I'm always surprised by the response when I post pictures of bookshelves. I never would have thought, the first time I did it, that so many people would be as fascinated by other peoples' bookshelves as I am. I've always loved running my gaze over a lovingly organised bookcase -- or even a beautifully messy bookcase -- and studying how the books have been stacked (vertical or horizontal?) and ordered (name of author? title of book? by format, i.e. hardback or paperback? by size?) and what personal touches have been applied. But I thought I was a rare bookshelf freak -- who could have guessed that there were so many of us?!? :-)

Anyway, here are four more for those of you of a similar bent to me. I love that they look so different, the only real unifying factor being that they feature lots of my books -- and, hey, let's face it, a bookshelf isn't a REAL bookshelf unless it's hosting at least a handful of Darren Shan books, right?!? :-)

I've organised them alphabetically, but even here, in this minuscule sample, we run into some of the many issues which make the organisation of any book collection such a personal matter. In order of presentation, the four Shansters are Hayden (dinosaurs), Lance (Deadpool), 7th grade techer Mr Ferrer (school bookshelves), and Morgan (piggy bank).

Now, my first instinct was to go with Hayden, Lance, Morgan and Mr Ferrer, because the first three are personal collections, whereas the fourth is a library collection, which of necessity gives it a different feel to the others.

But having decided to go alphabetically, should I have put Mr Ferrer first, since his surname begins with an F? But that's not his first name, so I decided to treat Mr as his first name. But then, should I do what many computers (and humans!) would do, and put Mr Ferrer AFTER Morgan, because Mr follows Mo. Or should I use my understanding that Mr is short for Mister and put Mister Ferrer before Morgan, since Mi comes BEFORE Mo?!?

I know that this will seem like pointless madness to those of you who aren't collectors, and even to those of you who ARE collectors but who have never paused to consider that other collectors might organise their collections differently. But trust me, to those of us with the collecting bug, who are aware that there are a myriad of ways to go when it comes to setting our collections up JUST SO... this is the stuff of nightmares, and it keeps us awake at night!!!! :-) :-) :-)

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pssst!! One collection that's easy to organise is the Shanville Monthly newsletter collection. No drama there -- month follows month, year follows year... if only everything in this world was so simple! :-) For the latest issue, click here: https://darrenshan.com/news/shanville-monthly