Great idea, Casa, but it may be hard to find the book you're looking for if you forgot the color of the cover.

first i need to buy a new bookcase and get the books out of the boxes. suggestions??

wow I so do not have enough books right now to rearrange them by color. But I love yours!!!!!!

Looks really good! I love to put some of them sideways, too, wedged in with the vertical.

I have struggled with the uglieness of my massive book collection for years. I'm not so sure about the practicality of color co-ordinating them, but the book shelves certainly look more attractive than mine.

Yikes, I would never be able to find anything...my books are separated into fiction and non-fiction, and alphabetized by author.

Whoa, that's cool, and yet weird all at the same time. Lol. I like it though. I don't know that I would do it.

kudos!
looks great!
i usually only keep the book (i recycle the paper covers) so they all match =)

Wow! That really does look all harmonious.

Oh that looks cute! First I need to establish a selection of books. lol

I really like this! It can make any room look so much better!

So, if your books are organized by color, how to do find them? Say you're in the mood for some poetry on a rainy afternoon -- you'd have to look through everything to see what you had.

It looks nice, but for me, not so functional.

ilove it... before moving out all i wanted was big bookshelf wherever i move to so that i can just put all my books on it.. it's funny - because i'm ridiculously organized with certain things such as cds(they're alphabetical) but i always thought a bookshelf with books in all different shapes and sizes bunched together looked fantastic. but i like the idea of still organizing it a bit with the color of the covers.
btw: for any book lovers out there -check out this great website you and your friends can join and share info on books you've read:
goodreads.com

I associate/id my books by color anyway, so I think this is a good idea! If you're a visual person it makes perfect sense to divide books this way. If not, then definatly don't try at home.

Well, hello, guess what I am going to do today? I love the neatness of that, I don't care if my friends pillory me for it!

i'm sorry, but i really hate this way of organizing. does classifying your books by merely their spine colour equate to judging a person by their outside appearances?! yes, i think so.

I say, if it works for you and you're happy, then kudos! For me, I organize by category (type), grouping authors together, and then by size for aesthetic purposes. I also put the ones I use the most in a central location so I don't have to search!

Casa, I do like the way this looks...very neat and pretty!

I have collections of books from a series or by the same author that are of similar style but different color spine. I much prefer them to be together for both reasons of practicality and appearance. Also, I separate my books into a few large categories, to determine which part of the house they're in, as we have such a large collection.

Yes, we could use some more organization to our books in general, but this is not the kind that would work for us.

Cool, but I don't know if I'd be able to find anything.

This is SO something I would do!!! I arrange my closet by color, why not my bookcase?!

I usually just arrange my books by size, but I reallly like the looks of it. I'm going to do this challenge!

Wow guys, I would've never thought that rearranging my books by color could spark such debate! Of course, I would never want my local public library to start organizing books by color—we'd never find anything! However, I think that color-coding books in a home is fine for organizational purposes, since you're working with such a small number. These books are only our novels and all of them are beloved, well-read books, so we can find anything we're looking for in a snap.

Looks great, but I could NEVER find my stuff if I did that. I absolutely HAVE to alphabetize by Author!

It looks great Casa but I prefer to keep my books organised by author

yes, i agree that this would be fine (nice?!) for a small collection or just a few books in a specific place - sorry, i couldn't help but get offended. even if these are just fiction, i'd be sad to not have say all my timothy findley books together, hanging out being sad because their author has passed away.

The problem is that in our house we easily have more than twice the number of books in that picture in our dining room alone. Then there are the shelves in the living room, and the craft books, and the computer books and other "work room books", and we haven't even started talking about the "library" yet...

Emalove, same thing with my closet-it's style and color coordinated.

I have been wanting to organize my books by color for a long time and this inspired me! How should I send in the pics? Post it to su casa?

This inspired me to do it, but I forgot to take a picture of the before. I have one bookshelf for my design, art, and cookbooks, and another for my novels. My novels, I'm arranging by color. I don't think I'll have trouble finding them, I've read them all so many times. As for judging it by outside appearances, it's hard not to do and that's why we have amazing designers to do book covers. A good cover helps me enjoy it more. Isn't that the point of a spine, to identify the book and its character?

It's a good idea, but I have them organized by genre and then each genre is alphabetized by the author's last name. I wouldn't be able to find anything.

great idea to steal!!!

i love this way

That is something I would totally do! Haha.

I really like the ways that looks, I do prefer to arrange by author or by publisher, I have never tried colour. I might give it a go.

My boyfriend thinks that using books to decorate is some form of sacrilege.

Even if I leave a pile flat instead of standing them up he thinks it's annoying and that I'm trying to hard.

To each his/her own I guess, but I prefer other organizational methods. I have a hard enough time finding my books arraged by genre/author

gorgeous! thanks for the idea!

Wow - what a great effect. Enjoy your wall of bookcase art and ignore the haters!

My biggest problem with this idea is that it's pretty, but I'd have to break up series. Almost every series of books I own, the colors are different colors.

soooooo many of my books are pink. this could be fun.

i would definitely do this but...being in grad school right now, i use practically all of my books as references...they might be a little hard to find if they're organized by color and not subject....hmmm, it's so pretty though! maybe i'll find a way to do it using just my fun books, and leave my school books how they are....

Haha I'm an organisation freak, I usually sort out my books by theme (cooking/literature), and inside the themes by genre/era (Scottish/Irish lit, travel journals, etc).

The best I could do to get out of that organisation would be to organise it by publisher (I did that for a while with my CDs: Island, etc.)

As I said, I'm a bit of a geek.

That does look really nice, but what do you do when most of your books are magazines? I don't have nearly enough books to make this work, but yours looks beautiful!!!

I've been organizing my books by this method for years and for me, it's the best way to find books really fast. My visual memory is very good so the first thing I always remember about a book is the cover and the spine... It's the same method I used to organize my vinyl records when I was a teenager
I'd love to share some photos of my bookshelves but I don't know how...