Rather than counting sheep so everyone who wants to can fall asleep, I’ll start you off with a question, which you can absolutely ignore and instead talk about whatever you please.
How do you sort your physical books and/or music?
And a bonus late-night Henry in case looking at him makes you yawn and feel sleepy enough to go back to sleep. Just seeing the photo as I added it made me yawn!
Totally open thread.
otmar
Good morning,.
Books: by topic/genre
Music: by alphabet
Splitting Image
My music CDs are sorted alphabetically by artist except for the classical CDs, which are sorted by composer. The sorting algorithm is basically “Petty, Tom & the Heartbreakers”. My books are sorted by how they fit on the shelves since I moved last year. I haven’t had time to fix them properly.
wjca
Books:
— Fiction: alphabetical by author.
— Non-fiction: grouped by subject, those somewhat by related subject (but not flat out Dewey Decimal)
Music: grouped by artist, otherwise pretty much random.
No prizes for concluding from this that I’ve got background as a librarian, but not a music librarian.
Steeplejack
@Splitting Image:
Same, at least back when I had big collections of CDs (and LPs). Now I have fewer than 50 CDs, probably, and they’re scattered randomly here and there. I listen to music mostly on line, which I’m not crazy about, but it is what it is. Part of the problem is that I don’t have a good setup to play my CDs—just a crappy little boombox that I haven’t used in ages. I should get an add-on CD drive for my computer. Even that would be better. (Better speakers attached to the computer.)
As for books, I have fewer of those, too, than I used to have. Now I get everything on my Kindle unless it’s a classic or a specific edition that I know I will want to keep.
When I did have a large library of books, I didn’t formally organize them, but I had a very accurate memory of where individual books could be found in my bookcases. Weird.
Ten Bears
What is this “sort” you speak of … ?
Alison Rose
Physical music isn’t really a thing for me anymore. I mean, I do still have a few big old CD cases filled with CDs, but they live in a storage tub in my closet and I haven’t touched them in many years. All of my music is digital. Apple Music defaults to sorting by band name, and then I have a bunch of my own playlists for various uses. One for songs I can fall asleep to, one for goth club memory lane, one for upbeat stuff when I need that, and some others (yes, which includes six different Depeche Mode lists).
Books: I separate fiction and nonfiction, and within both I simply do alphabetical by last name, because that’s the only way I can stand to do it. I do have my poetry and picture book sections separated on their own, too.
Mel
Books- Divided into fiction and non-fiction, then:
a. fiction: alphabetized by author
b. non-fiction: organized into categories (folklore, medieval history, victorian history, baking, archaeology, gardening, etc.), and then alphabetized by author within each category
Dangerman
I think it is some ritual for those with some extra time; as opposed to say, a pile here, a pile there, a pile on top of a pile in the other room. Quite efficient in its own way.
eclare
I sort books by genre/author, e.g. all mysteries are together, and within that all Michael Connelly books are together.
Non-fiction books aren’t sorted at all, besides being non-fiction.
For CD’s, I sort alphabetically, but as opposed to the comment above, a CD by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers would be in the “T” section.
steve g
MRU, which is the programming acronym for Most Recently Used, which is like the order of recently used files you find in the File menu of Word or Excel. It does tend to produce stacks, with the content laid horizontally, rather than rows.
Yutsano
Dat tongue…
Since I seem to have no sense of organisation as it is, I’ll just wander off to another topic:
It’s official. I completed my boarding paperwork. Starting December 4th I will be a Case Advocate for the Taxpayer Advocate Service. And I am excite!
Alison Rose
@Yutsano: WOOHOO!
Brachiator
Books, more or less alphabetical by author, with a section for what I am currently reading. But I am gradually getting rid of all my books.
Music is mainly alphabetical, but I stopped buying CDs years ago.
frosty
Vinyl – I sorted these alphabetically by band. If it was a solo act, then by last name. Haven’t had a turntable in years; I priced them by rarity and condition years ago and I want to sell them before the millenials realize that CDs are better.
