Or you could just download Delicious Library on your computer...for free.

I do notice that there are significantly less books with green spines than any other colors. It's weird, I wonder why that is...

my brother is a library thing addict...be careful with that site!

apparently you can also hire a consultant to aquire and color-organize your books

I think organizing by color is pretty, but I imagine it would be a nightmare to find anything even if it was cataloged somewhere.

What's the point of owning books if you can't find the ones you need? (What's the point of owning them if you don't need them? To read again, to use as reference, or to have the pleasure of lending. Otherwise let the Public Library dust them.) This is not functional. It screams to me that this is someone who cares about appearances, not about books or their contents. But I wonder if there is a generational and genre thing going on, too. Most of my books have drab covers.

LOVE THIS!!!
I've done the color organizing thing before, and it's by far the easiest way for me to find the book I'm looking for. I know the colors of the book I'd like to read- and that's how my mind works.

I just never have enough books in green or yellow to make it work quite as well as this example. We have lots of beige and brown and blue books.

I was entertaining this idea the other day and noticed I had an unusual number of yellow books, often bright yellow- Every notice is theme before?

JDad, I agree! I am a literature graduate student which mean that I spend a lot of time looking through loads of books for the one I need. When I switched to color coding, like 3 years ago, and not only does it look awesome but it is by far easier to find stuff. If you aren't visual this system probably won't work too well.

I agree with Jdad. Some minds remember color better. For those that don't do it by color, do you do it by author? There are those titles where you instantaneously know the author's name, but MANY of my books were text books or short reads that I am much more likely to know the color of than the author. I bet if you sat down and though about it you could describe the appearance of far more of your books than the author.

Same here - I remember books by color - though I started organizing books by height. (:-)) There is nothing worse than looking at a messy book shelf. I turned an existing closet into a walking library by adding french glass doors.

Have you ever noticed in a bookstore how the "true crime" section is all red and black? It's the only place in the store that's color coded, and it's a bit creepy to see blood covered books

Funny about the green. A generally smart publisher I used to work with told us at a design meeting that green covers tended not to sell as well as other colors. We always shied away from green-based cover designs after that (the pub was right about most things she told us, so we took this advice, too). Wonder if the same thing applies in other packaging? Will pay attention next time I'm at the grocery store.

I am always drawn to colour-coded bookshelves, but being a series collector - & also acquiring several editions of singular titles - I would not be able to break them up!

@ljbmonkey: Is the theory about green universal or only for regions that use green-coloured money? If people associate the colour green with their currency, exchanging it for another green product could be perceived as pointless (as if the exchange was for the same thing, rather than purchasing something new.) Additionally, if the green product is likened to currency, they may elect not to purchase anything at all, holding tightly to the money they have. I am very curious about this now & vow to do some research!

Thanks for posting the pictures.

After 6 months of having the books sorted by topic, my fellow studioites rebelled against it: http://flic.kr/p/9dUby3

The mess that followed: http://flic.kr/p/9dUbBL

And now back to a color-coded library, which the crew loves and can now manage well enough (since most of us are visually-inclined): http://flic.kr/p/9dUbHm

Hate.

@ Barefoot
It is functional to me and as a grad student. It has nothing to do with appearances and everything to do with finding the book I need. I am more likely to remember the color than to remember the name (usually an obnoxiously long academic title) or authors (usually multiple or for books with papers in them, the author of the paper doesn't match the author of the book). It's far easier to sort by color and to keep it organized.

Uhhh, don't you usually organize books by topic or author? Unless you are not reading them, of course... Then what is the point of having them??