Over the time you’ve seen a lot of bookshelves on Freshome, but what I’ve found today is really impressive. I was browsing Flickr and I found this beautiful example of organizing books by color and the smart guy that managed to do it, is user chotda. This is a very good way of changing the whole aspect of a bookshelf with a little bit of creativity. I guess you’ll have to pay more attention to the book’s cover from now on if you want to reproduce that effect and have your own rainbow bookshelf.
Published by Michael February 12th, 2008 in Ideas
Tags: bookshelf, color, creative, organizing books, Rainbow
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111 Responses to “Rainbow Bookshelf”
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this is so pretty man!
THats pretty cool.
Pretty… but useless, as you’d never be able to find the book you wanted :S
Wow, out of question how long did arranging all that take? I probably do not have the patience to get even half way through.
not practical
good luck finding the book you want to read now. You just have to remember which one of the 100 shades of pink it is.
Can you say ‘autism’?
this is actually a terrible idea because you will never be able to find anything. this only works if you are interested in any book. sorry, i still think it looks really cool.
O man, I did that with my bookshelf! My coworkers thought it was dumb, but it’s a great way to organize your books in technology since different types or topics of books are often color coded. Not as impressive as this bookshelf however!
Wow! What an amazingly pointless way to organize books. How the heck do you find anything - with a catalog “number” that’s a color wheel?
freak!
“You know how I know you’re gay? You have a rainbow bookcase in your house.”
Wow, that’s incredibly non-functional and lame… What will someone think of next to waste time?
Maybe I’ll arrange my boogers by color and size, with interesting geometric shapes… Yeah I’m just that trendy!
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How would one differentiate books by category?
This seems unduly problematic. This postmodern blasphemy should be called out for what it is… Being ‘different’ for the sake of ‘being different’ is unoriginal and should be discouraged.
wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Style over substance. Nice look but there’s something wrong with organizing a bookshelf based on color rather than content. Why not just buy fake books colored the way you want them? Or use paint on a fake bookshelf?
I wouldnt have the patience to find a book
good luck trying to find the book you want to read
Whats with the bath towel on the couch?
That is awesomely beautiful!
It’s way cool…but I wonder how you would find anything
There was an artist in San Francisco who organized an entire used bookstore (Adobe Books) by color. Sad to say I missed the show but was told is was quite impressive.
I like it! I should do that with my books.
Wow, really nice color palette there.
That’s hot!!
It’s not only beautiful but I find it a good way of organizing books. Guess many of you disagree, but that’s how I find my books, by the colour on the spine, this way you can just wonder over to the pink section or whatever and there you go!
My bookcase is a terrible mess… this has inspired me to get my act together and tidy it up!
Though it would be tricky if you had a book series… they do look nice all lined up together…
Do you even know how to read or do you just buy them for all the pretty pictures??
Wow…lovely colors.
awesome. it might be hard for *other* people to find a book, but i don’t see why it would be hard for the owner — after all they’re the one who put it there. plus the name of the book is right there on the spine…
other filing systems have problems too — if you go by author you have to know who wrote the book you’re looking for, if it’s by topic then you have to know which topic it was filed under (is that italian architecture book in with the art books or in with the italy books?) etc.
It’s not so bad.. you can still have a system for finding the book you want. For example: use a computer. You can arrange books however you like so long as you keep track of which one is on which shelf. A simple database/record isn’t that hard to set up and use and is a small cost compared to the beauty of being able to enhance your home by the color. I’m surprised how many nay sayers are here. A system is great for keeping track of books even if you aren’t arranging them by color!
You people, listen, all he has to do is make a simple database assigning each book a shelf section. “Calculus II” - red book in top left corner –> A1 - A-top most row, 1-first column. Search Calculus II it tells you where. If ze is so meticulous organizing this, inputing this data is a simple task.
Oh, add color too - A1R - R for Red, B for Blue, G for Green…
we arrange our books like this. it has never been a problem to find a book. it also reduces visual clutter. highly recommended.