CDs – by genre (rock, country, blues) then by act. I ripped about half of them to iTunes. Still have a CD player and amp/receiver (a 1977 Pioneer SX-650 which weighs a ton). I haven’t used either of these in ages.
Books – At least half of my books are still in the boxes from when we moved 20 years ago. The others are shelved more or less by topic. Not planning to sell anything; the kids can donate them all to the local library.
Guitars and amps – downsizing the posse. These aren’t sorted, except the ones I play most often are out of their cases on a stand. I put a page in the folder with our wills to make sure THIS STUFF DOESN’T GO TO AN ESTATE AGENT!!! I added the estimated value and the names of a couple of local stores that will sell them on consignment.
And since we can talk about anything we want, I’m on a birding Big Year quest. I figured I’ll never get to Key West, SoCal, Hawaii, and Maine again in one year, so I’m trying to pile sightings up now. I’m at 285 and struggling for 300. Just went to Jersey for the migrating seabirds and will probably go back in December. I’ve seen all the normal birds in the mid-Atlantic and I have to expand the horizons as best I can. Still kicking myself for not driving 65 miles to see the flamingos that got blown off course into PA. I’ve never seen one anywhere, even at Flamingo Bay in the Everglades!
frosty
@Yutsano: Excited, just as you should be! Getting through the interview process and winning the job is huge! Even better if it’s a job you really want, which it sounds like it is. Congratulations!
eclare
@Yutsano:
Yay!
Chris T.
@Splitting Image: I plan to form a band named “Band, The” and write one song named “Song, The”.
(When we go on tour we’ll play a medley of our hit!)
FastEdD
@frosty: I carefully put all my assets in a Trust and chose a Professional Fiduciary to sort out all my stuff after I’m singing with the Choir Invisible. I’ve got a studio with guitars I’ve kept since the 1960’s so I chose a guy who was young and sharp and had experience in the music industry. He needed to be around after I’m gone and know what to do with my stuff. What happened? He died. Oh man…
Steeplejack
@Alison Rose:
Are those in Apple Music, or where?
Hidalgo de Arizona
Books get genre and then author.
As for music, it’s bold of you to assume that I have any proper categorization of my music.
Steeplejack
@Yutsano:
Congratulations!
Hidalgo de Arizona
@Hidalgo de Arizona:
Splitting Image
@Chris T.:
I’ve always admired the forward-thinking of The The.
The internet hadn’t even been invented and they were already focused on breaking search engines.
Dangerman
I must confess this is causing lack of sleep from the enormous angst; is a pile on top of a pile two separate piles or just one big pile?
Deep thoughts.
BellyCat
A friend of mine sorted his books by color. White bookshelf. Rainbow order (ROY G. BIV)
Designer. Bachelor. Pretty sure it was to impress his dates.
Points for novelty?
TS
Good evening from my side of the world. Is Australia the only country that stops for a horse race? Today we had a dozen friends over for a Melbourne Cup Luncheon – and the weather gods were not kind to us, so instead of outside on our balcony which easily fits 12, we were inside in our sitting room – which does not.
That aside, we ate and drank too much & had a wonderful day with friends and memories and chat & not a word about politicians, politics or the fact that our ex right wing PM is waltzing around the middle east making a spectacle of himself – no doubt on the public purse.
Hoping all goes well for women’s rights in the Tuesday elections
BellyCat
@Dangerman: Had an older real estate developer client years ago who used a “piling system”. HATED closed filing cabinets. Had multi-tiered horizontal shelves wrapping around his office. Very well organized and he could see all active files at all times.
I was inspired to create my own pile, one, with most recent always (moved) on top. Eventually the stuff at the bottom became irrelevant.
Brachiator
@Yutsano:
Congratulations!
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I had to leave my books behind when I moved to Greece for the sake of a job. Before then, I’d group them by author or topic as best I could. My CDs would be sorted by artist, or in the case of the soundtrack albums that made up the bulk of my collection, by work title.
