is everyone asleep?

i'm awake.

I love the system, it looks great!!!!! You are truly an inspiration!

OMG. I have my books like this too. I thought I was the only one!

I'm in the middle of Eat Love Pray right now. I LOVE it. I borrowed it from a good friend and had to go buy my own copy because I was going to die if I couldn't start underlining stuff. Warning - it's making me cry like, every other page or so but kind of in a good way. I think. I'm way overidentifying with Ms. Gilbert. (I might have to interrupt it for Harry though - the new one is sitting on my kitchen table, still in the delivery box because I have a stupid paper due for a stupid summer class I'm taking and if I even hold the actual book in my hands I will not be able to resist).

There's a picture that went around the library circles a while ago showing a library that was organized by color and shape. I think it's a good idea as every now and then you get the patron who says "I'm looking for a green book." And it's much easier to learn than the Library of Congress system.

JMHO, for I am a poor librarian in training.

Love me some Harry Potter (and Eat Pray Love!!) but if you take them ALL with you on vacation, you're so gonna have to pay extra for super-heavy luggage! So many pages of wizardy goodness (and some really evil genius mixed in!)

Love the kiddie pool idea! We totally thought about it last month when our A/C broke during the hottest week on record (until this week of course!)

Me again... one more funny thought... I used to work at Barnes and Noble. Apparently there are a lot of people who organize by color because at least once a shift, there was someone who would come asking for a green book, about "yay" high, etc... always frustrating to try and figure out what they were talking about!

Ms Laurie - as it is too hot to knit, you should start 'Harry Potter and the Philosphoer's Stone' next. It comes in paperback, and you can read on the bus . . . unless you're like me and would miss your stop because you're caught up in the plot!

Huh. Since I always look for books (and people, CDs, cars...) by what I last saw them wearing, this would be the ideal way to stash my books.

Huh. Forgot to fill out the particulars on the last comment.

Mmm...Harry Potter...I already told my mom everything that happened in Book 7 because she said she didn't plan to read it, so I knew I wasn't spoiling it for her. :)

I love that you have "Operation" in your stack of games!

I'm off to read that ForePlay column now. Hee!

I once had a LONG discussion about how CDs should be shelved (I guess that was before the mp3 revolution. anyhow...). I did mine alphabetically, but they wanted theirs with, say, Annie Lennox right next to The Eurythmics. At some point I realized that only YOU need to be able to find your own CDs, or books, or whatever. You're not filing for ease of anyone else's use. So go ahead and put Lennox under E (or under Red, for that matter).

My books are entirely random, or sometimes grouped by what year I read them (newer ones in the newer bookshelves).

If only my shelves could look as good as yours...

I DON'T have my books this way but now I am eyeballing them...have you ever read Clarissa? I love that book, one of the first real novels ever written. By the WAY I have dibs on the George Clooney sandwich but my other half will be the clone of George Clooney in order to double my pleasure, double my fun, heehee!

What a good idea! That does look neater. I like the white bookcases too -- very clean-looking and better than the simulated wood type I have. (And I'm impressed that the top is not cluttered!)

The view out that window is so nice. It LOOKS cool and refreshing.

Lauren, I used to have my books kind of grouped by category ... like all travel in one section, all language in another. Then I went through the big decluttering (um, for two years, argh) and realized I did not actually need a guidebook to Austria from 2002. (I even checked out a guide book to New York FROM THE LIBRARY before my NY trip. I was shocked at myself) so now I have less clutter on the bookshelves. I do have all the craft and design books on an entirely different bookcase, though. They're in the office, grouped in no order at all (like everything in that room, alas.)

You don't have the game "Taboo"? It's a great game and I believe it comes in a purple box.

(LOVED Eat Pray Love!!!!!)

Okay, I wanna know how often you play "operation" (take out wrenched ankle) and "sorry".......(don't have a commercial blurb for that one)

Just started reading the Harry Potter Series. Finished Sorcerer's Stone and Now on Chamber of Secrets. Imagine, a 46 yr old professional woman reading kids books. My husband wants to know if he can read them next.

Read the interview and hey! you're a really learned person..........who loves cats! I went through similar experience when my first husband decided he didn't want to be married anymore. Just like that, he could make the decision that would affect the rest of my life. I literally melted into a puddle and stayed there. I wish I would go back to talk to that person and tell her it was the best thing that could happen. But I probably still wouldn't have listened. I wish I would have had cats then, too. Would've made things more soft.

