Further adventures in book memes

I confess that this meme speaks to me...

1. How do you organize your collection?

I've sorted all of the books into categories (literature, biography, religion, art history...) and alphabetized them.  Biographies and autobiographies are shelved according to the subject's name, then further alphabetized by author.  Works of history and literary criticism published before the twentieth century have their own sections.  Teaching editions and books I rarely use (biographies of non-British subjects, random US and European histories, etc.) are in my campus office.  At this point, the books at home take up almost the entirety of two rooms--the family room, which they share with my rolltop, and the smallest bedroom--and have invaded the living room and my home office.  No books in the bedroom so far, but I can hear them plotting.  The downside of alphabetizing everything, incidentally, is that shelving literature has an unfortunate domino effect (once I start, it can take two or three days to finish moving everything). 

2. What books or records do you keep separate from your collection for easy access?

Right now, the Anne Boleyn novels are stacking up on the bottom shelves of a bookcase in my office; I don't plan on shelving them with the "pemanent collection."  Otherwise, I tend to keep the books in their places.

3. When you take down a book for reference, how long after you finish with it does it take you to reshelve it?

When I'm writing, the books stack up on the floor; once I'm done, I immediately put them back on the shelves.

4. What resource do you keep separate from your collection because you don't want anyone to know you have it?

I rarely keep mystery novels (except for Reginald Hill's stuff) or SF (except for alternative histories), so I just stow them somewhere until I can flip them on Amazon or eBay. 

Comments

[A. G.]

Do you have books in your car? What books do you keep in your office?

[Bourgeois Nerd]

As I've said before, you're my bibliophilic role model, Little Professor! The thought of living with all those books makes me giddy!

Have you considered perhaps building some sort of shed or addition to house more books? I'm sure if they all pitched in, they could come up with a down payment! *LOL*

BTW, what do Victoria and Disraeli make of the books? Is it a contentious relationship for your time, attention, and affection, or do they too like books?

[Ruth]

No books in the bedroom? What do you read at night?

My total: 13 6-ft. bookcases downstairs (hall, living room, dining room); 16 upstairs (both bedrooms, study, hall). Cookbooks in kitchen, but that's not a full case's worth. Nothing in the bathrooms -- too worried about humidity. Just had to pack up my office for sabbatical, and now have a dozen forlorn boxes stacked in the entryway, unshelvable.

I try to leave small blank spaces at least every other shelf, so that I can shelve a few new books without having to move the whole kit 'n' caboodle. Makes lots of handy niches for losing my keys and the outgoing mail...