One of my first freelance writing clients was a company called Onefinestay, which is like Airbnb for fancy rich people. I loved seeing all the photos of these incredible homes I was writing about — but one thing always struck me as odd.
Their bookshelves.
They were so…. stylish.
Organized by color and height, like the one above — rather than…. you know.
By book.
I’ve seen this trend pop up a few times in the last few months, which has gotten me wondering — is organizing your books by color normal?
Part of me really loves the aesthetic. After all, that’s how I organize my thread:
And in the header image, the shelf is small enough that you’d still be able to find the book you wanted to read.
But on a larger scale? Like this huge bookshelf?
How do you find anything!
What do you think? Do you organize your books by color, author, genre, mood, or?
Let me know!
Writing update
In case you’re keeping score at home, I did finish the revision on the first full-length Durga System novel — which is why I have time to muse about the Proper Way of Sorting Books. It’s been sent off to the editor.
Next up? Drafting the sequel novella to Starfall, featuring Starla and her cousin Mona getting into space adventures. I just ordered the cover by the same designer who did Negative Return, and I’m so excited to share it with you when it’s ready!
For your To-Be-Read list
I just finished the most delightful YA book by Lila Bowen (Delilah S. Dawson’s pen name): Wake of Vultures. It’s a fantasy western about a young girl who dresses as a boy, landing a job as a cowhand and fighting monsters in the old West.
So, basically my every childhood fantasy as a tomboyish farmgirl with a vivid imagination.
It was fast-paced and exciting, with gorgeous descriptions and fascinating characters. I’ve loved Delilah S. Dawson’s writing ever since I read her Star Wars novel, Phasma, and I was not disappointed here. 🙂
Since it’s Pride month, I figured I’d highlight Wake of Vultures and a couple other of my favorite sci fi/fantasy books with queer characters. The other two books below — Kameron Hurley’s The Stars are Legion and N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season — are both stunningly imaginative stories with incredibly deep worlds that are fascinating to explore.
If you haven’t picked up either of them, I highly recommend them.
(Want more book recommendations? Definitely check out this comprehensive list of LGBTQIAP Protagonists in Fantasy and Science Fiction from The Illustrated Page.)
Wake of Vultures
by Lila Bowen
Nettie Lonesome lives in a land of hard people and hard ground dusted with sand. She’s a half-breed who dresses like a boy, raised by folks who don’t call her a slave but use her like one. She knows of nothing else. That is, until the day a stranger attacks her. When nothing, not even a sickle to the eye can stop him, Nettie stabs him through the heart with a chunk of wood and he turns to black sand.
And just like that, Nettie can see.
But her newfound sight is a blessing and a curse. Even if she doesn’t understand what’s under her own skin, she can sense what everyone else is hiding—at least physically. The world is full of evil, and now she knows the source of all the sand in the desert. Haunted by the spirits, Nettie has no choice but to set out on a quest that might lead her to find her true kin . . . if the monsters along the way don’t kill her first.
Find it on Amazon, Kobo, IndieBound
The Stars are Legion
by Kameron Hurley
Somewhere on the outer rim of the universe, a mass of decaying world-ships known as the Legion is traveling in the seams between the stars. For generations, a war for control of the Legion has been waged, with no clear resolution. As worlds continue to die, a desperate plan is put into motion.
Zan wakes with no memory, prisoner of a people who say they are her family. She is told she is their salvation – the only person capable of boarding the Mokshi, a world-ship with the power to leave the Legion. But Zan’s new family is not the only one desperate to gain control of the prized ship. Zan finds that she must choose sides in a genocidal campaign that will take her from the edges of the Legion’s gravity well to the very belly of the world.
Zan will soon learn that she carries the seeds of the Legion’s destruction – and its possible salvation. But can she and her ragtag band of followers survive the horrors of the Legion and its people long enough to deliver it?
Find it on Amazon, Kobo, IndieBound
The Fifth Season
by N.K. Jemisin
WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL 2016
This is the way the world ends…for the last time.
A season of endings has begun.
It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world’s sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun.
It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter.
It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester.
This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
Get it on Amazon, Kobo, IndieBound
