate 21st century.
I also believe that a book collection should be organic, in a constant state of flux. If I feel that I will never read a book again, I donate it to a nearby Little Library where I hope to find something worthwhile to replace it with.
-Erik Sansom, Stratford, Ont.
My bookshelves are organized by category: general fiction, classics, (Dickens, Austen etc.) and non-fiction: history and general interest, art books, spiritual. No Dewey Decimal or anything too complicated! I donate fiction, which I assume I won’t read again, but always save my favourites.
-Jenny Dunlop, Hamilton
My wife and I have often discussed the “right” way to organize books. It has changed over time, and continues to evolve. But here’s how it works:
- Our fiction bookshelves are arranged alphabetically by author.
- We have several shelves of history books that are sequenced chronologically.
- Our biography shelves are sequenced alphabetically by the name of the subject.
- Books on science and technology get grouped alphabetically by topic.
- We have art books that are grouped by style (Dutch masters, impressionists…), as well as photography books by type (street photos, landscapes, portraits, etc). Since many of the books are oversized, they need a couple of larger shelves.
- For some reason, our Folio books seem to collect on separate shelves, and get grouped into fiction and non-fiction that are sequenced similarly to the rest of the library.
It probably sounds pretty chaotic and inconsistent, but it does allow us to (a) find a specific book quickly, and/or (b) browse for ideas on what to read. Works for us.
-Bob Rafuse, Beaconsfield, QC
I’ve been a book reader and collector since I was a kid. I can’t think of anything that’s brought me more pleasure over these many decades than buying books, bringing them home, and having them join the family. We have seven bookshelves in our home -- in bedrooms, by the fireplace, in my home office -- and the biggest of them all is a built-in bookcase in our TV room downstairs, which holds everything from my Disney book collection to my gardening books (and everything in between). Long live books!
-Rick Modien, Maple Ridge, BC
My books have traveled with me across the oceans when I made Canada my home, and like the author Dawn Promislow, I am running out of space and lament the acceptance of digital versions. My collection is mostly non-fiction, grouped by genre. Philosophy, spirituality, wellness (yoga), biographies, plants (herbs and trees), astronomy, language books (French-English/ Mandarin) and travel. Even old print books found in the Bouquinistes, along the Seine River in Paris or any old bookstore that I can find when I travel, are placed within that genre. Old or new, they convey similar themes of thought and ideas. The older ones provide a time capsule for going down whatever rabbit hole I choose that day. and both help me chart my way for the future.
-Shirley Lew, Pickering, ON
