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**Qqmike** · May 11, 2015, 06:34 AM

This one (referring to your postings) is sane and simple: by subject. Physics goes with physics, astronomy-cosmology with astronomy-cosmology, writing-grammar-editing-dictionary books go together, your growing-roses books go together, bird-watching books go together, private detective books go together, home repair (sub-topics plumbing, carpentry, etc.) go together, each hobby's books go together, keep your fiction by author. Get it? Keep the subcollections together. Ain't a perfect system (is woodworking your hobby or home repair? -- put woodworking books as a subcollection along side your home repair subcollection, etc.), but it works well enough, assuming you own just a half dozen book cases or fewer, and you do not own 10,000 volumes. Make decisions. I no longer collect books, if I did, they would fill this small house. I keep a small number of quality books now. I will never pursue real estate at this stage--I gave those two dozen books away. If I need one, I'll buy it back, maybe used at Amazon or local, or get the info elsewhere, maybe free off the Internet. This is a simple, natural, sane way to do it.

**DoYouKubuntu** · May 15, 2015, 05:13 PM

First of all, I LOVE books. Books. Real books that I can hold. A book that I can casually flip through its pages, and stick something in to mark where I left off, and hand to a friend to let them borrow it.

So I have tons of books, and I cherish them; some are 50+ years old, like me!, and they're still in perfect condition [NOT like me

].

As for arranging them, it's pretty much by topic. A quick glance at two of my [floor to ceiling] bookcases reveals:

. Linux, UNIX, programming, system administration
. ballet, dance, the arts
. Hollywood-related: TV, movies, silent film stars, filming locations in LA
. gardening, plants, landscaping, miniature railroads
. the entire Agatha Christie collection

I still have my textbooks from back in the day, my pre-med stuff: biology, organic chemistry, calculus, physics, psychology...damn, how did the mid-'80s get so far away?!

**Qqmike** · May 15, 2015, 05:25 PM

Finally, I got a tablet awhile back. But it won't be a book reader for me. I'm with you DYK on this aspect of a materialistic life: a material, tangible book to hold. I'm in the habit of making notes in the book, marking in the book, adding to its TOC, adding to its Index, adding to its list of References. By ink pen. It's my book, after all.

**DoYouKubuntu** · May 15, 2015, 05:36 PM

I've actually TRIED reading a book on my tablet--and that's a big step, because I had proclaimed loudly and often that I would NEVER do that! It's okay, and I can see how it could come in handy in certain situations, but it's definitely not my preference, and I can't see it becoming my preference.

You know what my favorite place is--and I mean so favorite that after moving back here it was one of my first outings (after the beach!): the main library in Pasadena. It's a BEAUTIFUL, amazing old building that I spent a lot of time in back in my youth. Its smell, that wonderful, distinct "book smell" that permeates the building, is familiar and lovely, and I feel at home there.

I don't write or mark in my books at all. I like to keep them pristine. Textbooks, on the other hand, were different--I highlighted, wrote notes, etc., in those without issue. But just regular books I like to keep looking new.

**woodsmoke** · May 26, 2015, 03:10 PM

Thoughtful replies all.

Because of turmoil at work, the biology and physics lab assistants both moved elsewhere, I'm now doing prep for both and ..........not being paid for it! lol, but.........I get to use what I prep so........it is a good thing for me! lol

Because of that, and the fact that I have FORGOTTEN where I put books that I wanted to take to class to pass around, like an original copy of Eisnstein's book explaining his theory or a very early copy of Darwin's doorstop! lol

The upper room has all of the "literature" stuff and biology, arranged by "subject, plant ecology, etc," or "type: science fiction or Middle English literature."

Lower room physics arranged by "stuff to use in lecture" "stuff to use to produce home projects and addins to regular labs" and........ "books to take in to show around.

I read all of the books into my phone word processor as single line entries with returns, in the phone's spreadsheet, I then transferred that through KDE connect to the computer and opened in Koffice.

Each entry was something like:

first cell - Biology, next cell right - Darwin's book, return
first cell - Chemistry - next cell right - Modern Chemistry Holt

I could then sort by the term in the first cell and move "blocks" of books into a new spreadsheet.

Those blocks list the books which should be on shelf 1 left one third, shelf 1 middle, etc.

So............actually.................

I can now "open a block on a shelf" by removing the books, in a row, sit them on a table,
Place the new books that need to be there in a row.
Move the previous books to the newly opened shelf.

So it is not "Dewey Decimal" it is "group by use"

And the reason I got there was because of the synergism of the phone's office app, KDE connect (yes I could use a cable but it is a time waster and interrupts flow of thought ) and Koffice on the computer.

