Well, the problem of classifying books was solved long ago by librarians. The Dewey Decimal System is a popular system. Using my trusty automatic labeller, I labelled each of my books with the Dewey number (gleaned from the Library of Congress and the Vancouver Public Library websites). Now when I put a book back on the shelf, I don't need to think about where to put it -- I just shelve it according to its number (for example, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is 158, Getting Things Done is 646, etc.)
It's a great idea, but Dewey is owned. It's not free, plus it's a little stale. It's also optimized based on shelf-space, not by topic or anything.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant! I'm so gonna do this.
ReplyDeleteI prefer the random-scatter method personnally. If the book fits, the book sits!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - yeah, I'm not surprised that Dewey has some drawbacks. It's working OK for my little bookshelf thankfully.
ReplyDeleteChris - Yeah! It's cool!
Graham - Ha! Good to know than random-scatter works for you!
I used to have a great plan for organizing stuff like that (books, magazines, etc etc) .. I would pile them up on the coffee table and my wife would box them neatly, and in alphabetical order by title.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, it's just "clutter" and if I pile them up on the coffee table, it means I don't want them anymore and they will be trashed..
But, seriously .. coding your own books with Dewey is really 'Out There'
"Out there" - love it!
ReplyDeleteInstead of Dewey, switch to LC numbers! Also, you could catalog your books on LibraryThing (www.librarything.com), which could help with the numbering.
ReplyDeletehi taleswapper - yeah LC is truly hardcore. and LibraryThing looks neat!
ReplyDelete