Much of the advice given to new writers is to read, read and read some more. Writers therefore acquire a lot of books. Before I thought about writing, I had a lot of books anyway. Lots of fiction – mainly crime thrillers – and some non-fiction, including a lot of linguistics books.

I was perusing our Twitter feed yesterday, and found a picture of author Val McDermid organising her books in her enviable new library with shelves so high, they need one of those ladders. A follower asked how she was arranging them, causing a discussion of how people arranged their books.

These days, I don’t have anywhere near as many books as I used to. I had to get rid of them, keeping only a precious few. This broke my heart, and it still hasn’t recovered, if I’m honest. My remaining books, and the ones I’ve acquired since, are not organised anywhere. They’re in heaps all over the place.

Back when I had a lot of books, the non-fiction were arranged by subject and then alphabetically by author’s surname. Non-fiction books were organised alphabetically by author’s surname, then position in series or publication date if they weren’t part of a series. I could find what I wanted relatively easily, but don’t get me started on the chaos caused by how I arranged the CDs!

Over to you!

How are your books arranged? Can you find the one you want easily?