apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

my books are stacked close to the big photo above but messier. Sad.

a combination of vertical and horizontal, never with horizontal stacks on top of vertical sets, as in some of the pics above.

99% vertical. The books that are too tall to be vertical are stacked on top of each other at the bottom of my bookcase. I try to keep paperbacks together going from tallest (left) to shortest (right) - same with hardcover. And I keep my antique books together and my 1st edition Chuck Palahniuk books together (in order of publication).

Basically, I have no social life.

I have a big expedit shelving unit. I haven't filled all the shelves with books as I like some negative space in the mix.

I am a librarian but ironically at home I shelve my books by color. It looks more appealing to me.

shhhh don't tell my library friends.!

I have two short "display" piles of large hardcovers on my media console. All other books are stored horizontally in two tall IKEA Billy bookcases with frosted glass doors. I love the doors, but the hinges reduce the flexibility of the shelving.

"All other books are stored VERTICALLY in two tall . . ."

My husband and I have our books organized by genre, and then author if we have a bunch of one author. I love the organization, but I hate how it looks. The majority of our (many, many) books are on open shelving in the dining room area (open to living room). I'm tempted to organize by color, but I think my husband would think I'm nuts.

IzzyIzzy - check out this post that showcases a colorized bookcase. While not always practical when locating books, the look is appealing. http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/flickr-finds/flickr-finds-colorized-bookcase-059962#comments

Sometimes I read lifehacker.com, and I remember this little deal on their DIY sections: invisible floating bookshelves. I had to point it out, even though I haven't tried it!

All my big books are vertical, but small paperbacks are stacked horizontally. Otherwise, there's a big dead space above them in the shelves.

I'm kind of disorganized right now cuz all my stuff is jammed into a small bedroom at my mom's house, but I have some books in an antique dresser since all my clothes are in the closet. And others are behind cabinet doors on my Expedit bookshelf. And sadly a bunch are in the garage. I don't mind a few books on display, but I don't like having all my books on display cuz it looks messy. I've been trying to find an attractive way to organize all my books but keep them hidden.

And my books are organized by genre, then author, then by order if they're in a series and by favorite if not.

Right now all my books are horizontal with a few tall one fitted in vertically. I can get three times as many books on a shelf this way, although it is a real pain when I want a book from the bottom of the stack.

I need more bookshelves.

We have floating shelves, and place a combination of both small piles of horizontal books and vertical books lined up by height. Each shelf's books are separated by color, which helps when you want to decorate with a few trinkets (i.e. the bronze genie-type lamp goes with the yellow books). The variation of hues between the spines doesn't make it look exactly uniform, but adds a great touch of consistency.

One (generic) bookcase has vertically shelved books, organised on original language. This is my classics case so it starts with a collection of books that are originally english languaged, then some Dutch, some German etc...

I also have a Billy in which I keep my other often-read books. Categorised on genre*, sorted by author and (save for the bottoms shelf which holds my hardcovers) stacked horizontally cause I have too many of them to fit in there vertically.

My hallway has three shelves that hold other genre novels that I don't read that often and are stacked vertically as long as they fit.

Finally, my bedroom has a large bookcase that holds my reference books categorised on topic and sorted on size (large to small, looks kinda stupid but it works) in a vertical manner cause they'd be hard to pull out and refer to when stacked horizontal (reference books tend to be heavy :) )

* top shelf: Star Trek
second shelf: Discworld
third shelf: fantasy
fourth shelf: supernatural/urban fantasy on the left and scifi on the right
fifth shelf: detectives, some historical stuff and a couple of those da vinci code type books
bottom shelf: hard covers in all of the genres mentioned above

My roommate being a former library assistant has all our books organized by type (non-fiction, fiction: mystery, humour, etc), then alphabetical by authors last name. But because the shelves on our bookshelves aren't adjustable, they're stacked both horizontally and vertically. We also have stacks on the floor under side tables, on top of our TV, and even in our closed off fireplace (which looks incredible I might add).

My books are shelved both vertically and horizontally in ALPHABETICAL ORDER so I can find what I'm looking for. If I run out of room, it's time to review my collection for donations. I've thought of getting a Kindle, but my husband wouldn't use it and I don't want to deal with his attitude!

alphabetical by author. some horizontal (usually the small beach shaped ones)

Like Lisa Montreal, I stack my small paperbacks because it looks like wasted space otherwise, but keep most of my books vertical. I like them to be "averaged" in terms of height, so there isn't a tallest-to-largest thing going on, or areas of all short books or all tall books. And I intersperse the stacks of paperbacks so it pleases my eye.