You. Go. Girl.

I keep the top of the bookshelf somewhat clutter free because the cats like to sit there and look at the birds and assorted wildlife of Encino Adj.

What I really want is one of those bookcases that has the sliding frosted door panels so you can backlight them or whatever, but visually there's no clutter at all.

I love those glass bookshelves, too, especially the ones with the doors that open upward like a garage door. Barrister shelves, maybe?

I just got Animal Vegetable Miracle from the library and am about 1/3 way into Harry Potter. Let's just pretend that I don't have a dissertation looming over my head like the Dark Mark, k?

Laurie, that interview was highly entertaining! I especially liked your answer to the question about your special role in a tribe. :D

Hey Stephanie in Denver -- I did the same thing when Order of the Phoenix came out. Leaving that book in the box for days while I studied for a final "your entire grade rests on this test" exam was one of the most will-power-testing things I've ever done. Hang in there!

My books are filed using the ever-efficient "Where It Fits" system... but yet, I still know where each and every one is when I want to find it! You're right, I love them, why wouldn't I know where they are? (OK, possibly for the same reason I routinely freak out when I can't find the cat because he's decided to take up living under the bed, but anyhow...)

I've always craved lawyer's bookcases--the sort with the glass doors that close over the individual shelves like little garage doors? Alas, the number of those required to hold the giant book collection (and I hold a book purge regularly!) are way beyond the budget and available space. I also admire your lack of clutter--I'm sort of a medium clutterer these days. I can live with what I have, but I haven't added much to it in years. Still too much, though. I'm not the girl I was who felt she needed all this stuff, but I'm not yet the girl who can throw it all away, either. Always room for improvement!

Great storage systems at RacksandStands.com and their Leslie Series. My husband has like 40 hundred cds (he collects jazz) and I need a closed-in system so the hairs of the 4 cats don't mess 'em up.

I have shelves devoted to different genres--classic literature and award winners, 1940s noir-ish detective novels, southern writers, biographies, crafts by type, an entire floor to ceiling bookcase of fiction, a bookcase in the living room with only delightful old fiction (I like old movies so I often buy the books the movies were based on) and then there's the Really Special Book Cabinet--the cabinet itself is fabulous and only the very best, most special and most loved books get in there--childhood favorites, animal stories (Cats in Cahoots from the 1950s and a darling book called The Bird Who Made Good, highly recommend!)food writing--Julia Child, MFK Fisher and the like, WWII home front books and specialty books. Perhaps you can tell I'm a bit of a book fiend....I'd spend my last dollar on a book, yes I would.

I like your system, Auntie. It's pleasing to the eye, and you're right about knowing our own books. Good idea!

um, can't say who told me, but from what I heard, George Clooney would rather have that sandwich without the filling... Don't hate the messenger

God if I could stop relocating for just 1 stinking year I would take my books out of their boxes & do exactly what you have done :D

I really like the red pink mauve section lol :D

Eat Pray Love has not left my bedside table since I bought it just after my husband moved out this year. I've read it all the way through cover to cover, it is comforting and funny and hopeful. She speaks a language that, on some days, I wish I didn't understand but one that, on other days, I am also profoundly grateful to understand so well.

Also, it makes me want to go to Rome, live on nothing but pasta and gelato, and outgrow all my pants.

I use color to sort my closet (matching hangers if possible) and socks.

Books are sorted by size and content but I haven't been reading (books) much, sorry Harry.

I am psychomom and I am anal.

Off to read the interview....

All I saw was V.C. Andrews! I loooooooove V.C. Andrews!! I hope you get to Harry Potter soon, its a great story!

I love Sobakowa! I love the books! And the shelves! Now I just have to go and get my butt organized. Ha! Ha!

You did a great job. Keep your chin up.

~Viv

Did you see the Adobe Bookstore installation?
http://www.adobebooks.org/

And here on Flickr.com
http://flickr.com/groups/96822943@N00/

Very cool!

So now I have to read the copy of Lolita which
has been sitting unread in the red section of my bookshelf for the past 20 years. Harry Potter 7 was seriously frightening - I had to read it behind the sofa!

I always organize my books by height...seems to work for me. I love to declutter and I only keep the books most special to me or the ones you just can't rip from my hands. :)

Your bookshelf looks great. :)

hey, whatever works!
I think you can get those frosted glass cabinets at IKEA. We have one in our kitchen and it looks awesome!
I also have EPL. Haven't started it yet.

