Whether you're an avid or casual book reader, chances are you have a personal book collection, and it can comprise a variety of titles—from the picture books you used to own as a child to dog-eared classics that you studied in class and even your old college textbooks. A peek at someone's personal book shelf is like flipping through a photo album of their life's journey: it says a lot about what life lessons they keep close to their hearts, where their interests lie, and even how well read they are. As we listen back to the Creatinuum Podcast episode "Living That Shelf Life: How We Arrange Our Books," we reflect on how we curate our own book collections and hope to spur more conversations about proper bookkeeping.
Let's preface this conversation by getting one thing straight: what makes you a book lover isn't measured by the amount of titles you've ticked off your "to read" list. Whether you read one book every few months or three books a week, if you find genuine enjoyment in the hobby of reading, then you love books—no questions asked. This also applies regardless of how wide the gap is between the books you have and haven't read in your personal library. It doesn't matter if most of the books on your shelf have barely been flipped through or haven't even been touched; your intention to read these titles manifested the moment you took them home, and books can be the most patient companions, ready to reveal worlds of ideas and possibilities the moment you open them.
Also, it's no small thing to consider that we recorded this episode during the pandemic, when people were cooped up in their homes and had little to keep them company apart from their book collections. Isolation encouraged people to do all sorts of things to their personal libraries, from expanding it (or even trimming it down) to rearranging it several times as they saw fit. How a person arranges their books depends highly on their personal preference and reading habits. For instance, they can keep the books they've already read out of reach and those they have yet to read within reach, as if these to-be-read titles are constantly within the reader's eye level and silently beg, "Pick me up already!" On the other hand, some can be considered more sentimental readers, with their most favorite titles, regardless of how many times these have been read and handled, on daily display.
Readers with humble book collections might harbor some "book shelf envy" toward those with more expansive and eye-catching libraries in their homes—the kind necessitating floor-to-ceiling book shelves that you see on Pinterest or Instagram. We admit that while maintaining an e-book collection on one's tablet is a cheaper and far more accessible practice for many readers worldwide, a full book shelf with neatly arranged written works is still something to build up on at home and save up for in the long run. (That being said, we may or may not have a bone to pick with readers who choose to arrange their books by color, solely for "the aesthetic," particularly when they break up some series to do it . . .)
Those who are more creative in terms of how they arrange or store their books often endeavor to use some novel methods to do so. For example, some of us use our biggest (in terms of size or thickness) hardbound books to support smaller books on our shelves rather than lay them out on coffee/dining tables as centerpieces; this is especially helpful when economizing space in a small house or apartment. Others store their "thinner" books (such as poetry books, comic books, zines, and souvenir programs from theater productions) in sturdy but eye-catching boxes to keep on their shelves (we would even recommend using a box that resembles a thick hardbound book!).
Of course, for easier general browsing, it's always helpful to arrange one's book by genre—with one section dedicated to fictional works and another for nonfiction titles, from textbooks required for studies to art books and even cookbooks. Regardless of how these collections are classified, we suspect that a lot of book owners tend to arrange them by height (and we ourselves are guilty as charged), often when these book stand in a row and even when they're stacked on top of one another (we can't argue with the laws of physics and gravity here, especially when cats are involved).
Overall, we find that book collecting and arrangement, regardless of how it's done and how many times it's done, really boosts one's feelings of self-fulfillment, particularly on spring-cleaning days and just days when one considers what title to read next in their personal library. So when you're feeling rather lethargic or rather eager to start something new, consider your book collection, dust off some titles, and, without thinking too hard, pick one to keep you company for the next few days, weeks, or even months. Take as long as you need with this one; the rest of your books will just be waiting on your shelf.
Listen in full to Creatinuum Episode 37: Living That Shelf Life: How We Arrange Our Books available on Simplecast, Spotify, Apple, and other platforms.
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