In this newsletter: The comments I received when I didn't organize my books by color, and why I think they are misguided. Plus a budgeting game I made up that your kids might like, and a Guide to Tasting Chocolate. Enjoy!
I'm a middle school English teacher, and my classroom's hundreds of books are organized by color. Will kids return a book to a certain genre or by alphabetically? No. Will they return a blue book to a blue shelf? Yes. And they generally remember, oh that book? It's green. Look there. It works for us.
I am fascinated by all ways of organizing things in the home. I love to know why someone is drawn to organize an area in a specific way, why it makes sense to them, how it makes them feel, what feeling they want to create in a space. Often I learn something about myself, which leads to experimenting in my own home. Love how you share all of your process and WHYs. <3
As a librarian I worked in the library of a very large law firm. Several of the standard texts are called by their color name: the blue book, the green book. As a rookie, I had to add these alternate names to the library catalogue so I knew what title a lawyer might be asking for!
Just raising my hand - serious reader here, and I have organized my books by color since 2009. Super satisfying to do, easy for me to remember which color a cover is, and it makes me happy when I walk up the stairs. When I was teaching I also used to sort class sets of markers by color, and all the closets I’m in charge of are by color too. It makes my brain happy, let me have my serotonin! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
I attribute the morality statements about book color more to the need to be hip,edgy, unique. Backtrack a bit: Someone (I don't know who) in the sea of folks posting beautiful photos of staged areas of their homes posted their books in rainbow order. Cool. It took off like wildfire and many influential folks probably did the same and so did their followers. Fast forward 10ish years and now it's "stale" to those who really, really want to be on the front edge of staged home photos and so they need to find a way to "poopoo" that particular design trend ("how can you find the books? they must never read! poor books!"). They are searching for ways to disparage rainbow organizers. So, to me, it really has nothing to do with books, but about folks who want to be the cool kids.
I just recently saw a spine in bookshelf for the first time and I have to say, I was intrigued. I’m tempted to try it for a minute just to see if I could recognize my favorites by the shape/size of the actual book. I’m thinking I could.
The trend that I'm still trying to understand is displaying books with their spines facing the back of the bookshelf, so only the pages face outward. I suppose it looks more neutral but I would have a tough time finding anything!
Jan 21, 2022·edited Jan 21, 2022Liked by Gabrielle Blair
Great post. In a sea of things to attach morality to, I have zero bandwidth for book organization. I love rainbow order shelves- I don’t care what anyone else thinks! And I definitely need to put pork tenderloin and veggies back into my dinner-time repertoire. Thanks.
I'd never thought about organizing books by color until your Insta post. So I decided to try. I'm always up for some new creative way to refresh my home, esp as I'm spending SO much time here during the pandemic. I re-organized one small book case. I like it a lot. A neighbor came in and thought it a "weird" idea. Oy! We're all so full of judgements. I really appreciate your design sensibility plus your ability to discern and promote a broad spectrum of what's normal, ok, healthy, beneficial, invigorating from what's clearly bullshit, but too often bullshit we have been conditioned to accept-without-thinking as truth. Thank you for all the ways you inspire us see with new eyes and re-think our old unconscious tropes we too often function by. Bowing to you, Gabrielle. So grateful.
One of the most surprising threads I ever read on the internet was one in which people expressed contempt for the words other people call their grandmothers. Sweet words, many accessible to a toddler, like maw maw. The commenters placed their vitriol and classist feelings on what is often a loving family relationship. It’s odd what brings out such contempt. I read at least a hundred books a year through our wonderful library system and those I own are treasured friends kept near in our main room. They have been in rainbow order and by height for 15 years because visually it’s calming in the small apartment spaces I’ve lived in. People who need neutral tones to be calm at home probably feel this way about spine in. I take great comfort in sorting them and find them by color. So, one can’t judge a bookworm by their shelves (not even the titles contained there heh ;)
I saw this discussion when you posted it on your IG stories and was reminded of a former boss. Her brain was seriously wired to remember and think in colours. I was looking for a book that I recalled was in her possession. She had no recollection of it until she remembered the colour and design of the cover - then she knew exactly what the book was and where it was. While colour doesn't work for me in my own personal library organization (I tend to go author/date of publication, except for the books I've had over 30 years and those are author/series/idiosyncratic order of how much I liked it) I get completely why it works for so many.
Thank you!! It took me years to really understand how minds can work so differently and what is "obvious" to one is not necessarily so for others. Color coordinated is not just about "pretty" for many of us. I have all of the apps on my phone organized by color and have had for many years. (In fact, it may have been because of your sister ?? if I recall) I do find it quite soothing visually but it's also the only way I can find what I am looking for.
Something I find funny is that in my mind there's overlap between people who hate organizing books by color and people who find the meme about asking someone in a library or bookstore to help them find a book with the only clue as "the cover is blue."
Thank you for this. Personally organizing books (or apps!) by color doesn't work for me. I could never find anything. But people attaching morality to the way other people organize their books makes me a little sad. Even if someone only have books as pretty accessories, so what? It has nothing to do with anyone else. Let people do what they want in their own homes! It's not like the books have feelings anyway 🙂
Spot on. It's bizarre what people attach morality to. Like mama Ru says, "Unless they paying your bills, pay them bitches no mind."