You are just a whole bunch of cute. Wine is so inspiring, its just amazing what you can accomplish with a little buzz.

That's not so different from my own "system." I group books by category. Work-related books get their own case so I have a bookcase of animal topics. Also a bookcase of knitting/spinning books, with those plastic stand-up organizers for Spin-Off and the various knitting magazines, and ring binders for loose patterns.

Everything else is loosely grouped by category on the general shelves in our house: horror, history, etc. Within their category they are arranged by size and symmetry so they look neat. We know our own books well enough to find what we need.

My husband and I met when we both worked at a radio station during college so we do file records and CDs by station format out of deeply ingrained habit: Last name of solo performer, first name of band. So Al Greene (or Greene, Al)and the Grateful Dead both go under "G," because "Grateful Dead" is an entire name, not a first and last name, therefor it is not filed by "Dead, Grateful."

Books, however are hopeless.

And honey, it must abe a Southern thing. I am terrible with last names, so you would be under Laurie, not your last name, and also probably under CAP as well, and a stranger looking at my rolodex would say, "who the hell is CAP?"

For years and years I had the phone number for our mortgage loan officer under: CAROL AT THE BANK: loan officer is tall Cariol! short Carol is the teller! -- 555-1234.

Off to check out your interview...!

Purl,

i just finished reading your whole blog. you have come a long way since the beginning. i cried more than once during the reading. i was the one who did the leaving because he basically told me he was not going to give up his girlfriend and i was not gonna live that way.

i did the right thing, but it kicked my ass! big time! i would call and ask, but not in obvious words, "please tell me how awful i am one more time." then i'd cry some more. then i quit that, thank goodness.

it has been two years since i left and sometimes i still want to scream and cry. i don't know what is going on in his life because his ex was always in the know about us when we were together. also because if i can't find a way or a reason to stay married to you because you are such a shit, why the fuck do i need you as a friend?!? he tries now and then, but i do not respond unless it is a question so he can send me something he found that belongs to me.

and it was the absolute right thing to do, but i did not expect to find myself happier than ever before in my skin, at 48, renting a room from a friend, single, cat owning, and no man in sight when i got to this point in my life. just saying.

so, love your blog and your honesty and strength.

juliet

My bookcase is a source of amusement for my friends and family. Being also a fan of sorting by size and color, I prefer that life be symmetrical whenever possible. If I liked a book enough to make the purchase, chances are I'll remember what it looks like when I'm searching for it. One exception: a series of books must stand together, regardless of color or height.

I'm sure this says something about our personalities....

I am a librarian, and my books are grouped by the Andree System...which is really no system at all.

Call it an anti-system.

Yeah, I was getting drowsy- till I turned on the AC.

I like the color coding- it does look less cluttered. Mine are by topic and look cluttered.

My other half only cares how his DVDs are arranged, not the books. Half the fun of finding a book is finding another one you haven't read yet, at least for me.

We bought a lot of books that our local library was selling. We went every week for almost a year.

I could die in here if our bookshelves fell over. We have more bookshelves than any other piece of furniture. Five in the living room alone, and also a steamer trunk full of books for lack of any other place to put them.

It would take WEEKS to arrange them in some kind of order.

Not happening in MY lifetime.

I prefer the order in my kitchen. [Which hasn't happened yet either! LOL!]
.

Mine would be a Hug(-h)(+e)Sandwich of Hugh Laurie and Jackman in Arts and Crafts Bungalow with pink climbing roses. Can I get a woot!

And I love the color coding! Now if I could just get the Catman to have SOME system in his library...

As long as we're talking Harry Potter, and Man Sandwiches...now that he's 18, can I reveal my massive old-lady crush on Daniel Radcliffe? He is SO beautiful. (I'm a regular commentator, but maybe a little embarrassed by my crush on a totally gorgeous young man half my age.)

You should pick up the Harry Potter seris, books AND movies - there are many, many knitting referances in there!

If you're still looking for movie fodder, can I suggest the following -

Mystery Men - Accidental super heros. And the PMS Avenger. Enough said.

Best In Show, Wiating for Guffman, and A Mighty Wind - all Coan (?) brothers movies, all the same people, all as funny as watching the Dog Poop Neighbors slip and fall face first into the pile.

Dodgeball - Just because it's funny and stupid and the ball jokes are flung faster than, well, the balls.

Your shelves are hot!

