How I organize my own books

my library wall. It's been reorganized a bit since then

It's been a really long time since I've written about my own library and the way I organize my books. (I feel like I must have written about my books and the way I organize them more recently than that, but I can't find any other posts on this blog.) I currently have 3 full-sized bookcases, 1 small bookcase, one 8-cube organizer, one spine bookshelf, and a couple of random book stacks scattered around my house. For the most part, my books are organized by genre, with some organized by author within the genre (but not always). For instance, I have my Alice, Peter Pan, and Milne books next to each other because they're all childhood favorites. The fantasy authors are grouped together. Each shelf has knickknacks that are the same theme as the books (i.e. Jane Austen stuff with my JA books), with my rainbow bookshelves having non-themed (but mostly bookish) knickknacks in rainbow order (red knickknacks in front of the red books, etc.). 

My three matching tall bookcases hold most of my library. My dad bought them for my siblings and me when we were kids; I had one, my sister had one, and my brothers shared one. Now they're mine. I have them together to form a library wall, and I love it. It's a great place to take pictures for my bookstagram. I know shelving one's books by (spine) color is controversial, but I love the way it looks so much that I don't care. Obviously I could have more than one (3/5th) rainbow bookcase, but I prefer keeping books in my genre and author categories more; it would kill me to split up my C.S. Lewis books, for instance. The books are organized as follows:

Left bookcase:

• top shelf: C.S. Lewis books (by and about) and both my The Hobbit copies
• 2nd shelf: Narnia books. The TCON series I've collected plus books about the Narnia books and movies
• 3rd shelf: Jane Austen books (by and about). Some of the bigger/solid color JA retellings. 
• 4th shelf: unicorn books, George Macdonald books, random fantasy books, Terry Pratchett books, my sole remaining Ga*man book (my 2 Good Omens copies are the bridge).  
• bottom shelf: various large books, a stack of bookish fiction books whose spines look like vintage books, 2 overlapping stacks of fiction and nonfiction books (mostly fiction). 

Center bookcase:

• 1st-3rd shelves: books in rainbow order (ROYGABPP each shelf)
• 4th shelf: Fairytales and fantasy books, 1 book stack
• bottom shelf: picture books, The Wizard of Oz books, thick books, memoirs & biographies, 1 book stack

Right bookcase: 

• top shelf: library and bookish books in rainbow order
• 2nd shelf: more bookish and Jane Austen books, roughly in rainbow order as their spine colors allow (most have multicolored spines)
• 3rd shelf: Alice in Wonderland books, Peter Pan books, A.A. Milne books, Eoin Colfer books
• 4th shelf: comics (Calvin & Hobbes, Garfield, The Far Side, Hark! A Vagrant, Introvert Doodles), Sylvia Plath, more bookish/literary books, a random fiction book stack
• bottom shelf: large books (including Wonder Woman books), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, Susanna Clarke books, stack of linguistics/grammar/punctuation books

I recently moved my small white bookcase to be closer to my library wall, and consequently reorganized the books. 

• top shelf: overflow fiction, Kate DiCamillo books, introvert books, themed/guided journals
• middle shelf: Hispanic & Latine books, mostly fiction with some nonfiction
• bottom shelf: Bibles, Christian & SDA books

My 8-cube organizer/bookcase pulls triple duty as it holds books and media (DVDs plus some of my remaining CDs), and acts as my television stand. As each cube is a foot wide, I have DVDs and books in one side, and books on the other. This means the books in this organizer are generally on the smaller size so I can fit both back to back. 

• Inside top row: DVDs (movies & TV sets), my DVD player, CDs
• Inside bottom row:
• Leftmost cube: P.G. Wodehouse books, Dorothy L. Sayers mysteries
• 2nd from left cube: Sherlock Holmes books, 2 different unrelated book duos
• 2nd from right cube: L.M. Montgomery books (Anne of Green Gables books and others)
• Rightmost cube: E. Nesbit books, Edward Eager magic books, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books, another children's book duo
• Outside top row:
• Leftmost cube: Patricia A. McKillip books, Patricia C. Wrede books, The Princess Bride paperback copies (my deluxe copy is with the other big books in the right tall bookcase)
• 2nd from right cube: animal books, including Redwall and Watership Down 
• 2nd from left cube: small poetry and bookish books
• Rightmost cube: Jane Austen books (multicolored spines)
• Outside bottom row:
• Rightmost cube: Ursula K. LeGuin, Tone Almhell, Rosamund Hedge, Robin McKinley books
• 2nd from right cube: Diana Wynne Jones, Madeleine L’Engle, The Hazel Wood books
• 2nd from left cube: Brontës and Brontë-inspired books, random other book/s
• Leftmost cube: dragon books, random book duo

