Maybe, by way of working up to that noble goal, I could experiment with following:
Arranged by colour...
...and arranged by narrative.
Top shelf. There are a stack more 'narrative' images in the Sorted Books project, so click the link above for more.
UPDATE
Sadly, of limited use to us non-bootcamping Mac users, but readatwork.com is worth a look (if you can withstand the Powerpoint layout horrors).
UPDATE 2
To illustrate a pleasing digression that's come up in the Comments, here's the centre of the White Stripes' CD, White Blood Cells. As you can see, the disc is completely white with no manufacturer's markings to be seen, and so it's 12 o'clock time, on time, all the time!
Posts
"I feel like reading a green book today. Oh yes, that's where they are..."
ReplyDeleteMost bookshelves require folk to sort a little by size ie. you're not going to have your Times Atlas of the World abutting Chairman Mao's Little Red Book, but aside from that, surely "by subject" seems boringly sensible and obvious?
The thing that appeals to me about arranging by colour is precisely that it's so absurd, and that it has no purpose or benefit other than a purely aesthetic one. I can be, at times, a little rigid in my thinking, and a little obsessive in my habits, and a process like this seems altogether... liberating; a way to keep me sane, to break down those often self-imposed restrictions that really are not as important to my well-being as I tell myself. It's climbing out of the trench and giving me the freedom to do things in a way other than how they've always been done.
ReplyDeleteIf you're thinking it sounds like I need to lighten up, well, yes, that's exactly the point. :)
And it's just fun! It's... I don't know, it's making a mess, it's painting with your hands... it's running down a beach in your wedding clothes and play-fighting in the surf. It's doing what your better sense tells you not to and to hell with the consequences (and the dry-cleaning bill).
Books to me are the very finest decorations. Nothing improves a wall more than by covering it head to foot with books. And as I've read all my books anyway and rarely, if ever, go looking for them, why not exploit their attractiveness in a unique and unexpected way?
I used to organise my album collection Geo-Alpha-Chronologically, starting from the West Coast of the USA (where a majority of my music collection comes from), and heading east. I start with artists from the same state/city (where the band started, not where the album was recorded), arranged alphabetically and then from there the albums are arrange chronologically. Lot of fun. Here's an example;
ReplyDeleteSan Fransisco
D
Dodos, The - Visiter (2008)
Heading East, Portland:
B
Blitzen Trapper Wild Mountain Nation (2007)
S
Sleater-Kinney The Woods (2005)
Heading East, Seattle:
B
Band of Horses, Everything all the time (2005), Cease to Begin (2008)
Heading East, California (Stocton)
P
Pavement Slanted and Enchanted (1991) Wowee Zowee (1995)
Even Further East, New York(Manhattan)
M
Magnetic Fields, The - 69 Love Songs (1999)
New York (Brooklyn)
L
Les Savy Fav - Inches (2004), Let's Stay Friends (2007)
Etc Etc... Ended up being more hassle than it was worth because I had to do half an hour of research anytime I had to put a CD back... Although it was a good way to correlate certain genres in terms of region.
Geo-Alpha-Chronologically? Wow, I am more than well-impressed. When did you do this? Were you able to use Google Earth to provide precise coordinates, so as to ensure the geo-arrangement was correct?
ReplyDelete"Ended up being more hassle than it was worth because I had to do half an hour of research anytime I had to put a CD back..."
Ha, ha. Yes, I imagine it would have been hard to keep track of. I have friends who... ok, CK, who likes to move single books or CDs in my collection to see if I notice. I also 12 o'clock all my CDs in their cases, and I have an uncle who has been known to take out and rotate the odd one slightly before putting it back, also to see if I notice. It's a tough life having standards.
I organise my CDs, books, DVDs, clothes, pantry, filing cabinet and computer files by Most Recently Used. This is very effective, as everything is quickly put in its place and you can enjoy lovely, big, colorful piles of random objects all over the house. My approach is highly recommended.