I had to do this last Harry Potter in audio form. We bought the CDs so I can listen to them while I work. I make aromatherapy necklaces so while I'm forming and glazing them, I can listen to books on tape. It's how I mostly get literature these days, sad I know. Jim Dale does an amazing job of reading these books if anyone is interested. Every voice is different.

And I just finished about half an hour ago. Really really good!

I do my address book that way, too. Makes more sense to me. I use people's first names a lot more then their last!

My 6' X 6'bookcase used to be organized like this:

Left side: Scary stuff
Right side: Literature and chick stuff
Middle: misc. and non-fiction

Then we moved, sold the bookcase in a moving sale and when we got here only had the 3 5'6" X 3' bookcases. Now my books are all mish-mashed together. Perhaps I need a fit of wine and enthusiasm!

I would never have thought of sorting books by color. I like it a lot, I think it looks really great. I'm going to steal your idea. Thanks!

And speaking of displaying books, I loved the Pottery Barn catalog styling a while back where all the books were shelved with the spines facing in, pages out...so a very pale monochromatic color effect...crazy!

I'm going to a Valley Party right up the street That is having a kiddie pool...for the grown ups...and water baloons and super soakers. It's hot dammitt. I can only imagine how hot it is in Encino.

From yesterday - you requested movie ideas. If you haven't already seen it (or it's great to see again), "Shirley Valentine" is a fun movie to sprawl with. Also, my favorite, "Babette's Feast". Food will ALWAYS keep my attention.

Great interview on ForeWord!

I see you have(I think) She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb--to the right of Sobakowa's left ear. I have my address book by first name too. I can't have any system with the books. I have a toddler who's primary goal right now is to keep the bookshelves empty.

my books are arranged by topic. old grad school/relevant college textbooks (as if i'll ever look anything up without googling first). photography books. knitting/crochet books. and novels/other non-fiction. i don't like my various categories of books touching one another so i'd have to color code them by book topic.

but i have way more books than you do. movers love me.

and i just read your interview. you are wicked smaht you know. really.

I actually read somewhere (Real Simple magazine? Some other organizing magazine?) that it's ARTISTIC to arrange books by color rather than by alphabet or some other thing. Hear that? Artistic! You just created art!

giving u the heads up...the harry potter books kind of color coordinate with themselves. they look great together!

Since I know you adore personal questions --

Is Beasley your family name or your middle name?

I still "file" my books this way.
drives my husband insane!! he can't stand it. his are like a book store by genre then alpha my head doesn't work that way. I want that small pink and white book that fits in my purse just soo.....

Anyway, audio books are a beautiful thing. you may consider a novel or two during the commute and ( though I've mentioned it before) are downloadable from the LA library ;-)

Love you muchos!
Amy

I have four six-foot bookcases. The books are staying the way they are.

And I've moved on from Harry Potter, having finished that on Saturday.

I'm an academic. My book collection numbers over 1000. Alphabetical by large categories it is for me. And it has gotten bad enough that I've more than once found myself in a corner of a dusty used bookshop with a book in my hand thinking, "Do I have this?" I can find my favorites in a snap though.

Its good to know that there are others out there who haven't read a single Harry Potter book! I kept meaning to, but now i'm not so sure i'm even interested...

Great interview !

I've worked in both a library and a music store, so my shelves are by genre, author, order of publication. HOWEVER, the color-thing DOES look a lot niftier. OCD be damned, I'm gonna try it. I may be in fetal position soon after, but symmetry may counterbalance the need to alphabetamatize things.

We'll see...

Cheers !

Nice little interview!! And I'll chime in with the other librarians -- yes, asking for the "blue book about name-the-subject" is pretty common. Personally, my books are organized party by height (not all my shelves are very tall) and by general idea -- books by and about Fitzgerald (Scott and Zelda) share space with Hemingway; books by Texas authors are all together; "high brow" stuff is together, as is not-so-high-brow. Works for me!

Hey, Laurie!

I'm not sure if you've answered this question before somewhere and I missed it, but did your under the window shelves come with the house or did you purchase them yourself?

If you did buy them, could you help a sister out and let me in on where to find them? I've got two large corner windows in my living room just crying for bookshelves like those!

My filing system made my enigneer ex foam at the mouth. I organize books with other books they remind me of. Except that Jane Austen doesn't go next to the Brontes because the Brontes didn't like Austen, and Phillipa Gregory sits all alone because (much as I love them) her books are trashy. But I know which shelf everything is on, so it works.