My black metal spine bookshelf holds LGBTQA+ books, mostly in rainbow order except for the top shelf (all ace books in ace flag colors order) and the multicolored/black/white book spines books towards the bottom. 

I have most of my craft books (I may have one or two upstairs) in the bottom shelf of my corner shelves, which hold knickknacks. (Here's what my corner shelves look like. Holy shit that price?!?!?! I bought mine for like $10 at a thrift store lmao.) My teeny tiny mini books are in a tiny white plastic bookshelf on the top shelf. I may do a post on them later.

Book piles with no home: I have a stack of recently purchased picture books on one of my side tables that I keep meaning to read. I also have a pile of random books (mostly historical mysteries) I bought from my library's book sale last year that I've never cataloged or shelved; it's kind of under one of my chairs in the living area. I have a small stack of books I mean to give away or sell. 

I keep my Christmas books in the same place I keep my holiday decorations. My cookbooks (that I basically never use) live in the kitchen.

I know the 'in' thing to do nowadays is to just have a few spaced-out sections and stacks of books staggered on each shelf, accented with chic, modern objects d'art. To me this is a waste of shelf space; fill those puppies up! Artful shelves are for people who aren't book hoarders.

Book Review: Fire Spells Between Friends by Sarah Wallace & S.O. Callahan

London, 1813—fae and humans alike are abuzz whenever Torquil's Tribune drops a juicy new tidbit. At the center of the gossip is handsome fae, Emrys Wrenwhistle, heir to his family's fortune. As speculation over his prospects grows, the search for a suitable spouse begins.

The trouble is, Emrys can't find anyone who measures up to the person he's been secretly seeing for years: the Tribune's witty society writer.

Torquil Pimpernel-Smith is accustomed to using the force of gossip to pull the strings of social influence. So when they are offered a position as the Council's first fae-human member, they readily accept.

However, their first project plunges Torquil into upper class circles rife with snobbery. Facing prejudice head-on is hard enough, without having to hide their true feelings for the eligible Emrys.

As the line of suitors starts to form, the Wrenwhistle family is intent on making a worthy match. Emrys and Torquil's passion burns perfectly in private, but navigating society together will determine if their love is a blaze—or in danger of being extinguished.

I adore Sarah Wallace's Meddle & Mend series and also really liked the first book in this series (despite my criticisms lol), so I snapped this ebook up when it went on sale. (I reread Breeze Spells and Bridegrooms first before reading this one, of course.) This book takes place right after the events of BS&Bg, so you do need to read it first as Roger & Wyn and their rubrics feature heavily in this book (yay!). Emrys is Wyn's older brother, and Torquil is the gossip columnist/editor who, in book 1, was like:

you know what would be hilarious? and posts that [Wyn & Roger] are engaged. They of course visit the editor to demand they retract the engagement announcement, but [Torquil is] like "no + deal with it + you two are cute together :)"

Poor Torquil, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, faces so much racism (speciesism?) because they're half fae, half human. They and their parents were shunned from society and disowned by Torquil's fae mother's rich and influential family; both the human and fae schools refused to accept them or test their magic, so they're basically without status or prospects in this magic-based society. My first paragraph in my BS&Bg review talks about this world a bit more and includes my thoughts. Torquil is poor and used to being alone and looked down on/discriminated against. 

