Books upon books satisfy the hearts of every bibliophile. Bookshelves filled with books make life all the merrier. To celebrate that, Kristen and Crystal organised #TheShelfieHop, inviting everyone to share photos of their bookshelves.
Main Bookshelf
I’ve shared photos of this shelf several times before today. This is a 5×5 IKEA Expedit shelf. The top 3 rows are filled with my fiction books. The bottom 2 rows contain some of my non-fiction books, my sister’s books, our language study books and our children’s book.
Since I was in an organisation frenzy over the weekend, I pulled out all the books that I’ve already read, and only left my unread books behind. Seeing the amount that I have yet to read with my own eyes makes it a lot more tangible than simply knowing the number of books on my physical TBR pile. It’s also a huge reminder to read the books I already own rather than buying new ones.
Books I’ve read
After sorting out the books I already read, I shifted them to an empty TV shelf. From left to right I arranged them like so: standalone books, books from series, books I bought to reread but have yet to read again, and in the fourth compartment (not pictured) I stacked all my old Time magazines. It’s a small shelf but it does the job. There’s still the entire space on top of it, so with bookends, it can double up well. Plus, it’s deep enough to double stack.
Alpha TBR, cookbooks and other non-fiction
This 2×4 IKEA Expedit shelf is located in my bedroom and simultaneously serves as my bedside table. Here I shelve my immediate TBR pile. The books are arranged alphabetically according to author. I considered arranging them in the sequence to be read but I figured that would be pointless. I’m a massive mood reader and would end up re-arranging those books all the time.
All my cookbooks are in this shelf as well. I like being able to reference them quickly when I’m baking or cooking. My main bookshelf is upstairs in the study, while my bedroom is downstairs where the kitchen is located as well. Keeping my cookbooks downstairs is a lot more convenient then. The remaining cubbies contain sociology, philosophy, theology and music books.
ARCs and odd books
My closet has an open middle section that I don’t use for clothes. I use the bottom two levels for everyday items that I use regularly. The second level from the top shelves my ARCs on the left, so I don’t lose track of them. On the right I put cookbooks that didn’t fit into the bookshelf anymore. My illustrated Harry Potter book is there temporarily as well until I decide on its permanent place.
The top row is/will be for books that I’d rather trade, sell or even give away. although, maybe I could use those for book art. After all, I would have zero intention of reading their pages ever again. At the moment there’s only one book there but I’ve a handful more in my sights that will join this row fairly soon.
Books to review
Lastly, I keep books that I have yet to review in the nook beside my wall desk. That way they’re clearly visible and I can just grab a book whenever I have time to write a review. It also saves me time trying to recall which books have not yet reviewed.
How do you organise your bookshelves?
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It’s great to see how you organize your shelves. Your shelves look amazing!
Annemieke recently posted Sunday Post #20
Wow. Many book bloggers try the rainbow shelves and yours is a stunner! So soft and pretty.
I tried the rainbow look but realized all my SF&F books have black spines!
Rosei recently posted Hello world!
I do have SFF in every colour but yes, it’s mostly because of all the contemporary books that I was able to get this pretty rainbow arrangement :)
You have the one shelf organized by color! I’m envious. I always say I’m going to to that because it looks so cool, but then I realize that I only know what color like five books are and I’d never find the rest easy again.
Dreams recently posted Top Ten Quotes I Loved From Books I Read in 2015 (Top Ten Tuesday)
I remember a lot of books based on their covers, so colour-coordinating hasn’t posed a problem for me yet. It does help to loo at the books before shelving them.
WOW, JOSEPHINE. I’M IN LOVE WITH YOUR SHELVES! The color-organizing of it, it’s so on point. Major bookshelf envy and inspiration! Just wow.
Cee recently posted TOP TEN TUESDAY | Quotes I Loved From Books I Read In The Past Year
IT TOOK SO MUCH EFFORT TO SET UP! Hahaha. But it’s oh so worth it xD
Your bookshelves are BEAUTIFUL!💖 I really want to color coordinate my bookshelves, but I have to stack my books in two rows in each shelves, so it wouldn’t be really visible from the outside.
Tasya recently posted Book Review: Confess by Colleen Hoover
Thank you, Tasya! 😊 Well, you could stack a bunch of books like I did for my black and mixed coloured books. This way I could fit in a few more books than if I had left them standing upright.
josephine, YOUR SHELVES. I AM IN LOVE. i’m bookmarking this post so that whenever i get to (finally) reorganizing my bookshelves, i can use yours as inspiration! gorgeous!!
Annie recently posted Blog Announcement: Stepping Away Indefinitely
Awww. Thank you, Annie <3 I retook my photos with my DSLR today when there still was some daylight left, so now they look even better. Haha. Originally I used iPhone photos that I took at night. Sooo, there's lots of brightness now to inspire you even more ;)
Joséphine Simone recently posted #TheShelfieHop
LOVE your shelves! Just so well organized and beautiful! I’ve not done a lot of shopping at IKEA but I absolutely adore that 5by5 shelf unit. Perfect. I am hoping that visiting all these posts and seeing book organization will help me get motivated to clean up my shelves some. right now they are just put in there by series but in no order. Thank you so much for participating!!
Kristen@My Friends Are Fiction recently posted #TheShelfieHop
Thank you, Kristen :) My shelves weren’t this organised before #TheShelfieHop, so this is a very happy side effect. I’m sure you’ve found a fair bit of inspiration across the board from all the bloggers!
Joséphine Simone recently posted #TheShelfieHop
I just LOVE seeing how people arrange their shelves! I wish I could have joined in The Shelfie Hop, but I kind of don’t have enough shelves so it’s mostly stacks of books around our apartment ;) Love all your shelves!
Alexa S. recently posted Books in Real Life, Episode 9: Since You’ve Been Gone
I used to stack my books below my bed when I didn’t have the luxury of shelf space. Haha. In the past we only had that main bookshelf for the entire family and that meant lots of folders from my parents. But since it’s in my sister’s and my study now, I’ve happily taken over xD
Joséphine Simone recently posted #TheShelfieHop