I just have to say, one of my favorite things about AT is that I can talk about these things with other people who are apparently just as OCD as I am. love it!

I shelve vertically, separated by topic and then alphabetical by author's last name. Paperbacks and larger books are usually shelved separately, in the same style.

In my house, most of my books are in the stairway. I knocked out the drywall and screwed shelves between the studs. This let me mostly customize the space, though there are lots of ...interesting... spacings where I had to work around plumbing, etc.

In my apartment (long story), I use Benno CD shelving for paperbacks (and actually for larger books, though they can stick out from the edge more than I like), in the hallway. The CD shelving is shallow enough that it doesn't impact the hall function at all.

vertical. limited organization: comic books/graphic novels have their own shelf space as do textbooks which serve as reference books for my science, cookbooks are near the kitchen on their own shelf. all other books are just in bookcases willy nilly.

I live organizing our books by colour, but my husband hates it! He likes adding his paparbacks to the mix, I hate seeing them, we compromise

alphabetical and vertical. 'cept reference, which have their own shelf and go where they fit.

I am strictly vertical. I have one bookshelf with adjustable shelving to allow for my taller books, or odd shaped handmade books. This is nice for smaller paperbacks as well... I like being able to adjust. My second bookcase has permanent shelves that are large, so I store my hardcovers there.

As for organization, I'm a fan of separating by paperback and hardcover first, then by shelf. Frequently read fiction towards the top, organized by genre, author, height, then series (I try not to do alphabetically, I save that for my DVDs...). Then below that are design/art books followed by misc. or handmade books, as well as sketchbooks.

I also put my pottery and misc. ceramics with my books.

I've been tempted to give color organization a shot, but perhaps I'll just keep that for my clothes...

95% vertical, 5% haphazard pile next to reading nooks.

Organization is by genre, then author (if author has multiple titles, then it goes tallest to smallest). Random entries are entered into the leftover spaces in a tallest to smallest manner.

Would love to have an entire shelving system just for reference items.

vertical, except for the very few that are too big for that. when i run out of shelf space i start pruning ...

My books are mostly out of site behind semi-frosted bookcase doors, so I stack them any way they'll fit. And I'm ready to donate many of them since discovering e-books recently. Real books take up valuable space that I can't really spare. Now if I could just stop collecting tchotchkes!

I have four or five horizontally stacked on a nightstand's bottom shelf, from smallest to largest.

The rest are arranged vertically in two large bookcases, in a system that only makes sense if you know me.

Large books can only go on the top shelf (they won't fit elsewhere), so there might be a dictionary next to an old copy of "Eloise". But, fashion books and comic strip anthologies each get their own shelves. There is *some* method to the madness.

Mine are mostly vertical and arranged according to size, with some paperbacks stacked horizontally. They're organized by subject, genre, and/or language.

It sounds a little OCD, but I wouldn't be able to find anything otherwise.

i do both vertical and horizontal. i pick some of my favorites or the ones with the prettiest covers and display them face-forward on a pile of horizontal books in between vertical books. I also put little trinkets from my travels around the books and in the spaces. it sounds cluttered but it is actually very tidy and a good way for me to display all that strange stuff i have that i have no place for. the exceptions are my husband's chemistry/physics books and they live on the top shelf of one of our bookcases because those things are just so gigantic they need some breathing room!

Vertical only. However, since I'm a web designer/developer most of my books are about design, programming, and related things, so they're organized by specific topic (e.g. all typography books together, all PHP books together, etc). I'd love to organize by color, but it'd make it so hard to quickly grab a reference for a particular coding language!

Vertical except for in my studio. All of my manuals and how-to books are on a Sapien bookshelf from DWR for small-footprint/easy-access.

Books are organized by general subject = art/fiction/design/history/reference/ I dont have so many books that I need much more organization than that :)

I have every organized first by size and then by color. "Quickly grab" a reference book? Doesn't anyone use Google?

I'm all about the Umbra Conceal bookshelves. All my living quarters rock these.