Shelf control: How to organise your bookshelves

You know how the old saying goes: perusing someone else’s bookshelf is like staring into their soul. Well, perhaps it’s not an old saying – but it really should be. As book lovers, we know all too well a bookshelf is more than just storage; it’s a reflection of personality, style, and how you connect with your beloved books. And the way you stack your shelves? It says as much about you, as the books themselves. Whether it’s a grand, floor-to-ceiling library or just a humble bedside stack, there’s no one way to do it.  

There are many ways to organise a bookshelf – by colour, genre, vibe, or, you know, simply embracing the chaos. Some shelves are neat and tidy, while others are a constantly shifting mix of current reads and old favourites. Here, members of the Booker Prizes team share how they organise their TBR piles and home libraries. Now, how about yours? 

Alice Ingall, Communications Manager

‘Around 10 years ago there was an Instagram trend for bookshelves to be ordered by spine colour, creating a rainbow effect, which I eagerly recreated on our newly built bookshelves. Since then, I’ve had two children and our living room – where the bookshelves are located – has been hijacked from a grown-up space into a playroom. Whilst interior design has moved on and the tightly packed shelves are unforgiving when I have a new addition to add in, or want to quickly locate a book, the youngest members of our household adore the rainbow theme. And so, for now, I won’t be swapping it for a more sophisticated or practical ordering system.’  

Emily Facoory, Digital Content Executive

‘I don’t have a specific filing system for my books, in fact – I have very few books. I live quite minimally and do most of my reading on a Kindle, as it’s easier to take when commuting or travelling. However, I do have one rule: if I’m buying a physical copy of a book, I have to give one away. This allows me to keep my bookshelf small yet manageable.’ 

Hannah Davies, Director of Prize Management & Special Projects

‘For the first time in my life this is a question I actually want to answer, as this year I became the proud owner of a whole wall of bookshelves – something I am probably too excited about.  

It’s been a family affair – my husband built them, and my mum, who is the tidiest, most organised person I know, set aside a weekend to help me fill them. Over the years, I’ve been growing a collection of books in the loft so it was a bit of a shock when I got them all down. I had to begin with a painful cull – a batch is still in our car boot destined for the charity shop. 

Fiction is by far the largest section of my collection, so we did those books first, working downwards from top left, ordering by author surname. I considered having a Booker section, but that felt too unwieldy as it grows so much each year. I have a mixed shelf of poetry, narrative non-fiction and short story anthologies, a shelf for cookbooks, a shelf for travel, a shelf for art & design books, a shelf of borrowed books to try and prevent me losing them, and then I conceded two shelves to my daughter for kids books (the bookshelves are in her playroom so I suppose that was only fair).  

The main problem I now have is the shelves are already full. The only solution is to build more as I can’t cope with a one-in-one-out policy. My Everyman collection has already had to move to the living room, and I have a towering TBR pile on my bedside table.’ 

Jonathan Davenport, Executive Producer

‘When we had our bookshelves put in a while ago, I took seriously the opportunity to nail the arrangement of our books. The system ran thus. Left bookcase, top two shelves: poetry, Shakespeare, other plays; third shelf down, a row of old Everyman books inherited from my grandfather. Beneath that, film books: two shelves; and beneath those two shelves of oversized books, anything from photography books to an old Viz annual. These shelves are only categorised loosely by book type, with no real need to arrange alphabetically. The entire right-hand bookcase is devoted to fiction, mainly novels. These are alphabetically arranged, by author surname, and with no consideration of genre, just all lined up.  

As I say, that was a while ago, and before parenthood obliterated such extravagances as organisational effectiveness. Now it’s hard to know where anything is, though there is still a large crimson block of Dickens books roughly where they should be. Otherwise, it’s anyone’s guess.’  

Indira Birnie, Senior Audience & Social Manager

‘I always arrange my books by type, and then by alphabetical order of the author’s surname. My time as a bookseller means that my organisational system has remained the same throughout the years. It’s pleasantly rigid and it makes things easy to find. I have one hefty section of built-in shelving in the living room where I’ve put all my graphic novels – some of the most beautiful books I own, in pride of place. There’s also a fireplace with shelving where the hearth once was and that turned out to be the perfect space for my cookbook collection. 

I moved just before Christmas and, so, elsewhere, the system has fallen apart as a result of the physical and existential weariness of moving house. There’s one bookcase which houses my collection of Booker books for easy work-related access, but the remaining bookcases are now a chaotic jumble of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and who knows what else. There’s also still three boxes left to unpack but I’ve run out of shelf space – I’ll let you know if I ever get round to unpacking them…’ 

Paul Davies, Head of Editorial

‘We used to have a system. When we first moved house and inherited an impressive amount of built-in storage, our books were well organised: recent fiction in pride of place, opposite the dining table; non-fiction (travel, biography, history etc) on the upper shelves in the living room; hefty, coffee-table art and photography books in the low unit; recipe books on the chest-height shelves nearest the kitchen; fiction overspill on the landing shelves at the top of the stairs, including dozens of Penguin Classics with matching spines. Most of it was in alphabetical order. The humans were in control. 

But in the past five years, standards have slipped and control has been lost, for one simple reason: too many books. 

New additions are now wedged in wherever there’s a gap; tottering piles have emerged beneath and on top of side tables, on mantelpieces and desks, next to the cat’s bowl and all over the dining table. On bedroom shelves, books have usurped ornaments, pot plants and family photos. 

There’s a giant, precarious Jenga tower of paperbacks in the hall, waiting for a trip to the charity shop that we all know isn’t happening any time soon. If they weren’t books, you’d call the whole arrangement an infestation; a breach of the most basic health and safety standards. I admit it’s a slovenly and chaotic approach to bookshelving – but, these days, I kind of like it that way.’ 

Donna Mackay-Smith, Deputy Head of Editorial

‘I like to say my bookshelf is “loosely organised” – if you squint. There’s a rough system: genres stick together, authors keep each other company, and collections, such as Booker or International prize nominees, sit side by side. But beyond that, I don’t overthink it. Books I’ve just finished might linger in odd places, and new additions squeeze in wherever there’s room. It might not make sense to anyone else, but I always know where to find what I need. A perfectly arranged shelf feels too final – I like mine to be a little more lived-in!’