Organize my bookshelves... nope...
Throughout most of my life I have been a fairly well-organized person.
I pretty much had to be in the Army - where it was a requirement, not an option - and, later, as a journalist for nearly 50 years during which time I often worked on three or four stories in a day. If I hadn't been organized I would have never gotten them done on deadline.
However, the one part of my life that has never been organized is my bookshelves. I am an eclectic reader and so I've never felt the need to organize my books by genre or author or whatever.
I mention this because over the past few weeks I've seen several YouTube videos from other readers about their day-long efforts to organize their bookshelves and it got me to wondering why anyone would do that.
I can't see a practical reason for it, nor an emotional one.
In fact, emotionally speaking, I'd rather not have my bookshelves organized. Browsing my bookshelves for something to read is an adventure. I'm never really sure what will strike my fancy on any given day and so when I go looking for something to read I might pick up a Raymond Chandler mystery, or an autobiography, or even a romance novel all standing side by side on one of my shelves. In truth, discovering a book I haven't read in a while is a little like unexpectedly running into an old friend on the street... in other words, a real pleasure.
There's another emotional benefit, at least to my way of thinking, for not organizing my bookshelves. It's simply this: It can genuinely lift my spirits when I unexpectedly find a book that I haven't read in a while and remember just how good it was when I first turned its pages. Seeing it nestled between other books can - and usually does - bring back a flood of memories about where I was at the time I read it, both physically and emotionally. I like that, even when those memories might be bittersweet, because it helps me keep things in perspective - and that's a good thing, at least in my case.
Anyway, that's my take on organizing your bookshelves. I'd love to hear how you feel about it.
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KCABGK
I pretty much had to be in the Army - where it was a requirement, not an option - and, later, as a journalist for nearly 50 years during which time I often worked on three or four stories in a day. If I hadn't been organized I would have never gotten them done on deadline.
However, the one part of my life that has never been organized is my bookshelves. I am an eclectic reader and so I've never felt the need to organize my books by genre or author or whatever.
I mention this because over the past few weeks I've seen several YouTube videos from other readers about their day-long efforts to organize their bookshelves and it got me to wondering why anyone would do that.
I can't see a practical reason for it, nor an emotional one.
In fact, emotionally speaking, I'd rather not have my bookshelves organized. Browsing my bookshelves for something to read is an adventure. I'm never really sure what will strike my fancy on any given day and so when I go looking for something to read I might pick up a Raymond Chandler mystery, or an autobiography, or even a romance novel all standing side by side on one of my shelves. In truth, discovering a book I haven't read in a while is a little like unexpectedly running into an old friend on the street... in other words, a real pleasure.
There's another emotional benefit, at least to my way of thinking, for not organizing my bookshelves. It's simply this: It can genuinely lift my spirits when I unexpectedly find a book that I haven't read in a while and remember just how good it was when I first turned its pages. Seeing it nestled between other books can - and usually does - bring back a flood of memories about where I was at the time I read it, both physically and emotionally. I like that, even when those memories might be bittersweet, because it helps me keep things in perspective - and that's a good thing, at least in my case.
Anyway, that's my take on organizing your bookshelves. I'd love to hear how you feel about it.
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KCABGK
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