I didn't read all the comments, but allow me to suggest the audiobooks for Harry Potter as great commute listening. Jim Dale is wonderful and does all the voices, and as an added bonus he was the villain in Pete's Dragon which just makes me smile. I loved that movie. Plus you can borrow the audiobooks from the library for free, how cool is that?

Cheers!

What I notice in your photos are your board games. Do you actually play them? I looove board games.

Great filing system, looks much less "cluttery." I have been looking at my books in despair, I may steal your system.

That really does look great.

I have a dear friend (who has many many more books than you do) who files alphabetically by color. He arranges all his books by color then author. Drives his wife mad...

Dear Laurie,

I thought of you today (does that make me a stalker? I'm not a stalker..) because my cat has been diagnosed with a Potentially Really Bad Thing and he has surgery tomorrow and I am trying to not completely melt into a puddle of blub. Anyway, I thought of your courage after Roy and I bucked up a bit. At least enough to stop crying at my desk at work. Who doesn't love a 41 year old professional sobbing at her desk because the vet just called her about her cat? That's sane, right?

About Harry Potter: Read. Now. Read it NOW! I didn't believe the series could be that good (their kid's books, right?) and I didn't get into them until the 5th book. I read straight through 1 - 5 and then I had to wait and be tortured with everyone else for 6 and 7 to be released. I have had Harry Potter-Palooza parties at my house for 6 and 7. All that means is anyone who needed a quiet place to read on the release date could come to my house, read, drink, and eat the fast food laying about.

It was a huge hit both times because you can't put the damn books down. I read from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. last Saturday, with very small breaks to eat/pee/switch laundry from washer to dryer and that sort of thing.

I am saving your linked interview for tomorrow afternoon when I will need a lift while Kitty is in surgery.

I LOVE your reorganized bookshelf. It's so pretty!

My husband makes fun of me for my arranging of books, cds, and DVDs. I have to have them sorted by genre, then by author (or singer / star). Kind of an obsession. I told him that it's really NOT my fault. I got into the habit as a teen so I could keep track of which tapes (I think I just aged myself) my brother was "borrowing". Although - I have noticed that my Mom does the same thing. Maybe it's a hereditary compulsion?!?

I think some of us are just viual learners. I can "see" the book I need, but I can't always tell you the titles and especially the author. But then again, my books aren't organized in any way at all.

I just got the Eat, Pray, Love book, too. I'm at the part where she meets Richard from Texas and the way he talks made me laugh out loud. Sort of like you do!

Barb

Yes, totally agree about knowing the books' shapes and sizes by heart...I recognize a few from just the spine colors...yey.

And double-yey that you have OPERATION on your shelf! I haven't see that since...since...well, since before my great purge of '01...(tons of stuff went to friends and it's so weird to put my feet on my old coffee table or use an old side table, or sit in my old papa-san chair...)

Alphabetical? At home? No, no.... I only arrange my books by height. That's it. I have over 400+ of them, spread out on 3 - floor to ceiling bookcases. No alphabetical order at all, what IS amazing is that if I ever need to find a book I seem to always remember exactly what it's book jacket looks like and height of the book and find it straight away.

Meanwhile my SO (we've lived together for 7 years) organizes his CD's, DVD's and such according to name, genre and what not.

I can still find a book that I'm looking for faster than he can find a CD.
We've timed it... ;-) tee hee.

my favorite restaurant has a room called 'the study' she's arranged her books by color too. Green, blue, red and black. the effect is very visually pleasing.

Is that "Don't Know Much About the Civil War" shown in the picture just to the left of Soba's ear in the before picture? If so, I have it. Also, I think that I can see, "She's Come Undone" to her right. I also think that I saw "The Celestine Prophecy" in an earlier picture. I have an eye for book covers. Hopefully I wasn't off the mark. ;-)

I have those books. Good choices. :-)

PS. I think it looks more organized after (I'm a Virgo and we love order) however I think it looked more interesting/lively beforehand. Order be damned!

Oh my god - Gloucester!
If that isn't just the closest thing to heaven!
Are you sure we weren't split at birth? What with all the Shediac, Campbellton and Gloucester lovin' and all?

Best thing about Gloucester? The Liquor Locker. Yep. To us used to shopping at Canadian booze prices (you don't want to know) it like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. $7 for a bottle of wine that costs $45 in Ontario - I kid you not.
4 shopping carts later....

