What Your Bookshelf Says About You

A Portion of the Shelves Devoted to Old Favorites

I've confessed my weakness before for trying to read titles off of the spines of books appearing on bookshelves that just happen to be behind people whose pictures are posted in online newspapers and magazines.  I do the same thing when I spot shelves in Facebook photos or on personal blogs, regardless of why the pictures were posted in the first place.

Many of you have admitted to the same addiction.  Well, good news...now there's a website for people like us.  Peter Knox and Graham Coursey have created Share Your Shelf, a site where people can post pictures of, and describe, the bookshelves in their lives.  Admittedly, while there are definitely some interesting photos there, it is not quite the same as peeking over someone's shoulders who has forgotten exactly what is behind him when his picture is being snapped.  Good stuff, nonetheless, so do take a look.  You might even want to share your own shelves there.

Mostly Joyce Carol Oates and Ruth Rendell, Two Favorites

This is some of what Peter Knox had to say about the website in this September 7 article on The Guardian website:

Only a bookshelf can truly hold a reader's history and future at the same time, while the present is usually found in a book bag or on a nightstand nearby. A lifelong reader myself, I've always had an obsession withseeing a person's bookshelf, to get a sense of what they've brought inside their home and their head. Bookshelves are universal in that almost everyone has one, and unique in that no two collections are the same. They reflect much more than just the book-buying habits of their owner. Titles are easy to acquire and even easier to sell off or leave behind, so if it's worthy of your shelf space, I want to know why.

[...]

And a Wide Shot Catching Most of One Wall

A bookshelf's organisation, or lack thereof, can show that practicality and discoverability is the priority when shelved alphabetically by author (as is the traditional way). But if it's arranged by colour or trim size of the book spines, the owner obviously prizes appearance and display above finding the right title quickly. More likely the shelf is representative of how the reader sees their own collection: frequent favourites at eye level,grouped together according to genre/topic/theme and other commonalities.  

The article concludes with Knox's personal tips on organizing bookshelves.  Over the years, I learned his tip on having "a growth strategy" the hard way...several different times, in fact.  Unfortunately (or, perhaps, that should be fortunately), I have again reached the point where adding a new book to the shelves almost certainly means removing another one first.  I suppose that's the best way of ensuring that my shelves reflect my  reading taste most accurately - but it does make for some painful decisions.

(Feel free to snoop and comment.  Just click on the pictures to see them full-sized.)