Some Large Book Piles Have Their Own Climates

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette. And Grant, I’ve been thinking lately about reorganizing my office, which has me thinking about how I organize my books on my shelves.

Oh no.

And so I very much appreciated an interview that I read with Jane Smiley, the author, who was asked, how do you organize your books? And she said, only by kicking them out of the way so that I won’t trip over them.

On one hand, I totally get that. On the other hand, don’t kick your books. There’s still the middle schooler in me who thinks of them as precious. But there’s also the adult in me who knows that, like, boy, my house is loaded with books. Something has got to be done. Clear a path. Clear a path.

I have a teetering stack next to my bed that I reflexively push back against the wall every time I go by. And all it’s going to take is one of the cats just brushing it the wrong way. And the whole thing is going to go down.

Well, you know, in thinking about how I’m going to organize the books on my shelves, I was heartened to come across a quotation from Luke Van Dunkersgoed, who is a software expert. He said, think not of the books you’ve bought as a to-be-read pile. Instead, think of your bookcase as a wine cellar. You collect books to be read at the right time, the right place, and the right mood.

And I really appreciated that because I’ve been thinking, oh, should I put them in alphabetical order? Should I sub-organize the sections? But I really like the idea of just comparing your bookshelves to a wine cellar where you just sort of stroll in and you think, well, what do I feel like today? And maybe you make a serendipitous choice.

We’d love to hear about how you organize your books or the chaos that books bring to your life or great quotes about how to organize your books or books in general. You know, we’re book freaks over here. Bibliophiles to the worst degree.

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