ReplyDeleteI have friends who... ok, CK, who likes to move single books or CDs in my collection to see if I notice. I also 12 o'clock all my CDs in their cases, and I have an uncle who has been known to take out and rotate the odd one slightly before putting it back, also to see if I notice. It's a tough life having standards.
ReplyDeleteDo you have someone to randomly shuffle DVDs within your multi-disk box sets? Because I'm looking for a niche.
Ha, ha. I have amusing, if dangerous, friends.
ReplyDeleteKate, you've said that I'm as much to blame for the jumbled state of the pantry and the assorted plastic containers cupboard, but by your admission we can see that's not true. I'd catergorise it to within an inch of its life if I thought it might survive Most Recently Used, but it's just too much work. If you can't beat 'em, fling 'em on top of that dangerously teetering tower of Tupperware.
JJ, I daresay that's a niche you could quite comfortably hold as your own. :)
12 O'Clocking your CDs in their cases is a pretty rare standard to hold yourself too. I'd only do it if the art on the CD connected with the underside (if that makes sense). I just get to the point where I get narky about people not putting DVDs/CDs back in their cases.
ReplyDeleteI think you would benefit with one of these.
"I'd only do it if the art on the CD connected with the underside (if that makes sense)."
ReplyDeleteIt certainly does. I always enjoy 12 o'clocking, but doubly so when the disc and sleeve art relate in some way. My favourite instance is the White Stripes' Icky Thump, where the disc is all black, except for a white horse's skull in the bottom righthand... arc, and when you lift the disc there's a to-scale photo underneath of the (living) horse! (I make sure I fine tune that one to get the alignment just right...)
My other favourite comes again from the White Stripes, whose all white disc for White Blood Cells is correctly aligned whichever way you put it in! How liberating! Of course, the black flipside is that it may also be *wrong* whichever way you put it in, so it's lucky I'm generally an optimistic/disc half full-type person.
"...I get narky about people not putting DVDs/CDs back in their cases."
Oh, indeed. These days I'm generally a mellow fellow who wouldn't get too upset at someone randomly shuffling DVDs within my multi-disc box sets, but if that someone was to leave the discs lying around out of their cases, I'd murder him.
"I think you would benefit with one of these."
And Christmas is just around the corner! Yes! (Love it.)
My other favourite comes again from the White Stripes, whose all white disc for White Blood Cells is correctly aligned whichever way you put it in! How liberating! Of course, the black flipside is that it may also be *wrong* whichever way you put it in, so it's lucky I'm generally an optimistic/disc half full-type person.
ReplyDeleteAre you sure there's no manufacturer's information stamped into the center section of the CD that would give away the 'correct' orientation?
Maybe you should check.
Yes, how do you know that the Horses Skull should be where you deem it to be. Perhaps you are failing your own standard.
ReplyDeleteI miss my CD's, they are in a box somewhere in storage. The move happened so quick that I was unable to rip them all onto the ipod before I left. Now I have gaping holes of quality tunes which will have to wait till I return home...
Disppointing...
"Maybe you should check."
ReplyDeleteOh, believe me, I've checked. And more than twice. I check it every time I put it away. I don't know how they got away with it, but it's 100% completely blank.
"Yes, how do you know that the Horses Skull should be where you deem it to be."
ReplyDeleteBecause if you had your X-Ray specs on when looking at the horse, you'd see its skull as it appears on the disc. The disc art is like an opaque overlay.
"Perhaps you are failing your own standard."
Nice try, but unlikely. :)
"I miss my CD's, they are in a box somewhere in storage."
Yes, I would too. As with books, I enjoy my CD collection for its decorative value, as well as for the music. Which is one of the reasons I'm unlikely to ever really embrace digital downloads. I'd miss the slow but steady growth of my CD spine wallpaper.
"Now I have gaping holes of quality tunes which will have to wait till I return home..."
Patience Bombalomba. If you've purchased them, they will come... :)