I had no idea colour-based sorting of books could be beautiful. Thank you.
How about an index card box with index cards sorted the ‘inside the box way’. you pull out the card and it has a color swatch on it that you can take to the shelf and run across the spines of the books to find a match. Or a close match and you’ve got 5 or 6 spines to actually read.
the organization and the location of books is not the issue here. it is an issue of aesthetics. and it just so happens that it looks amazing. how many times do you really go into that room to find a certain book. usually you are just reading the one on the table or couch. i have a hundred books i have only read once and now sit on a shelf.
its beautiful. good work.
Good training for the memory =)
Nice. Difficult to associate what is where though….
If you really know your books, you won’t have any trouble using this kind of arrangement
Actually, that would work pretty well for me. I’m too lazy to alphabetize, so my shelves are in chaos. I always remember the covers of books I have read, and always find them by vaguely remembering where I shelved them, and looking for the right spine. I own thousands of books (some of them stashed away in boxes because I don’t have room), but I can always find what I’m looking for in a matter of a few seconds to half a minute.
I think I’d be more consistent about colorizing, because if I put a book in the “wrong” place, I’d see it right away and it would bother me.
Beautiful, but impractical!
Libraries can be organized in all kinds of interesting and creative ways. As long as you can keep track, there are lots of options. Here’s a link to an article on different approaches:
http://www.publishingtrends.com/copy/01/0102/0102shelves.htm
I love the sound of the Osho Meditation Resort, “150,000 volumes ‘are sorted according to size and color,’ … ‘and placed on the shelves in an arrangement that suggests ocean waves. The effect is organic and natural, with no solid blocks of color or size to grab the eye and weigh it down.’
There are lots of programs to help you organize your books and if you need help, just hire a library technician!
Do you honestly think this is real? There are no books with black spines or multiple colored spines. My thoughts are either this is an edited photo, or they were purchased random books to fill in the colors they needed.
Is picture 1 and 2 of the same shelf, or is from a different point in time, all of the books are in different locations.
-ryan
This makes no sense…
Instead of thinking of a topic, now you have to remember the specific color of a book.
Easy when it’s PHOTOSHOPPED.
I have my home library organized exactly like this and find things without any trouble, but that is likely because I am a visual person and don’t have a huge number of books (about 200). I know that my Stephen Leacock Treasury is dark green, that my four Madeleine L’Engle books are pink, lilac, blue and greenish-blue, and “War in the age of sail” is gold. I find things far more quickly this way than any other way I had my books organized.
That said, it’s a total pain in the rear when I buy a new book and have to move the entire blasted shelf to fit it in where it belongs!
And for what it’s worth, I’m a professional librarian and would never try this at work (unless it was my own personal resource shelf).
i really dont understand why everyone here is being so negative, im sure whoever took the time to create this piece of art realizes that it will be tough to find a book.
i also have a feeling that seeing as how they put so much time into this, they probably have somewhat of an idea of the books they have and where to find them. i know me and you wouldnt be able to find something easily.
ps. if anyone read the blurb on top of the pictures, you would know that the person who took this picture is a pro photographer. (most likely this was just a set up shot)
It’s not like there are thousands of books here people. If this is just books accumulated for the pleasure of reading who needs it to be alphabetical?
Very great way to memorize the color of book that you read.
I think this kind of sorting is very helpful in daily life.
I did that with my shelves for a while and had the worst time locating individual books.
I use this system at home - it actually works! Without realizing most people know which colour and size a given book has. Trust me, it’s quite efficient. And you can always spot a miss placed book
My Dad hired a decorator a few years ago and one of the first things she did was remove the dust covers from all the books and arrange them by color.
It was the best part of his remodel, and it did not cost a dime.
I’ll try and find a reference to this, but I know that ages ago, there was a book store that did this. Apparently, got them written about too!
Okay … I’ll be the asshole here I guess:
I agree that it is absolutely beautiful. A stunning commentary (if you’re one for getting … ‘deep’ and all that) on the relation between knowledge and beauty.