Most of my library is now electronic, because that doesn’t incur overweight baggage charges like physical books do.
BellyCat
Another take on book organization.
My Someday Ex — it’s only been five years apart, with four spent in court, with five different judges recusing (violating due process at inception to grab a child without cause is a puzzler that judges would prefer to be willfully blind to, apparently) — deeply wrestled with this question while concocting ways to (appear to) productively procrastinate during the seven years she took to finish her Ph.D. thesis. Maybe 500 books got organized and edge-labled with the appropriate Library of Congress card catalogue numbers. All done manually with a mini label maker in different colors for some esoteric categorical reason.
Not sure how many months this took since I at first thought half of the books were from the library. Nope. Good thing Ph.D. theses from U. Mich. have a seven year deadline or my books would also have been so-labeled.
Ironic given that my mother was a university reference librarian. (Hello, Dr. Freud?)
Did I mention Someday Ex?
Dangerman
@BellyCat: Filing cabinets? What are those?
I just have folders that nest nicely into stacks. I’m not quite sure the difference between a pile and a stack right now.
I assure you stacks never get placed in piles or vice versa. That would look and feel noisy. Roughly like marrying a MAGA.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Supersize that mouth and that tongue would make one heck of a ski jump!
BellyCat
@Dangerman:
Piles: Anything and everything potentially as high as gravity permits. Might contain cracker bits or bread crumbs, etc. Non-orthogonal edges.
Stacks: The second evolution of piles after an attempt to review and sort. Orthogonal edges. Might involve horizontal placement of colored sheets to give the impression of categories. Fewer crumbs. Maybe better gravity odds, unless one has pets.
E.
Is this where we get to grouse about Audible.com’s “filing” “system” and lack of a “search my library” function on the app? It is so awful as to be genuinely perplexing. If you are a big user like me you really do end up with a big pile, probably sorted by date of purchase. Grrrrr.
Martin Schafer
Nowadays books are alphabetical by author though I only read on the computer since I need the adjustable text. Once upon a time as a collector I sorted books by publisher and publisher number (most were prior to ISBN). I had a friend who sorted by whimsy putting Vernes “From the Earth to the Moon” next to Heinlein’s “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”, next to David Niven’s “The Moon is a Baloon
Dangerman
@BellyCat: LOL. I can sleep peacefully now, excellent explanation. This does not include the nightmares regarding the possibility of marrying a MAGA.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
External optical drives are very, very inexpensive. Probably even more so come Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales.
Pro tip: Go with a brand name you recognize. Have had fine luck with LG.
NotMax
Wasn’t it in Good Omens 2 where the memory impaired archangel Gabriel was busying himself in a bookshop by arranging all the books alphabetically by the initial words of the first paragraph in each?
;)
something fabulous
@BellyCat: EEEEEEEEW. A dear friend, who helped me to put together my last set of billy bookcases tried to pull that bullshit! “So, like, all the penguins go together regardless of genre or title or author? And all the Number 1 Ladies Detective Agencies get broken up cause each is a different color?? STEP AWAY.” I thought that was the worst, then saw some designer who put all books SPINE INWARD, because it was “less visually noisy,” W, and i cannot stress this enough, T A F?
Manyakitty
@wjca: same. It feels like the most logical way.
Manyakitty
@Mel: we have similar libraries. I’d love to visit yours.
Manyakitty
@Yutsano: woohoo!!!! Congratulations 👏🎉
something fabulous
@Yutsano: Woot! I seem to have missed all this! Congrats congrats! Advocate away with your bad self!
Manyakitty
@frosty: if you’re not already see if you can follow Ed Yong on a social media (he’s been active on Bluesky). Spectacular nature writer and he’s been focusing on birds and birding lately.
Manyakitty
@BellyCat: if I saw books arranged by color it would be my last date with that guy.
WereBear
Always by genre. I have such MOODS. I must match them :)
But I don’t go alphabetical by title, I simply put the authors together. And shelved in series order.