LOVE the pictures! Can I come over next time I come to LA and sit outside and play Yahtzee with you and knit and stuff? :o) NOTE: I've never been to LA... Actually, I have tons of books too, more or less arranged by General Idea. (You remember him....) I have a smallish bookcase in my bedroom that's pretty much all Bears. But then (and this DOES drive my DH totally to the edge) I have a wonderful five-drawer file cabinet, wherein a LOT Of the files are labelled "Miscellaneous". Heck, *I* know what's in them. Usually. Sometimes. But I've got some books with "loaner copies" because I think EVERYONE should read them, but I don't want to risk my own copy ("Kristen Lavrandsdottir" comes to mind). And I'm embarrassed to admit it, but there have been times when I've gleefully bought a book, brought it home and gone to put it where I think it should go on the shelf...oh yeah. Right next to the OTHER copy of the same book. And I read LOTS of "children's books", I'm wild about them. (I also write "children's stories", but that's another deal.) The DH says two things: "I already OWN every book there is; I keep them neatly arranged....in the library!" and also "I've arranged a Restraining Order against you in every bookseller in town." Doesn't work though, my Little Old Lady disguise has never let me down.

Sandy: Best wishes for your kitty-cat tomorrow. My fingers are crossed! Just lost my Sammie and took a day off so I didn't have to be a puddle of blub at work (I wouldn't have gotten anything done anyway).

So - the fingers are super-double crossed.

I love your system - but couldn't use - have around five thousand books and can't bear to let them go - besides I'm a librarion's daughter - they're filed alphabetically within subject groups - but my adress book is really good - mine's just theorder I meet people and get their phone numbers - takes me ages to find people's number - but I have fun remembering all the other people I met at the same time!

laurie,

you're my hero. it's a secret, but you're my antidepressant.

keep posting, and cheers!

People FILE their books? Mine are on shelves but that's as filed as they get.

When I moved to my new house, I took with me two of my nieces and my sister and we started to organize my books- piled them all up on the floor in the corridor. I sat on the floor, taking every single book in my hands and gave it to the kids, announcing the room and the shelf where it should be placed. And my sister ran around, putting them all into the shelfs while sorting them by author. Wonderful. It´s one year now, and entropy has raised it´s ugly head again. Entropy and the cats (the latter having nice, sweet little heads, of course.) And somehow these books tend to move by themselves. I swear. One night I will catch them in the act.

The new Potter is still sitting on my night desk, where I can control it´s movements. It´s too much bad magic in there to let it run around on it´s own.

I love the shelves -- makes me think of IKEA, or Jerry Seinfeld's apartment. I'm not that coordinated, though I do have my spices alphabetized (mostly).

Three movies come to mind:
-Roll Bounce. Critics didn't like it, but I thought it was hilarious. Maybe the critics didn't grow up in the 70's. I laughed 'til it hurt.
-The Personals. This is a film out of Taiwan about a young woman who places a personal ad; I love all the characters she meets, and how realistically they're played. I think there's a porn series called The Personals, too, so be warned.
-Harry Potter and the Porcelain God. Nah, just kidding. Harry would never drink to excess. But there's a great (depressing, but great) film called Conspiracy, about the men who drew up the final solution to the Jewish "problem" in Germany. It's intense -- but now that I think of it, everyone smokes in that movie, so maybe you'd be better off watching it when you're retired and fumigating the patio again.

your book shelf organization is brilliant! i can't believe that never occured to me since i'm a graphic designer and obsessed with color. oh wait, i know why i never thought about organizing my books by color, it's because i've never thought about organizing them at all! if i ever do get around to that task i will definitely be using your system.

I was too enthralled with Bob's Belly to notice the color-coded books. But I like it.

My address book is arranged alphabetically by the Dog's Name. (Think of it as a code.) I'm only minorly concerned about what happens when I find a friend who doesn't have a furry friend. I mean, if they don't like furry critters, can they be nice people?

Surely you don't mean Gloucester UK? They are seriously underwater right about now. I'd give it a few years before you even think about heading over there!

i too file everyone in my address book under their first name. my husband thinks i'm nuts. i wonder if it's a Cancerian thing?

I totally get your color system for filing your books - it works for me, and looks great. Until you made that last comment about filing your Harry Potter books by color. The thought of breaking up a set like to file each one by color made me a little itchy all over. Couldn't you have a separate shelf so the sets could stay together?? PLEEEEAAAAASSSSSSSSSEEEEEEE???

Hey, they're your books, arrange them however you want. Ours are (mostly) alphabetical, with each bookcase holding a different type -- music, foreign language, science, novels, mystery, and so on. (We have six large bookcases in our living room alone. It just occurred to me to wonder if between the two of us we've read everything. I suspect not.)