KDE connect continues to alter how I do things.

So, thanks for the replies and I'm glad that the OP was "understandable" lol.....
woodlikesKDEconnectsmoke

**DoYouKubuntu** · May 27, 2015, 02:09 PM

I'm actually surprised this thread hasn't gotten more love by KF members.

Anyway, as far back as the 1980s I've tried, numerous times, to organize my books electronically. Two of my first attempts were in filePro (and, no, I do NOT mean FilemakerPro--I mean filePro, formerly Profile, an RDBMS I first ran on SCO Xenix circa 1985) and via a Bourne shell script I wrote. Both eventually went the way of the dinosaurs...it was just too cumbersome trying to enter all the info, and figure out the best way to do it, etc. I could never hit on the JUST RIGHT formula, so I gave up. Now I have all sorts of nifty apps, both for Linux and Android, that promise to do these tasks very well, but I can't work up the enthusiasm to try them!

**SteveRiley** · May 27, 2015, 02:44 PM

I mash all the bits of my e-books into one great big file and then sort them in numeric order.

**DoYouKubuntu** · May 27, 2015, 04:08 PM

Originally posted by SteveRiley View Post

I mash all the bits of my e-books into one great big file and then sort them in numeric order.

You would!

**claydoh** · May 27, 2015, 05:05 PM

I don't have many books anymore, electronic or physical.

When I had a lot of books, mostly paperbacks, I began purchasing hardcover versions of as many as I could (but keeping the softcovers). I never had any real system of arrangement, though I kept series volumes together, and tried to sort by author, but not in any alphabetical order. Heinlein was above Asimov sometimes, for example.

Thinking back to when I was a wee lad in the 70's and our family had taken half of a very large bedroom to be the library for the 5 of us. I had my own subscription to the Science Fiction Book Club, so I was adding at least 2 to 4 books a month to the shelves, plus whatever Scholastic books I bought at school. Add in everyone else's books, and it was a decent collection. I don't think there was any sort of arrangement by any of us. I do know that I knew where every book was, as did my dad. We just new, so it did have some sort of bizarre organization I guess.

Today, I think I would need gps and nfc tags to navigate a one-shelf collection

**DoYouKubuntu** · May 27, 2015, 06:39 PM

Originally posted by claydoh View Post

I don't have many books anymore, electronic or physical.

You've piqued my curiosity--WHY don't you have many books now?

For me, the only thing that's going to separate my books and me will be death!

**claydoh** · May 27, 2015, 06:53 PM

Originally posted by DoYouKubuntu View Post

You've piqued my curiosity--WHY don't you have many books now?

For me, the only thing that's going to separate my books and me will be death!

Many reasons, including being kicked out by my step-mother when I was 16 (lol I did buy a book for the bus ride out of town!), then the hard decision on what to keep when my marriage broke up suddenly and I had to decide what I could carry with me when I moved closer to family. Now it is time, or rather the lack of it, among other things.

I have the basics: Heinlein, Varley, Vinge, and Adams.

**DoYouKubuntu** · May 27, 2015, 07:34 PM

Originally posted by claydoh View Post

Many reasons, including being kicked out by my step-mother when I was 16 (lol I did buy a book for the bus ride out of town!), then the hard decision on what to keep when my marriage broke up suddenly and I had to decide what I could carry with me when I moved closer to family. Now it is time, or rather the lack of it, among other things.

I have the basics: Heinlein, Varley, Vinge, and Adams.

Oh, I see.

BTW, I left home at 16, too--my choice. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

**InsideJob** · Jun 11, 2015, 07:31 AM

I use http://www.amazon.com/Debunking-11-M...+911+debunking as a book end for all the other books.

Seriously though, Barnes and Nobles has a buy one get half off sale on their leather-bound books. Probably won't be able to buy new books like this much longer in America, they can make more selling print-to-order paperbacks for $20.

**DoYouKubuntu** · Jun 12, 2015, 12:28 PM

Originally posted by InsideJob View Post

I use http://www.amazon.com/Debunking-11-M...+911+debunking as a book end for all the other books.

I can see why!

Seriously though, Barnes and Nobles has a buy one get half off sale on their leather-bound books. Probably won't be able to buy new books like this much longer in America, they can make more selling print-to-order paperbacks for $20.

I don't buy/use leather, so I can't participate. That's okay, I still have thousands of books and always find more to buy. My most recent was this really cool book of photos taken on Hollywood Blvd in 1969-1972. Reminds me of my youth.

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Books...yes YOU LOVER OF BOOKS...how arrange them?

Books...yes YOU LOVER OF BOOKS...how arrange them?

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