One of the constant struggles of a book-lover is storing their books. You want to know where they all are, be able to access them at any time, probably should keep series together, and at the same time you are probably, if you are anything like me, constantly buying new books (or used ones). For me, inevitably my books end up being haphazardly stacked upon each other wherever there might be space. However, every once and awhile, I have the dream of beautifully arranged bookshelves. This winter break, after a semester of scrolling through Pinterest and Instagram and seeing beautiful shelfies, I decided to organize my books by color.
Having not organized my books in over a year, this felt like a bit of a daunting task. As I began pulling out books from their original shelves, I wondered where I would put them back. I have bookshelves scattered throughout the house. There were not enough shelves together to properly see the color change. Unfortunately, they would need to be separated. With that unfortunate decision being made, the task of pulling out and organizing books by color continued. I was honestly surprised at how many books I owned. I had not taken out all of them. Only the books with a mostly solid binding were to be organized. But there were so many! A trend seemed to also appear, I had a lot of blue books, closely followed by green and purple. There were many black books, quite a few red, brown, and white, with yellow, orange, and pink having only a handful a piece.
With my stacks of books covering the floor, it was time to return the books to shelves. I am so thankful for friends and family that helped with this process, because even though it was very fun, there were a lot of books! My bookshelves cross multiple rooms and the color also crosses multiple rooms. It is really cool to see some books that were behind other books. My siblings and I notice that the books in the front of the shelves often get read more often, because of ease.
In this new year, I hope to consider some of the color of my reading diet. It is interesting to consider why books have the color binding they do. I have heard that the colors of movie posters and other advertisements give a certain feel or influence to it. Color definitely has connotations for each person, though culture, background, and preferences definitely play a role. In browsing through books, what do I gravitate too? And what makes me do so? Blue and green are two of my favorite colors, so that is probably why I have a lot of them. Blue seems like a “fantasy” color to me and it can easily be a “mystery” color. There are also many realistic fiction in blues and greens. However, I also love yellow, but maybe there are less books with those vibrant yellows and oranges. There are probably more children’s books in those color than YA or adult books. What do you think? Are there colors you gravitate towards?
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One of the constant struggles of a book-lover is storing their books. You want to know where they all are, be able to access them at any time, probably should keep series together, and at the same time you are probably, if you are anything like me, constantly buying new books (or used ones). For me, inevitably my books end up being haphazardly stacked upon each other wherever there might be space. However, every once and awhile, I have the dream of beautifully arranged bookshelves. This winter break, after a semester of scrolling through Pinterest and Instagram and seeing beautiful shelfies, I decided to organize my books by color.
Having not organized my books in over a year, this felt like a bit of a daunting task. As I began pulling out books from their original shelves, I wondered where I would put them back. I have bookshelves scattered throughout the house. There were not enough shelves together to properly see the color change. Unfortunately, they would need to be separated. With that unfortunate decision being made, the task of pulling out and organizing books by color continued. I was honestly surprised at how many books I owned. I had not taken out all of them. Only the books with a mostly solid binding were to be organized. But there were so many! A trend seemed to also appear, I had a lot of blue books, closely followed by green and purple. There were many black books, quite a few red, brown, and white, with yellow, orange, and pink having only a handful a piece.
With my stacks of books covering the floor, it was time to return the books to shelves. I am so thankful for friends and family that helped with this process, because even though it was very fun, there were a lot of books! My bookshelves cross multiple rooms and the color also crosses multiple rooms. It is really cool to see some books that were behind other books. My siblings and I notice that the books in the front of the shelves often get read more often, because of ease.
In this new year, I hope to consider some of the color of my reading diet. It is interesting to consider why books have the color binding they do. I have heard that the colors of movie posters and other advertisements give a certain feel or influence to it. Color definitely has connotations for each person, though culture, background, and preferences definitely play a role. In browsing through books, what do I gravitate too? And what makes me do so? Blue and green are two of my favorite colors, so that is probably why I have a lot of them. Blue seems like a “fantasy” color to me and it can easily be a “mystery” color. There are also many realistic fiction in blues and greens. However, I also love yellow, but maybe there are less books with those vibrant yellows and oranges. There are probably more children’s books in those color than YA or adult books. What do you think? Are there colors you gravitate towards?
Here is a picture of one of the completed shelves.
Books and Everyday Life 