One problem with having a large library that you’re always adding books to is keeping up with shelving them in the proper place.
I have all my fiction shelved in alphabetical order by author within three form-factors (hardbacks, trade paperbacks, and mass market paperbacks). I leave “expansion joint,” i.e., empty slots in which to insert new acquisitions, on every shelf, but eventually they fill up and it’s time to add a new bookcase. Since they are shelved alphabetically by author, I can’t just stick the books randomly onto the new bookcase if I want to find them.
When I started out collecting books, I got the regular crappy 5-high, assemble-them-yourself particle board bookcases they sold at Target, just like every other college student. (Back then, anyway. I wonder if today’s college students use bookshelves at all.) Later, when I was a little less broke, I had some real 5-high wooden bookcases made for me (one fixed shelf in the middle, three adjustable shelves plus the base) to match the existing particle board shelves. later, when I started running out of room, I started getting 8-high bookcases (one fixed shelf, six adjustable shelves plus the base) to maximize the amount of storage space. in fact, when I moved into my new house, I immediately had three more 8-high built for me (along with a custom paperback shelf) to store books I hadn’t had room to put out in my apartment.
Because of the way the room is laid out, I’ve been replacing the five-high bookcases in my living room/library with the eight-high bookcases, and moving the five-highs back into a sort of den (with a fireplace, a futon, a coffee table, an old sofa for my dog, and the rest of the fiction bookshelves). But to do everything the “proper” way is a fairly labor intensive process:
- Order the bookshelf
- Take delivery
- Stain the bookshelf (and this step and the next one might take several months, depending on whether I think it’s too hot to mess with, since I do it out in my garage)
- Varnish the bookshelf (actually, polyurethane)
- Remove all the books off the 5-high shelf (in this case, it was in the middles of the S section)
- Dust the 5-high shelf with a dust mop
- Dust/polish the 5-high with lemon Pledge
- Move the shelf back into the den, where it now falls in the middle of the V section
- Move about two and a half shelves of books over from the V-W section. This is how much I need to move to incorporate all the proofs I’ve added to the library after clearing out the Nova Express review pile.
- Stock the remaining shelves from the V section in the living room.
- Now move books over from the next shelf.
- Repeat until you reach the books removed from the 5-high and stacked on the table, at which point you incorporate those.
- Keep in mind that every time I clear a shelf of books, I:
- Take a dust mop to the shelf
- Dust the shelf with lemon Pledge
- Flip the adjustable shelf over to prevent bowing
- Let the shelf dry at least an hour or two; and
- Add expansion joints (i.e., empty spots) when you move books back onto the shelves. There are also a few odd cases, where I leave additional spots if I think I’ll be adding be adding more than a book or two to that shelf, such as books I’ve already ordered, very prolific writers I pick up everything by (Joe R. Lansdale and Charles Stross both come to mind), or series gaps I know I want to fill (I’m missing some of the Datlow/Windling Year’s Best volumes).
- Continue the book-moving process over a course of weeks until all the shelves have been cleaned and stocked.
This is not a difficult process, but it is time-consuming (and by now I’m mostly done). But it prevents heartache in the long-run, because my collection remains alphabetized, the shelves clean and in good shape. And I can always lay my hands on a book when I need to. (There was another bookseller/collector who packed up his library willy-nilly, depending on what fitted in the box, and it was very frustrating experience trying to pull things from those myriad boxes when he wanted to sell something to me…)
