Tour of bookshelves: The kitchen bookshelf

I wanted my major collection to be in my study, easy access. So. What to do with the random orphan bookshelf in the kitchen?

Just to give you an idea of my thought process: My life may be a mess but my books are always organized.

The organization works for me, although it may be a bit OCD for others. It is important to choose the RIGHT PLACE for a book, because if I shelve it with the wrong genre – I might never remember where it is. For example: Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad. It’s not a memoir. It’s not fiction. It’s not “personal essays”. It’s really a travelogue, and I do have a travelogue section. I love good travel writing. But … would I remember that I had shelved it in that section? I honestly spent about 20 minutes considering this conundrum. I finally decided: Okay, I probably will not remember that it’s there if it’s in that section, so let’s just shelve it with TWAIN in adult fiction, alongside Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer (although technically, those are kids books – but again, I had to make some decisions there. I decided to put Twain in with the adults – and I decided to shelve Innocents Abroad, a book I LOVE and reference often – with Twain in fiction). I had a lot of that going on. I had to make compromises like that.

But let’s take a look at my organizational process. Maybe you book-lovers will relate. I am sure you will!

Here, roughly, are the “genres” I located in my vast collection:

— History (world)
— History (American) – I like to keep all that together
— Biography
— Entertainment biography – I like to keep these separate – so that Duse isn’t next to Einstein. It just makes it easier to find stuff.
— Founding Fathers biographies – they are a genre unto themselves
— Adult fiction
— Young adult fiction
— Children’s books (separated into picture books and kids books. So Giving Tree and When the Sky Is Like Lace are separated from Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing)
— Picture books
— Art books (photography, artists, movie posters)
— what I call “making of” books. “The making of” Casablanca, “making of” Rebel Without a Cause, Cleopatra
— Books on film directors. Not biographies. Analyses of the directors’ body of work
— Film criticism
— Memoirs
— Letters/Journals (I love reading people’s letters – I keep these separate from “memoirs” since it’s really not the same thing)
— Erotica – Anais Nin, Story of O, collections (these, clearly, must not be on top shelves beyond reach)
— Travel writing (there is some overlap here. Paul Theroux’s books could also be shelved with “history” – so could Naipaul’s books – but I decided to put them under “travel”)
— Essayists – Orwell, Fitzgerald, Joan Didion – I love essays
— Poetry
— Reference books (Bartlett’s, dictionaries)
— Shakespeare (he is his own genre)
— True crime
— Books about cults
— Religion
— Science (I always keep these next to my religious books – always have. Figure let the books battle it out on the shelves)
— Sports
— What I call “events”. These don’t qualify as world history, although many of these books describe events that have world historical impact. By “events” I mean: books about one specific event: Into Thin Air, When Bobby Fischer Went to War, Salt, my books on the bubonic plague, stuff like that. I love this section. It’s very eclectic.
— Politics (mainly Christopher Hitchens and P.J. O’Rourke)
— Current American history – terrorism, 9/11
— books about contemporary American culture (Malcolm Gladwell classifies)
— totalitarian/fascist philosophy (something that some of the recent protesters would do well to familiarize themselves with, so they don’t get CONFUSED about the actual definitions of these words)
— history of theatre
— acting technique books
— plays, plays plays

I am probably missing some. But these are my main “genres”.

So I decided to fill the kitchen bookshelf with the stuff I don’t need to look at at all times. True crime, sports, science, religion, “events” … It’s a gorgeous bookshelf, 100% random, but these are books I hold dear.


The bookshelf:

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Top shelf:
True crime/Cults/Mind control:

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Science/Religion:

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Contemporary American culture:

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Sports

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Hitchens/O’Rourke – a genre unto themselves

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“Events”:

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My nightmare shelf

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Theatre history:

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Totalitarian/Fascist philosophy:

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Plays:

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Again, room to grow. Beauty.

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7 Responses to Tour of bookshelves: The kitchen bookshelf

  1. sarahk says:

    Love your book categories. My collection isn’t as extensive, so my categories aren’t as detailed. Someday! (I do already, though, have a shelf entirely devoted to vampires.)

  2. red says:

    Everyone needs a vampire shelf.

  3. De says:

    I have a vampire stack!

  4. Mark says:

    I have a lot of food related books by chef-authors like M.F.K. Fisher, Anthony Bourdain, Michael Ruhl, etc. that would be perfect for a kitchen bookshelf. And, of course, cookbooks. I don’t think I have enough to fill up a bookcase of that size, but enough to put a serious dent in it.

    Love that “Salt” is one of the books in there.

  5. jean says:

    “…my books on the bubonic plague…”!!!!! totally awesome

  6. red says:

    Jean – HAHAHAHA

    You know, I like to keep things light.

  7. red says:

    Mark – I haven’t read Salt yet, but it looks really interesting!

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