Over this last weekend, my husband finished his three-month project of building me a giant floor to ceiling bookcase. Of course, in true Slytherin pride fashion, I immediately painted the entire thing a beautiful dark green color. One cannot have too much house pride, amiright? This project completion is a pretty big deal for me. Finally, I have that signature statement piece beloved to all book-related social media posts. There’s only one problem. I have no idea how I’m going to organize it.

Recently, shelfies or a selfie of your bookshelves and all its literary glory (supposedly originally coined by author Rick Riordan of Percy Jackson fame), have become something of a work of art as book lovers use their collection to create something beautiful and sometimes out of this world.  Now, you see rainbows of color, customized book spines, overly cluttered, minimalist, out-faced covers, spines only. Just about anything you can think of.

I’m a firm believer that bookshelves can tell a lot about a person. For example, mine would say that I read a lot of young adult fiction (I don’t care what anyone says there is no such thing as too much), love anything fantasy related, and collect celebrity memoirs. So clearly, I like what I read to be a great escape for me. Something fantastical and unlike my own life. There is also the humble brag of having a well-organized bookshelf, displaying all those books you just can’t help but buy, right? Books show our interests, hobbies, and values. Personally, I’ve gone from strangers to new BFFs all because of a bookshelf before.

Here are some of my favorite inspirational shelfies:

photo by tbr, etc.
photo by @sweetbookobsession

I have been using inspirational bookshelves like these to create my bookshelf masterpiece. Working at Bookmans, my book collection is only growing! It’s definitely a work in progress but I am committed to making it great. My kind of great. And I’ll update you with my shelfie progress soon.

How do you organize your bookshelves? By color (gasp!)? By genre? By size? I think we’d all like to know, so share your organizational tips below in the comments.