Organizing your book collection by color has become an increasingly popular trend in recent years. While aesthetically pleasing, this system also has its fair share of critics. Here’s what experts have to say about organizing your books by color.
The Pros of Organizing Books by Color
Organizing books by color can have several benefits:
Visual Appeal
Arranging books by color creates a visually striking effect on shelves. The uniform blocks of color are both neat and artistic. Shelves arranged this way tend to photograph particularly well for social media. The color coordination can make even a small collection look bold and robust.
Ease of Organization
Filing books by color is straightforward. There’s no need to follow complex categorization or alphabetical systems. You simply select a color order and arrange the books accordingly. This simplicity makes it easy to maintain and add new books without much thought.
Convenient Accessibility
If you recall a book’s color but not its title or author, a color-coded system allows you to locate it more conveniently. The color blocks help jog your memory faster.
Defined Separations
The color groupings automatically divide types of books from each other. For example, you may have orange for fiction, red for science, and green for gardening. This separation can help provide some high-level organization.
The Cons of Organizing Books by Color
Despite the aesthetic appeal, organizing by color has some significant downsides:
Lack of Logic
Books end up grouped arbitrarily by color instead of more meaningfully by genre, author, or subject. Locating a specific title requires scanning through multiple colors.
Difficult Re-shelving
Re-shelving books in a color order takes more effort than returning them to alphabetic or subject sections. If you misplace a book, finding its color spot again is a chore.
Limiting Expansion
Adding more books introduces challenges. Once a color block is filled, where do you put overflow? Do you start a second block and split categories? This complicates the system.
Judging Books by Their Covers
Books get prioritized primarily for their cover colors rather than their contents. A great book with a bad cover color may not fit the scheme.
Loss of Discoverability
Serendipitous discoveries occur less frequently. Stumbling upon an intriguing new book in an alphabetic or subject system is lost.
Tips for Organizing by Color
If you prefer organizing your books by color, here are some expert tips:
- Use only 6-8 core colors to keep the system simple. Avoid random one-offs.
- Prioritize darker, richer tones over pastels to create bold impact.
- Alternate book sizes and orientations to add textural interest within color blocks.
- Categorize non-book items like photos and art into color groups too for consistency.
- Display prized books and family collections separately where discovery is easier.
- Break up color sections with bookends, frames, and solid vertical dividers.
- Leave some room for future books to fill gaps and allow flexibility.
- Consider pairing colors with a secondary sort like size, subject, or author for minor logic.
Should You Do It?
Organizing your bookcase by color can look stunning but also has serious limitations. Here are some key questions to ask yourself before committing:
- How often do you actually search for specific books vs just browsing? Alpha order helps locate but color doesn’t.
- Do you regularly read across a wide variety of genres and subjects? Color grouping can isolate books from each other.
- Is rediscovering forgotten books on your shelves important to you? Color makes this tougher.
- Do you frequently change, rearrange, and reorganize your collection? Color sorting is more fixed.
- Is the pure visual impact of a cohesive color aesthetic appealing enough to sacrifice some functionality?
Ultimately there’s no right or wrong way to organize a book collection—it comes down to personal preference. Just weigh the benefits against the downsides carefully. A hybrid approach like color coding genres may offer a good compromise. Test out different methods and see what brings you joy!
Conclusion
While organizing books by color has undeniable visual appeal, experts debate its practicality. The ease of arrangement comes at the expense of more meaningful organization. However, with careful planning and limits, color can be an effective accent system. Consider your needs and try different approaches until you find the satisfaction of both a beautiful and functional bookcase. The colors you choose make a statement, so pick ones that reflect your personality. Just don’t be afraid to re-re-organize if something isn’t working. Part of the fun of collecting books lies in presenting and displaying them creatively.