I discovered I know my favorites by the spine alone :)
WereBear
@BellyCat: Piles of stuff are not appreciated by puritans. It’s a “they” problem.
NotMax
Books in bondage.
;)
NeenerNeener
Organization? What is this “organization” you speak of? Although I suppose “most recently acquired” could be considered an organization scheme.
I stopped buying physical books when I discovered eReaders and stopped buying CDs when music went online with iTunes and Amazon. The books and cds ended up in the basement of my new house when I moved 18 years ago and the books have been going to Goodwill or the dump over the last two months because I’m moving again and downsizing.
My Kindle has no particular organization scheme either, except for “most recently acquired”.
Matt McIrvin
Today is Election Day! I’m going to be voting for mayor, City Council and School Committee. Our longtime mayor is retiring and the likely winner of the election seems OK. With everyone else, though it’s an officially nonpartisan election we know who the Democrats really are, and, yeah, I’m voting for them. I suspect most of them will win.
I think holding Election Day right when the shortening daylight is hitting my emotions *hard* has always been a problem for me. Fall in New England is beautiful but early November is rough anyway–the encroaching darkness makes it hard to react to the world with anything other than crawling Lovecraftian horror. But I don’t have a lot of anxiety about today’s.
Yarrow
@Manyakitty: Yeah, I don’t get the “books arranged by color” thing. Maybe if it’s just a few coffee table books put out for show or some other decorative use. But those wouldn’t be anything you’d read. They’d serve the same purpose as a decorative item on a shelf.
eclare
@Yarrow:
At a distance, with a huge bookshelf, I can see how arranging books by color would be striking. But up close, looking for a book, I think it would be boring and confusing at the same time.
Yarrow
@something fabulous:
Yeah, no kidding. I remember seeing this fad a few years ago. It looks absolutely ridiculous on the shelf. Maybe that’s why it didn’t stick around very long.
Yarrow
@eclare: Agreed. At a distance it would be like a painting on the wall or something. But utterly useless for looking for a book.
lowtechcyclist
Books: by size, then by genre and author.
Fifteen years or so ago, not being happy with the bookcases one could buy, I designed and built a few of my own. I’ve got a couple of bookcases that are sized for standard-size paperbacks – not only are the shelves the right height for them, but the shelves are just deep enough for them also. So I can put one of these bookcases against the wall between two windows, and it doesn’t stick out far enough to bump into.
But the pair of bookcases I’m most proud of have a couple of shelves on the bottom for big stuff – yearbooks, full-sized dictionaries, stuff like that – and then a flat shelf for atlases and other books that are best stored lying flat. And then above that, regular bookshelves for hardbacks and large paperbacks. The lower shelves are also deeper than the upper shelves, extending a few inches further out from the wall, so there’s no danger of the weight of the books on the upper shelves causing the whole thing to topple over into the room. A pretty awesome design, if I do say so myself. So that’s why the first grouping of my books is by size.
My music collection is mostly physical still, sorted alphabetically by artist within each medium: LPs (still have a couple hundred of these), CDs, and even some cassettes. My wife bought me a multi-player a couple years ago that can play all three media, plus it’s got USB and SD card ports. That replaced a system whose components dated from the 1980s and 1990s, and finally gave up the ghost.
NotMax
@eclare
Just his luck, he’d bring home a paramour who is colorblind.
;)
lowtechcyclist
@Yutsano:
Congrats!!
KSinMA
@Yutsano: Great!
Percysowner
I try to keep books in a series together, other than that, I’m not a sorter. I do still buy physical media, after I have read the book/seen the DVD, because I don’t trust E-Books to be there forever. So if if love it, I buy it, often twice. I do like my E-Reader for first runs and try to buy used when I go physical.
Geminid
Virginia has got nice Election Day weather, sunny and warm. I wish Czar Chasm luck, same for Democrats statewide.
Suzanne
Books: by color, from white to yellow, through the spectrum, and then on to black, going clockwise around the room. Fiction, non-fiction, and every subject jumbled up together.
