Organising Your Bookshelves for Maximum Happiness
This article was originally published in the Wairarapa Lifestyle Magazine and is reproduced here with permission from the Editor.
Recently I received a lovely request on Instagram from a reader:
Dear Mrs Blackwell,
I have just bought a new bookcase for home and I’d like your opinion on the best way to display books at home. Any ideas appreciated.
Thanks so much,
Ruth the Reader*
Readers of this journal may be surprised to learn that the Blackwells have very few books on display at home. Unless you count my bedside table which Mr Blackwell fondly refers to as the bookshop's second location.
Right now I've only got a small collection of first edition Steinbecks and some beverage reference books on display in the living area of the house. We also have a walk-in pantry that displays our cookbooks in that specific area, as cookbooks for us are souvenirs; we often buy cookbooks on our travels or from special restaurants we eat at. The rest of our books are tucked away in tall cabinets or recycle themselves back into the bookshop in our preloved section - look for the green stamp!
Visitors to the shop often ask me about the displays. Many don’t notice straight away, but almost all the books in the shop are cover facing, and that was a deliberate choice. When I spoke to people about how they buy books and what they love about bookstores, several mentioned that books facing out often caught their eye. Our shelves are specially built and sit on a slight angle so this isn't really something that's easy to recreate at home — also, most people don't have more than one copy of the same book to add any depth at home.
Beyond a more standard alphabetical-style arrangement, one of the things that's helped me determine how to display my personal collection over time is whether I've been in a "books as function" time in my life or whether books or particular books are special objects in their own right, displaying style or values.
Books as Function
When I was younger I wanted my bookshelf to tell visitors about my interests and how intelligent I was — or wanted them to think I was. I used my displays to cement that I was a big reader and book lover as part of my personal brand. I even used my bookshelf to weed out potential boyfriends: my dates' statements about books and bookshelves helped separate some of the wheat from the chaff.
As a university student I was really proud of the big (secondhand) bookshelf in my bedroom full of (mostly) second hand paperbacks.
As a young adult I remember buying my first home and I fell head over heels for a 100-year-old, totally impractical villa with built-in rimu bookcases that meant my books could line most of the walls in the lounge.
Now, and even before owning a bookshop, I've become more confident that I don't need people to know who I am the minute they walk in my front door.
Thus, apart from my Steinbeck collection, our books are mostly stored where they are used — as with the cookbook collection in the pantry — or put out of the way as the reference volumes they are.
Books as Values
Of course there’s nothing wrong with displaying your books as a way of displaying your values!
Choosing to display books that also put your values on display feels to me a bit of a hybrid of books for function and books for style; you’re clearly choosing them as part of your decor, but chances are you also use and refer to them often.
So the actual arrangement you choose should be a blending of the two as well: something that looks appealing (as opposed to messy stacks, perhaps) as well as something functional so you can find what you need when you need it.
If books express your values consider:
arranging by subject area or genre — like with like is always an easy system, and you can also break up collections by function in this way, storing cookbooks near the kitchen and reference in the office, for example.
arranging by value — your own personal value or the book’s market value. If you’re a collector, it might make sense to group your most important pieces together.
arranging by chronological order by purchased or date read — if you’re the type who remembers things like, “I read that book the summer we stayed at the lake,” this might be an ideal solution for you.
I’ve even seen a suggestion to arrange books according to which authors you feel would be friends in real life – regardless of the centuries that separate them.
Books as Style
And then there are those of us who love to decorate with books. I saw a sign at a bookshop in America that they sold books by the foot for decorating purposes — all of a certain colour or style. But, of course, avid readers may also want to display their books aesthetically, as objets d’art — in addition to works of literature.
If books to express your style, consider:
displaying by colour
by height
as stacks with other objects / art
or as a backdrop for video conferences.
A few years ago (I Googled and it was 2018, apparently), designers began displaying books backward, with the pages facing out. The reasoning given is that it creates a solid, neutral colour palette on your wall of shelves.
Personally, while I like the end look, I feel this is a bit nuts if you actually want to ever use the books. But if you’re interested in pure style, it could be a way to go.
When is it time to cull the collection?
Of course, if you’re like many, you may find that eventually your collection grows beyond the available space to display it (and there are somehow no more walls available for additional bookshelves), and it can be painful to try to decide what stays and what goes.
But like anything else in life it's a good idea to just hold onto the ones that bring us joy and release those that aren't so that someone else might enjoy them — and if you resell them it means more money for new books. The circle of life!
*names changes to protect the innocent
📚 My past contributions to Wairarapa Lifestyle Magazine are available here.
