Books are one of the biggest organizational challenges my clients ask me to help them face. How do you organize your books?

By author? By subject? By size?

Do you keep books you have already read?

I suggest organizing your books by whatever method will help you find them when you want them....and to donate any books that you don't think you will ever reference again. If you do want to keep books for reference materials, such as a gardening manual...mark the specific pages you have found helpful so you can quickly find them and access them in the future.

How do you handle your books?

I organize things by topic for non-fiction (I grew up with a librarian Mom--we were the only house with books arranged via Dewey Decimal, with a card catalog!), and by author for fiction. I do have a small display of "red spined books" on top of the living room bookcase, though--red is a "signature" color for me, and is an accent in much of our home's decor.

I do tend to pass fiction along once I've read it, unless it's truly a classic; we rely heavily on the library for fiction reading. I'm more likely to buy and key non-fiction, but even then, I am pretty good at weeding out and passing on.

For marking reference books, I like the self-stick tabs now available in office supply sections. They're sticky enough to hold on, but don't damage the page when removed. (I only use this on modern reference books. For my vintage and antique books, I use strips of acid-free cardstock as markers.)

I have the non-fiction books by subject/topic, myself. The fiction books (not too many of those) are grouped by author or series.

Since I tend to read many of the same authors, I group most of my books by authors.

I do re-read many of my books-fiction & non-fiction.

After reading a book, I decide if I am likely to read it again or not. If not, I put it in a bag to take to the used book store. I have a bag that I should take soon.

Until a few weeks ago, books were very important at our home. We got a Kindle and can see it will revolutionize the book industry. We had a Kodak reader more than a year ago but it wasn't comfortable to use.

For several years we have used colored dots to track how long we have retained books since we control supply by 'new book in - old book out.' Magazines/articles/newletters are topic controlled in magazine holders and all are on the bottom shelf of every bookcase.

Non fiction are grouped by subject/topic, fiction by genre & author. Once a year we review every book in every bookcase to send to a charity book sale we support. We need to justify every book retained, if it won't be used for research, not re-read in the past two years, it's likely to be donated. Only about 20% of our books are read every year.

DH and I met in a bookstore, and long before that, I was hooked on books. Personally, I fear the Kindle and copycats will ruin the book industry; I hope I'm wrong. And I don't like e-books. I'm so glad that Maria has made her books available either electronically or in hard-copy form. And books are so adaptable, to almost any environment, more portable and less easily damaged than a Kindle or laptop . . . and there is a tactile element missing from the high-tech versions. For all I know, the illustrations in "real" books, say of art, are better than electronic ones. But I digress.

My books are group loosely by subject. Language together, history together, science, gardening, religion, financial topics, health and fitness, etc. That covers the nonfiction. The fiction isn't "grouped" much at all, except very generally. I have accumulated some fiction which I want to read and, as I do with most books, recycle after I read them. I tend to group hard covers, and/or larger softcovers, together, and paperbacks together, and put them on shelves where they fit - not all bookcases have the same intervals between shelves. The largest books go on the lowest shelves, mainly because they fit there, and also because they would be rather heavy for the other shelves. I'm winnowing now since DS has finished high school. In addition to books on his bedroom shelves on various topics, I'll weed out books I'd saved mainly as reference in case he needed them. I go through other books periodically. When I had to buy the 2007 version of several computer programs, I set aside the 2003 manuals for some friends who are a couple of generations behind computer-wise (if you can believe it, they are still using Window 95!). In addition to other recycling, I'm going to offer some books to the little boy across the street.

I have too many books to spend time cataloguing them. And once in a while, as well as deciding for whatever reason that I no longer need to keep some oboks, I conclude that the info in them is too old - a book about taxes or investments, say, where the laws have changed. I've almost never thrown a book away, but have put a very few into the recycle bin, including a couple that belonged to DM.

On the other hand, age alone doesn't mean a book has no value. I prefer my older edition of The Joy of Cooking to the newer ones.

One-in, one-out is a great rule to use for anything, and I do apply it pretty faithfully to books. I sold some of DH's books to a dealer after he passed away, and donated a large number to the Navy Library (he worked in the Naval Historical Center). But I still have some of his books, a few of which I've been saving for DS. He isn't as much of a read as DH or I, but may be glad to have the books down the road. With his decluttering recently, he did keep the Harry Potter books DH had bought for him. I also have two books my father sent us which DS will probably read eventually, "Treasure Island" and "Robin Hood."

I recycle books to schools, a home for foster children, sometimes to friends, etc., and to the library. Once in a while I give a couple to charity, but I think they would get more use most other places.

The first present DH ever got me was a biography of Chaucer. I still have it, both as a reference work and for its sentimental value. I'm striving to let most of DS's old books go, by finding good new homes for them. For some reason, giving up books is harder for me than many other things.

Before we moved into our present home, we had 4 floor to ceiling bookcases in our master bedroom that were full of books. Even though I loved them, I absolutely dislike having to dust them constantly to alleviate allergy symptoms.

When we moved, I ruthlessly purged books and was able to wittle down to just enough to fill a drawer in a chest of drawers. They're all books that I love and will reread numerous times.

The others, we donated to the local library or sold on Amazon. I find that I have less and less time for reading these days, but when I do find a book that I want to read, I order it used and then resell it, donate it, or pass it on.

My books are organized by topic/subject matter, but if I get a lot of books by one author or a series I group those together by the author or series. If it is a certain topic, I try to group by size just to make it look neater on the bookcase. Lately I have been trying to decide what to get rid of even though my collection of books is not very big. I really want to purge some of my textbooks but not sure where to donate them.

My friend has a massive book collection that has now overtaken her house and are only very generally organized despite all the organizing time she has taken trying to organize them. Since I can borrow books from her and from the public library, I try to keep only the books that I love or refer to often. I am in the process of trying to get rid of more books even though I have plenty of space to store them. My movie collection is another story though. LOL VHS take up a lot of space.

I think print will always be around. I do enjoy online books, but when I really want a book I want the hard physical copy. I have not actually tried the kindle or anything else like it. I am just not interested even though I have been tempted a few times.

I like things to not only be organized but to look neat and tidy. Straight lines, pleasing curves, crisp corners, spices in alphabetical order - are all my weakness and what my friends and family lovingly call my obsession.

In our house are three bookcases (to ensure I don't gather hundreds of books!) One bookcase is only fiction; one a mixture; the third non-fiction and business-related. The books are grouped by relative size, perhaps only three "sizes" in total, then alphabetical by author.

Fiction are only kept if enjoyed "classics", still unread, or a few treasures that I will read again or will want to share with others. A group at work regularly share books we will only read once and then pass onto others. Twice a year a full review of my books is completed for donations to two charity book sales held at my workplace. Non-fiction tends to remain as long as they are enjoyed or useful, then donated (such as repair manuals for cars or motorcycles no longer owned).

Books are our weakness. We have one large bookshelf of non-fiction books (mostly field guides - we're both biologists), three shelves of fiction (mostly mine, DH is more of a non-fiction reader), and two shelves of children's/juvenile. I'm always working on weeding them out. My mom, a librarian, actually purchased most of the books then passed them to me. Needless to say, she reads much faster than I do, especially since I have a toddler at home.

Mom has a Kindle, but she still buys paper books. She said that not only are some books simply not available for Kindle, but it's not suited to books where you might want to flip back and forth or reread sections frequently.