I'm a middle school English teacher, and my classroom's hundreds of books are organized by color. Will kids return a book to a certain genre or by alphabetically? No. Will they return a blue book to a blue shelf? Yes. And they generally remember, oh that book? It's green. Look there. It works for us.
I am fascinated by all ways of organizing things in the home. I love to know why someone is drawn to organize an area in a specific way, why it makes sense to them, how it makes them feel, what feeling they want to create in a space. Often I learn something about myself, which leads to experimenting in my own home. Love how you share all of your process and WHYs. <3
As a librarian I worked in the library of a very large law firm. Several of the standard texts are called by their color name: the blue book, the green book. As a rookie, I had to add these alternate names to the library catalogue so I knew what title a lawyer might be asking for!
Just raising my hand - serious reader here, and I have organized my books by color since 2009. Super satisfying to do, easy for me to remember which color a cover is, and it makes me happy when I walk up the stairs. When I was teaching I also used to sort class sets of markers by color, and all the closets I’m in charge of are by color too. It makes my brain happy, let me have my serotonin! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
I attribute the morality statements about book color more to the need to be hip,edgy, unique. Backtrack a bit: Someone (I don't know who) in the sea of folks posting beautiful photos of staged areas of their homes posted their books in rainbow order. Cool. It took off like wildfire and many influential folks probably did the same and so did their followers. Fast forward 10ish years and now it's "stale" to those who really, really want to be on the front edge of staged home photos and so they need to find a way to "poopoo" that particular design trend ("how can you find the books? they must never read! poor books!"). They are searching for ways to disparage rainbow organizers. So, to me, it really has nothing to do with books, but about folks who want to be the cool kids.
I just recently saw a spine in bookshelf for the first time and I have to say, I was intrigued. I’m tempted to try it for a minute just to see if I could recognize my favorites by the shape/size of the actual book. I’m thinking I could.
The trend that I'm still trying to understand is displaying books with their spines facing the back of the bookshelf, so only the pages face outward. I suppose it looks more neutral but I would have a tough time finding anything!
Great post. In a sea of things to attach morality to, I have zero bandwidth for book organization. I love rainbow order shelves- I don’t care what anyone else thinks! And I definitely need to put pork tenderloin and veggies back into my dinner-time repertoire. Thanks.
the twitter re hunger ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
I'd never thought about organizing books by color until your Insta post. So I decided to try. I'm always up for some new creative way to refresh my home, esp as I'm spending SO much time here during the pandemic. I re-organized one small book case. I like it a lot. A neighbor came in and thought it a "weird" idea. Oy! We're all so full of judgements. I really appreciate your design sensibility plus your ability to discern and promote a broad spectrum of what's normal, ok, healthy, beneficial, invigorating from what's clearly bullshit, but too often bullshit we have been conditioned to accept-without-thinking as truth. Thank you for all the ways you inspire us see with new eyes and re-think our old unconscious tropes we too often function by. Bowing to you, Gabrielle. So grateful.
One of the most surprising threads I ever read on the internet was one in which people expressed contempt for the words other people call their grandmothers. Sweet words, many accessible to a toddler, like maw maw. The commenters placed their vitriol and classist feelings on what is often a loving family relationship. It’s odd what brings out such contempt. I read at least a hundred books a year through our wonderful library system and those I own are treasured friends kept near in our main room. They have been in rainbow order and by height for 15 years because visually it’s calming in the small apartment spaces I’ve lived in. People who need neutral tones to be calm at home probably feel this way about spine in. I take great comfort in sorting them and find them by color. So, one can’t judge a bookworm by their shelves (not even the titles contained there heh ;)
I saw this discussion when you posted it on your IG stories and was reminded of a former boss. Her brain was seriously wired to remember and think in colours. I was looking for a book that I recalled was in her possession. She had no recollection of it until she remembered the colour and design of the cover - then she knew exactly what the book was and where it was. While colour doesn't work for me in my own personal library organization (I tend to go author/date of publication, except for the books I've had over 30 years and those are author/series/idiosyncratic order of how much I liked it) I get completely why it works for so many.
Thank you!! It took me years to really understand how minds can work so differently and what is "obvious" to one is not necessarily so for others. Color coordinated is not just about "pretty" for many of us. I have all of the apps on my phone organized by color and have had for many years. (In fact, it may have been because of your sister ?? if I recall) I do find it quite soothing visually but it's also the only way I can find what I am looking for.
Something I find funny is that in my mind there's overlap between people who hate organizing books by color and people who find the meme about asking someone in a library or bookstore to help them find a book with the only clue as "the cover is blue."
Thank you for this. Personally organizing books (or apps!) by color doesn't work for me. I could never find anything. But people attaching morality to the way other people organize their books makes me a little sad. Even if someone only have books as pretty accessories, so what? It has nothing to do with anyone else. Let people do what they want in their own homes! It's not like the books have feelings anyway 🙂