Before you ask: YES, I do think they’re easier to find this way, and YES, I do read.
LiminalOwl
@Yutsano: Congratulations! May your happiness exceed even your expectations.
Phaedrusonbass
Music: By artist, alphabetically, using last name of a person and first non-article word for a band. For example, The Pretenders would be under P.
Books (non-Kindle): In honor of Ty Webb in “Caddyshack,” by height.
LiminalOwl
@Chris T.: I keep track of amusing cover-band names for which I see listings, posters, etc. Current favorite is The “The Band” Band.
Yarrow
@Yutsano: Congratulations! That’s so exciting!
LiminalOwl
@E.: 100% agree.
And my books and CDs are sorted by category and then by author—boring, I know. Well, except for the Inklings section, which has a few quirks of its own. Most notably the C.S. Lewis section, which goes in a spectrum of sorts: literary criticism/books about literature, literature and fiction, religion and theology, autobiography, biographies. (Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and Dorothy L. Sayers are somewhat similarly arranged, though less extensive.)
Music on the 160-gigabyte iPod that I hope will outlive me: likewise category and then artist, plus many playlists.
Oh, and the mostly-fiction bookcases in the second bedroom are a complete jumble, because it wasn’t I who shelved them.
Yarrow
@Suzanne: What do you do if you have books in a series but each book is a different color – one is blue and the next one is yellow, or something? Do they get split up?
Anyway
@Suzanne:
please send a picture to WG or AL…
During my last move I ruthlessly trimmed my bookshelves and collections — what’s left is relegated to an upstairs room that doesn’t get used much. Still feels strange not to have ’em around the main living area.
Anyway
@Yutsano:
wheeeee! Congratz. So happy for you.
randy khan
How do we sort our books? Vaguely.
That’s not entirely true, but they mostly are in big broad categories, like art, sf/fantasy, and books that won’t fit on any other shelf.
WaterGirl
@Yutsano: Your dream job? The one you were waiting to hear about? So excited for you!
Steeplejack
@something fabulous:
“Books spine inward.”
They do that on the HGTV “shelter shows,” and it bothers me to the point of anger. I presume they do it so that no one will get a glimpse of a possibly objectionable title. Ugh.
The worst recent example was a No Demo Reno episode where the husband’s secret side project was for the designer to turn a large but little-used room into a library for his bookworm wife. It turned out great, but the long wall of ceiling-high bookcases packed with books facing spine in was 😳.
I presume the wife, who was delighted with the gift, spent the first day turning them all around—and probably rearranging them, too.
Suzanne
@Yarrow: Yes, series get split up.
I have a couple of exceptions….. I have a pair of art books (The American Century) where one is black and one is white, but they came in a beautiful black slip case, so they go with the black books. I also kept the Griffin and Sabine books together because they are kind of a weird size and shape.
I should note that I have had to make some tweaks to the color system w/r/t architecture in the various places that I have had the books. Earlier in the year, I moved my office up to one of our attic rooms, and with the dormers and knee walls, there is only one wall tall enough for a full-size bookcase. So I have the biggie art books in color order on the one tall bookcase. The other books are in half-size IKEA Billy bookshelves kind of in the order described.
In our Arizona house, Mr. Suzanne and I had a long wall and we each had three full-size bookcases, so I did color order on my half and he did something normal on his side. When I packed my books, I did it in color order so it would be easy to set up again.
Yarrow
@Suzanne: It must be really pretty.
Matt McIrvin
@Steeplejack: They’re also fond of “bookshelves” that couldn’t hold any books: wryly arranged collections of nooks without long level surfaces that are really display cabinets for tchotchkes.
Yarrow
@Steeplejack:
I never understand those reno shows that seem not to understand the client. Do they not listen to them? I guess it’s all about selling some image and product for the show. I feel sorry for the clients because they get this fancy new room or whatever but it’s not really what they wanted.