I absolutely adore Boggle.

Where's Bob?

the interview was way kool, you are terrific!!! can't wait to read your book!! i pre-ordered it.

I just read Eat, Pray, Love too. I really liked it. I love her writing voice and there were parts that were very funny, but then there were parts when I was like "Girl, stop crying on bathroom floors all over the world. You managed to get a publisher to give you an advance on a book you know is getting published even though it isn't even written so you can go have adventures in the world's most beautiful places. And, you're skinny!" Then I kept thinking if I were writing a book about getting over my horrible breakup it could be called Binge, Bitch and ...well, never mind what the last one would have been.

The system looks great. My books aren't really arranged at all right now. The goal was just to get them out of the boxes. But when I do organize them they are generally arranged by general category and size.

My favorite part is your inclusion of one of my favorite games that I used to play with my dad, Mastermind.

I have my books this way, too! I love it. It looks so clean and sophisticated. :)

I stack all of my books horizontally. I did it to my work bookcase too, and everyone flipped out.

Glad to see a lot of your readers do the same thing as well. I was beginning to feel like a freak.

That's my Harry Potter plan too! All the books, on the beach-though I prefer Maine to Mexico!

That's way more organized than me. My book situation is so bad, I ran out of shelf space and I have books piled in corners (all the better to keep the bunnies from ripping up the carpet).

Your post, however, has filled me with the desire to leave work and go organize them all RIGHT NOW.

Heh - my books are organized by categories, one to each shelf:
Books about anything French (Francophile)
Books about writing
Old books (classics)
Self help (a whole shelf!)
Crafts (KNITTING!)
Health and healing
Historical novels
etc.

I know where they all are and what they look like, too. Alphabetical, schmalphabetical.

I guess people just like to criticize, cause people always make fun of me because I DO alphabatize my books and movies.

I loved Eat, Pray, Love. I hope you do, too! :)

Hey--I just read your bangs quip in the NY Times online!

Also, I arrange my books by theme, though the themes used may be incomprehensible to all but me :)

I have a LOT of books. I had a LOT more when I was packing to move in with Man-Who-Would-Be-Hubby. The local libraries love me, that's where all my purge victims go. Hubby is a reader, too, but a few years ago he did a major purge, and decided that with rare exception he had all the books he needed to own. He's pretty much stuck to it, too. Me, not so much. Here's the thing. We aren't moving anytime ever that we know of. The house isn't getting any bigger. No more room for more bookcases. I've always thought there was no such thing as too many books, but now I'm pretty much out of space (HP7 got the last slot :) ) What's your criteria for a desperate and really tough book purge? Laurie? Anyone?

Hey Laurie,
Check out the Thursday Styles section of the New York Times today! Skin Deep
"Bangs Return, and With Them, Naysayers and Chopaholics" quotes Laurie Perry! I feel like I know a star. Here's the link, hope it works.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/fashion/26skin.html

Eat, Pray Love is my favorite book of the year--perhaps decade. I recommend this one to strangers I meet in restaurants or anywhere else I meet people who I can engage in conversation about books. The best! Hope you enjoy it too.

i'm glad to know i'm not the only one who organizes her rolodex by first names. my coworkers think i'm nuts. and for all you hyper-organized library geeks (meant in the best sense of the words, as my partner is one) check out shelfari.com. it's a good time.

Great interview in NY Times, CAP ! A riot to read, as always. Thanks to the posters who told us about it. I did end up getting the heavier bangs recently and I'm enjoying them. My only regret has been the ensuing acne. However, they look better than the wispy mess I had before. Surprisingly, the humidity hasn't been bad lately, so I'm having trouble with crazy static electricity hair (as opposed to "just" crazy hair). Any tips on how you keep the static under control, short of rubbing a dryer sheet on your head and smelling "April Fresh" all day ? (Don't ask...) Can post to my e-mail since it's off-topic. Thanks in advance !

Cheers !

I file my books by size and color too. We're not weird; everyone else is weird. :-)

I have several thousand books. I categorize them (roughly) by author's nationality (all the Irish together, all the Canadians together, etc) and then by author's surname. No one has EVER been able to figure out the system! As the collection has grown, though, the system has broken down a bit and now has "trash" and "knitting" and "art," among other things, as sub-headers. Complicated, but it works for me. Perhaps I was a librarian in a past life?