By contrast, Emrys is the heir to his rich, influential elf family, one of the most eligible gentlemen in society, and wants for nothing... except that he can't put off his enterprising mama who will accept nothing but the best (aka rich and from a good family) spouse for her son, and keeps setting him up and making him go on dates even though he's less than enthusiastic. I was sort of surprised at Emrys having grudgingly-yet-long-accepted that his marriage would be arranged for him, instead of hoping to marry for love (I guess that's pretty common in this era). The way Torquil and Emrys meet (plus a short backstory for Torquil) is detailed in a short story (free if you sign up for the authors' email newsletters); basically they've been hooking up for years in a no-strings-attached to friends-with-benefits situationship. They both know they're from different social classes and financial situations, and that there's no way they could marry. 

Torquil is asked to join the Fae-Human Relations Council as its first fae-human member, and accepts in order to hopefully better things for themself and other fae-humans. However, they have to deal with prejudice from several council members and society folk, as being on the Council gets them invited to society events (Wyn's grandma gets them  the invites and makes them join society, much like she meddles in Wyn and Roger's lives). Roger and Wyn's new human and fae magic (respectively)-measuring rubrics are accepted, and it is decided a new rubric is needed for children like Torquil who have one fae parent and one human parent. Consequently, Torquil, Wyn, and Roger are entrusted to test out Torquil's magic and figure out a rubric that is both similar to the fae & human rubrics and that will work for the magic abilities of human-fae people. 

There's that classic SW "a character is cared for/given gifts against their will" thing, and that thing from book 1 about a newlyweds' wedding spell showing how much they're in love/compatible is expanded on in an ~interesting~ way. Much of this book takes place during December/Yule/Generic Winter Holiday That Is Definitely Not Christmas (Except It Totally Is) and would be perfect for a cozy winter/winter holidays read. I think I'll reread this in December for that reason. 

Some spoiler-y thoughts I want to talk about (highlight to read): I thought it was sad how Torquil's parents had zero qualms about buying Toquil the press and bouncing. They left them alone! :( I was so happy for Torquil when they got letters from other fae-humans like them, showing how they weren't the only one! I was shocked by that bombshell that Torquil's grandma actually didn't want to disown her daughter for marrying a working-class human but had to pretend to go along with it and wait until her husband/Torquil's grandfather died to publicly accept them as their family! Poor Torquil grew up thinking their grandmother hated them and wanted nothing to do with them.  I think it was wrong of Torquil's mom to keep that from her child; at least, she should have told them before she and Torquil's dad left for the continent. But at least they're not alone anymore, and being part of the rich and influential Pimpernel family means they can marry Emrys after all! We love to see an alone/unloved character end up with so much love and loved ones. However, I did find it kind of ridiculous that even after Torquil is publicly part of the Pimpernel family again, they and Emrys are still like "we can never be together" because of Emrys' social standing-obsessed mother. Hello? Torquil is a catch now that they're a Pimpernel officially. Get it together, kids. I'm a bit sad that Torquil had to give up their gossip newspaper, but at least it's in good hands. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and rooted for the two romantic leads to end up together. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in this series!

Score: ★★★★.5 out of 5 stars (Blogger, return to me the half star special character! 😠)
Spice score: 🌶🌶 
Read in: May 14
From: B&N Nook

Everything from this point on is spoilery 

Tropes: forbidden romance, "society would never accept our love", rich x poor, outcast x rich/famous/society darling etc., proud poor character who won't accept gifts/money from their rich lover, catching feelings during what is supposed to be a sex-only arrangement, "this perfect-on-paper suitor leaves me cold but I can't stop thinking about my forbidden lover", "I'll hide how I'm in love with them because we can never marry, never", rags to riches, long-lost/previously unknown rich family/family member who shows up and makes the character part of their family and fixes their social/financial situation, hurt/comfort (sick/comfort?), that thing where one character collapses and their "secret" lover freaks out making it super obvious he's in love with them, secret couple think they're hiding their secret relationship/feelings successfully but their loved ones suspect something/become aware/totally know

Representation: nonbinary character who uses they/them pronouns, bisexual/pansexual characters including both main characters, I think Roger and his family are Hispanic/Latinx, probably some other characters of color, queernorm, non-sexist & racism-free society; poor character

Trigger warnings: racism/speciesism, including microaggressions and bigoted language;  classism, poverty, a man in his mid-thirties briefly courts an 18-year-old girl who is into him (he's not into her. Several people point out their age gap is gross and he breaks up with her), hunger/food insecurity. (the authors give trigger warnings at the beginning of the book)