The worst example I’ve seen was a UK garden makeover show. The woman whose garden was being redone had some sort of progressive health issue, like maybe MS, that was making it harder for her to get around and eventually it would be quite difficult. She wanted to redo the garden so that she could enjoy it and move around it easily, especially as her health issue progressed. So the team designed some giant concrete circular thing in the middle of the garden. She had to step over the raised concrete edge to get into it and back over the edge to get out of. It was ugly, filled the whole area, and when they did the reveal you could already see she was having trouble stepping in and out of it. I felt so bad for her. I hope she got some people in to remove it so she could move around her garden easily.
Steeplejack
@Matt McIrvin:
Oh, “spines facing in” is not my only complaint! It’s just the first item on the list.
Suzanne
@Steeplejack: They do spines inward because libraries of books can be visually overstimulating to some people. Lots of colors and sizes and bold typographics and images, and it can look uncomposed if not done well. Also, neutral interior palettes are popular right now, and books sometimes don’t fit that.
I personally hate the spines-in thing with the hot fire of a thousand suns, but I do like color order for making my room look less visually cacophonous.
There are companies that will sell you a suite of used books that have been “curated” for size and color, if you don’t care about the books and just care about them as decor objects. You usually don’t get to pick the books. I also hate this.
Steeplejack
@Yarrow:
I agree with you about designers often missing the mark with their clients, but I do think “books spine in” is a temporary thing for filming the show. At least I hope so! But as a bibliophile I find it very jarring.
Yarrow
@Steeplejack: I saw the “books spines in” thing on a show like the Today Show several years ago. The designer they had on said it was a new trend to make things visually appealing or something. The hosts were really skeptical.
Suzanne
@Yarrow: I love it, and I sometimes find myself just gazing at it. I really do forget who wrote a book, but remember its cover design. So it works for me, but I get that it isn’t for everyone.
Color order has produced some highly specific problems, though. One is that I have on two occasions found that I had multiple copies of a book, but with different cover styles, so I didn’t realize it. The duplicates got donated to the Little Free Library. The other is what to do with hardcover books with damaged spines, where the color is not very visible. I have my grandmother’s copy of “Alice in Wonderland”, which is probably close to 100 years old, he it’s on a separate shelf because I don’t know how to file it.
I will also note that I keep the cookbooks downstairs in the dining room. I arranged those so that the text is always horizontal, because they’re on a high shelf. So thicker books like The Joy of Cooking stand up in the traditional way, but thinner books lie down in their sides. But then I got two Williams Sonoma cookbooks as a gift that have the text rotating! So neither position is fully correct! GODDAMNIT.
Steeplejack
@Suzanne:
Permanent “spines in” is a crime against humanity. How would you ever find a book?
Suzanne
@Yarrow: The “designers” on TV shows are performers. They are doing what is trendy and popular because their real client is the viewer, not the person in front of them. Real designers who are not performing are better at listening.
Yarrow
@Suzanne: I get that. But the designers are also advertising their services and expertise and in general the concept of hiring a designer. If the designer doesn’t listen to the client in a really obvious way it’s not a great advertisement.
I note that the UK show I mentioned above was canceled. I wasn’t too surprised.
evodevo
@Dangerman:
THAT is my system, LOL…a pile here, a pile there…
Suzanne
@Steeplejack: The people that do spines-in don’t read. They’re using the book as a decor object.
I hate it.
Captain C
Books:
Nonfiction by category, and then generally alphabetical by author, with some whimsey as to the exact arrangement of subcategories.
Fiction is alphabetical by author, with SFF separated out, and further subdivided into paperback and trade/hardcover sections before going alphabetical.
ETA: Graphic novels have their own shelf. Also, there is an entire narrow bookcase of basically unsorted books (and my recent alumni update magazines) which are the bathroom books.
TBR is not categorized and generally kept on separate shelves (or in a few cases, piles).
Library books have their own shelf (near my vinyl) and are not sorted.
