So I’ve been getting a lot of crap lately about the way I organize my books. As you can see, it is a bit idiosyncratic, but I have my reasons. The shelves are organized by color for a handful of reasons, but mainly because it is the way that gives me the most pleasure. It is not simply that this is the way I can best locate a book—it is: I would forget an author’s name or under which category I filed the thing, but I’ll never forget what color the book is. It is also a determination to not allow in this situation something that I do not want to do in other situations: to separate the inner content or meaning from its outer form.  The Book, like the Human, is a created thing, not a generic, neutral container of some eternal truth (or untruth) that happens to fill it. The authorial intent found upon the pages is inseparable from the paper, the cover, its colors, its typefaces, the binding, its dimensions, its weight, its age, its smell. There can be no separation of accidents from substance. So for me, knowing my books is more than knowing their content: it is having a creaturely relationship with another object of creation, one with dimension, personality, and history.
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So I’ve been getting a lot of crap lately about the way I organize my books. As you can see, it is a bit idiosyncratic, but I have my reasons.

The shelves are organized by color for a handful of reasons, but mainly because it is the way that gives me the most pleasure.

It is not simply that this is the way I can best locate a book—it is: I would forget an author’s name or under which category I filed the thing, but I’ll never forget what color the book is. It is also a determination to not allow in this situation something that I do not want to do in other situations: to separate the inner content or meaning from its outer form. 

The Book, like the Human, is a created thing, not a generic, neutral container of some eternal truth (or untruth) that happens to fill it. The authorial intent found upon the pages is inseparable from the paper, the cover, its colors, its typefaces, the binding, its dimensions, its weight, its age, its smell. There can be no separation of accidents from substance.

So for me, knowing my books is more than knowing their content: it is having a creaturely relationship with another object of creation, one with dimension, personality, and history.

Source: Flickr / liikennevalo