BUT … what a retarded way to have one’s home bookshelves organized. Books are meant to be organized by subject and then, intrasubject, by author. These are, first and foremost, a tool of the mind. Efficency is demanded!
You could always try this out at your local IKEA before attempting it at home.
Must there be 100 assholes that note how impractical organizing books by color is? A child knows that. You aren’t witty. It’s art.
Hmmm, I think I’d like to do this in my apartment. A lot of my books are rarely referenced, so I don’t really need any real order on my shelfs. I’d prefer to look at them randomly, other than the obviously ordered colors.
Man,
I am doing this at home!
*She* (flickr user: chotda) takes amazing captures and I think it’s a wonderful use of colour.
Damn, it is so flipping awesome!
I love it. I am going to do this to my books at home. I rarely try to find a book among them anyway. In fact, I am putting them all up for sale on Amazon so they might as well make they place more attractive while they are here. I was already planning on keeping a spreadsheet with the shelf location of each book for easy mailing once it sells.
Yes. In a library, you’d never find what you needed.
At home though, where you’ve presumably purchased, read, and have some familiarity with your own library, this wouldn’t be that much of a boundary.
With a collection this big, anyway, you should have a shelf list. A shelf list will tell you where to put stuff, anyways.
Notice, though, that she’s got quite a preponderance of pastel, saturated color books.
I’m willing to bet that most book collections would make a pretty drab rainbow.
And again, there’s more than just the rainbow ordering that’s making this look so good - it’s the rainbow ordering in context of this room.
The rainbow books are well-complemented by the paint color, the pillows, the rug, the couch, and probably most importantly, the huge, wide dimensions of the shelf. In your standard skinny, tall bookcase, I’m betting this would look pretty weird and out of place.
This is Photoshopped.
Really . . . how many books are the green at the top and yellow at the bottom . . . and identical shades at that.
Photoshopped.
I think it’s great, and I think most of the people here who are leaving comments take themselves waaaaay too seriously. Lighten up everyone. How is this hurting you?
fun!
this is a truly creative endeavor…
good job.
I love it.
As for practicality: “It is truly useful since it is beautiful.”
i love this. i am trying to do this with my collection as well…
Holy Christ what is wrong with some of these commenters. Have they heard of Paxil? Have they heard of “If you have nothing nice to say…?” Here’s my something not-nice, addressed to the negative commenters: pleeeease get a life.
Seriously, where’s the fire? Must one’s need to find a book be a life-or-death race against time? Maximum efficiency in ordering your shelves doesn’t have to be priority one for anyone. “Books are meant to be organized by subject”?! And here I thought books were meant to be read. Life’s short, pal, but not that short. Many of us would prefer egregiously impractical beauty. It is far from “pointless” or “retarded.”
BEAUTY IS THE POINT. IF LIFE IS SHORT, IT IS FAR TOO SHORT TO SURRENDER BEAUTY TO EFFICIENCY. If the sad, hateful, glass-half-full bean-counters have a problem grasping this simple notion, I hope they keep it to themselves . . . or that they only subject paid professionals to their toxic inner monologues.
I used to do this with my CDs. Only took up a shelf or two though. I like the look.
Anyone who says it will be impossible to find a book either has no visual memory or no idea what a database is.
Anyone who says books don’t come in these colours have clearly not picked up a modern-day, pedagogically-advanced textbook.
I think this is a fantastic idea. I’ve been trying to figure out how to organise my thousands of books for a while now. Of course, I went down the same route as everyone else: organisation by subject. I tried using both the LCC and DDS, and both were horrible for my extensive collection of bioinformatics and medical imaging related books (i.e., tons of books from meds and the life scis combined with loads of CS and tech texts, with many that are both). I’d been so frustrated, I gave up, thinking that maybe I’ll come up with my own little classification system someday. Perhaps I’ll try this instead!
I think this is absolutely gorgeous! I could rock that, because my brain functions in such a manner that I remember the color of the book before I remember the author or the genre. Soooo….yeah. :3
Thank you for posting this! <3