Music:
CDs are alphabetical by performer (last name first with people), except for Classical which is by composer generally, and Various Artists albums, which are generally by title or possibly salient word (Best of Techno vol. 1 goes under ‘T’, for example). I love the juxtapositions this creates; unfortunately, I am not at home so I can’t find any right now. Box sets (I have about ten or so, of various sizes) are kept separately at the end of these shelves.
Vinyl and cassettes are kept together and not particularly sorted.
New music, generally CDs I’m still assimilating, have a separate shelf that is basically unsorted.
CDs in the cardboard sleeves have their own shelf, subdivided into performers, collections, and a kind of misc. section (which includes my own stuff) and generally alphabetized. Also on that shelf are collectibles, basically my small number of autographed CDs and a never-opened copy of Alice in Chains’ Jar of Flies which has actual little plastic flies in the CD spine.
Also on these shelves are mix CDs that I’ve received from certain people, organized by who made it.
Mix CDs that I’ve made are kept on spindles, roughly organized by category (general mixes, chillout mixes, dance mixes, single-band mixes/albums/resequenced albums, playalong).
Alison Rose
@Steeplejack: Yeah, that’s all I use to listen to music. I don’t have Spotify anymore.
kindness
My vinyl/cds I sort by artists alphabetically. Except some times I include solo work of group members with their originating band. Not always though.
My dvd’s I have sorted by category and within that alphabetical by title.
Steeplejack
@Alison Rose:
I have a free Apple Music account (from when I upgraded my cell-phone plan) that I never got around to activating. I should do that, especially that now with Alexa and my Echo devices I am listening to music a lot more.
StringOnAStick
Books: size first since some only got by laying sideways, and then sorted by read and not yet read. We moved from CO to OR 3 years ago and a lot of books got donated since we also downsized.
CD’s that have been ripped to our PCs are in tubs, newly purchased from an artist we’ve seen a concert by are out for use. I wanted to get one of those used to be ubiquitous Bose CD/radio units for the kitchen a few months ago but they are no longer being made. Finding ANY such device was tricky but husband found one, and only one came up in his searches. It is very 1970’s hifi in looks, so a nod to retro I guess.
Alison Rose
@Steeplejack: I was basically forced to, because they ditched iTunes and replaced it with Apple Music. So when I got my new laptop this year, that was my only option. It’s pretty similar to iTunes but it was a pain getting it set up.
Steeplejack
@Alison Rose:
Thanks. Apple Music would fit in well with my recently acquired iPad, too.
wjca
I seem to recall, back in the mists of time, there were three basic systems for organizing books:
— Dewey Decimal
— Library of Congress
— and one major library (New York Public?) actually did shelve by size and color. Amazing . . . or maybe just insane.
Matt McIrvin
@wjca: I recall mostly finding Dewey Decimal in older and smaller libraries (particularly primary- and secondary-school libraries) and Library of Congress in bigger and more serious systems.
When I was at William and Mary, the college library was only partly converted over and was actually separated into Dewey Decimal and LoC sections. You had to look in both catalogs to be sure you’d find something.
Kayla Rudbek
@NeenerNeener: Kindle has the most godawful “system” for organizing books. And I can’t even carry over collections from the iOS apps to the Kindle reader device. Apple’s books app also sucks for organizing, and iTunes/Music is also terrible for organizing. And whoever assigns genres for Amazon and iTunes needs remedial library training.
Kayla Rudbek
And for actually organizing things:
music CDs by genre and maybe then by artist or title (I don’t have that many and they all fit on one shelf unit)
DVDs by fiction/nonfiction and then by show/series (also don’t have that many as I prefer audiobooks or iPad or iPhone reading and games)
Books by genre (fiction versus non fiction) and then by subject matter (SFF together ,then Romance, mystery, etc.) and then cooking and crafting books into subcategories, with the knitting and cooking books drilled down into type of garment or type of cuisine. When I want to cook Italian, I want all those cookbooks together. When I want to knit a sweater, I want all the sweater books together.