Next in our year of organizing was the library.

First of all, we looked through the house and found the books that were ‘living’ elsewhere and brought them into the room. Then we went through our books, shelf by shelf and decided to keep (or not). This took most of Saturday, and resulted in three large bags of books going out to be sold. ($45!)

We replaced three glass shelves with wooden ones because they were bowing under the weight.

Then came the big task: filing all of our books. This was most of Sunday, and if it weren’t for clearing out so many books, it would have been grueling, instead of just wearying. As it is, we ended up having a long discussion over lunch about whether non-fiction should be broken out by subject type, or just completely filed by alpha.

Here’s the thing, our paperbacks (99% of which are fiction) are filed by alpha, in two stacks on the top shelf of five bookshelves (10 rows total). Fiction hardbacks or mass-market paperbacks are filed by alpha starting under the first paperback shelf and continuing clockwise around the room until we reach Z (at bookshelf number 3, or 15 shelves total). Then we have two shelves of auto- and biographies, a shelf of gardening books, a shelf of travel books, and a shelf of books I’ve made. Then we start with the other non-fiction, again by alpha, skipping the bottom shelf of three bookshelves to make room for the ‘oversize’ nonfiction books, including my crafting books (yay Martha Stewart) and J’s music library. Under the last two stacks of paperbacks are several shelves for astrology books and tarot books and general divination books. On the other side of the room is a bookshelf solely of graphic novels, comic books, and art books. Next to that are the two bookshelves that are the rest of my occult reference library.

A Queen Anne style armchair sits next to the media cabinet that holds the household server and a table lamp, just right for reading a good book . . . of which we have several. It’s really perfect for settling in with a cup of tea and having a quiet time.