I agree with the commenter that said separating the harry books would make her itchy.. I'm getting bugged out just thinking about it! You should wait until the boxed set of 7 comes out and that way you will be able to keep them all together. I had nothing better to do on a Thursday afternoon so I got out all of my HP books and added them up.. 4100 pages ! You might need more than a week in Mexico. I'm gonna take a leaf out of your book and organize my bookshelf now!

Hey Laurie. Tom Robbins does talk like he writes. I met him once when my best friend and I went to a book signing he did--we got thrown out because we started talking to Tom Robbins like we were all old friends in that way that Southern People do, and I guess we were taking up too much time or something. He's rambly. But anyway--yes. You want to meet him.

How funny! I have a friend who also organizes by color, only she calls it "rainbow order," and she gets stressed out when things are mixed up (red next to blue, etc.)

I (heart) your fabulous filing system. You are right - if you love it, that's all that matters! :)

I'm totally shocked that you haven't ventured into J.K. Rowling's magical land. Personally, I adore the Harry Potter books.

Nice interview, BTW.

Laurie - Enjoy Eat, Pray, Love. A friend gave me a copy about a year ago when I was going through some things that were entirely too similar to one of the authors early situations. I read, re-read, highlighted, laughed, cried and loved that book to the point of dog-eared. It came at a perfect time in my life. She was the first author I actually wrote to and said thank you for writing such a beautiful book (actually you're the first author I wrote to, but you weren't published yet....but now that I think about you're still my first!! Enjoy :-) I know you'll love it!!

When I was a kid, I made up my own cataloguing system for my books which I kept up for several years. Now and then I come across a book with a pencilled note inside the front cover of its catalogue number. I think I win the nerd prize. Now the books are ordered in subject, except for the huge tall ones which are at the bottom of the bookshelves for reasons of stability. But are mostly art books, so their being out of order doesn't irk me too much. I currently covet the lawyer's bookcases at my parents house. They will be mine - even if I have to flatten my sis-in-law to get them.

When you're ready to vacation in Mexico, I have a recommendation. My family and I went to Huatulco in July for a "lay-on-the-beach-and-read" vacation (we usually do the vacations that you come home from so tired that you need a vacation type). Huatulco is on the Pacific Coast, but waaaay down there, so you're facing due south from the resorts. It's very small and very newly developed. They have the largest and most-modern sewage treatment system in Mexico...no poop in the ocean! Well, except for fish poop. Beautiful!! Laid back! Friendly!!

my books are color coordinated, too! if i were a library, this would pose a problem. but i'm not so who cares. it makes me smile.

I'm a librarian and I love your book system. I think it is the graphic designer in you that needs them that way. They look beautiful. Mine all fit in one book shelf. I only keep ones I love, and sometimes I end up buying more than one copy because I give my copy away. Occupational hazard, I guess. Mine are loosely grouped by grownup, children's, young adult, and nonfiction.

I found your blog, after I found knitting 2 years ago... after my divorce in 2006 (married in 1991).
Thankfully, no kids, but cats! ;)
So, I started knitting when I moved back in with mom and dad.
I just met Elizabeth Gilbert in the fall, and have read Eat, Pray, Love two times. Enjoy. Soak up the values between the lines... and Keep knitting.
You are such an amazing inspiration! Off to order your book off Amazon...

i arrange my books by color to, and lately have been taking the organization to new nit picky levels. this weekend, i took all the black books and arranged them by the color of the writing on the spines. crazy, right? also, someone mentioned above that they work in a bookstore and get frustrated when people come in asking for a "green book that's about so big." that's my favorite joke to play on bookstore employees!

THE bookcase? Girl ... I have SIX bookcases in my BEDROOM. At my place, they get sorted by genre/subject matter and then author and then in order of publication. There's over 3 shelves of cat books alone and more of knitting and the travel books ... When I inherit the parental library I will have to move - they have something like 250 linear feet of bookshelves and several crates in the attic.

This weekend I was working the Santa Monica Quilt Guild show at Loyola...kind of chatting it up with this person and that...when I said something about how moved I was with both your posts on Roy and getting organized and all....when a customer exclaimed "I LOVE Crazy Aunt Purl." "I read her everyday and am depressed if she doesn't have a new post!" She "bookmarks" the Yarn Harlot and reads her if she can....you she never misses. And then, more people in the area started asking questions and promising to check your blog out....Just want you to know that there are loyal fans out here yaking it up about you and looking forward to the book!