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Serendipity by Donalyn Miller
We moved eleven months ago and I’m still unpacking books. With the speed and efficiency of pit stop mechanics, Don and I can assemble an IKEA bookcase in less than an hour, but it takes me days to fill one. As I open each box, I consider every book and its placement in our new house. We culled a lot of books during the move. Books we’d kept for decades became suddenly less dear when we thought about dragging another box of books across town. Damaged books, that library book Don paid for three years ago because it was lost, books our kids didn’t want to keep—we threw away or donated hundreds of books.
As we unpack, more books leave for less crowded homes. Duplicates. (Why do we own three copies of The Polar Express?) Outdated books. College textbooks. Hardest of all—books I have to confess I will never read. Getting rid of a book you bought and brought home—but never read—is like a sad breakup. There’s regret and guilt involved.
“It’s not you. It’s me,” I say, pitching Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto into the donation box.
The bookshelf depth and height present the only true limitation on where books go, but I feel bound by rules that dictate how our books should be shelved. Few people use Dewey or Library of Congress classification systems for their home libraries, but we all have dichotomous keys we fall back on when sorting our books. Don and I have a system we’ve finessed over a few decades together. Our sorting criteria give us some illusion of control over our books and their inevitable invasion of our new home.
The first division is Mine, Yours, and Ours with each reader in the house responsible for organizing their own books. Next, books are sorted by intended readers’ age—children’s, young adult, and adult. Then, subdivided into genre piles—fiction or nonfiction. Next, books are grouped by formats like graphic novels, poetry and novels in verse, and picture books. Last, all subsets are alphabetized by author.
It’s been a good-enough system for many years. It provides some order in the chaos. It keeps my mother from rolling her eyes when she comes over and has to scoot books onto the floor to uncover a chair.
When looking for a specific book, I can usually find it right away. If I want a new book to read, I head toward the cascading to-be read bookcase in our bedroom. Don and I possess permanent rows of books that we will never part with, but rarely revisit or re-read. Mostly books we gave to each other over the years.
Unpacking our books brought back a feeling I had forgotten—the serendipity of discovering (or rediscovering) books. Every box revealed more treasures, long buried on dusty bookshelves at our old house. The Talk-Funny Girl by Roland Merullo that Penny recommended last year. I bought it, then packed it. How long has it been since I read Watership Down? Maybe, I will reread it soon. Bored with our decades-in-the-making classification system, I changed it for a capricious one that wanders between reason and whim. Some bookcases are alphabetized by author—no reading age distinctions. Graphic novels and adult fiction are sorted by color. It was an experiment, but it looks cool. Sorting our books differently drove me to reconsider and read many books I hadn’t looked at for years. In some ways, our library was too organized at our old house—sorted so carefully that we rendered chance encounters unlikely. Our system helped us find particular books, but it rarely helped us discover one.
During a class discussion of book selection tips one year, a student in my class made everyone laugh when she said, “I don’t always pick my books. Sometimes, the books pick me.” We have all felt that pull toward a mysterious book that calls to us, but I wonder how often these random meetings between readers and books happen anymore. How often do children have meaningful time to browse bookshelves? How often do children have true choice to select any book they want from an open collection?
No matter our stance on limiting kids’ book selection to books “on their level” and teaching kids strategies for picking books, we must admit we never see adult readers picking books by Lexile number or using the five-finger rule to pick a “just-right” book at Barnes & Noble. School-created reader-defining systems like leveling and assigning point values to books are scaffolds at best, temporary supports. Scaffolds are meant to come down. If a book selection system or strategy is not employed by readers beyond school, we must reduce students’ reliance on it as they grow older or reconsider implementing the system at all. I imagine more than a few of our students stop reading because we never consistently model authentic ways to evaluate and select books without these support systems or provide opportunities for students to select books without the restrictions or guidelines we set for them. If children never learn how to pick a book without a reading level or color-code on the spine, it’s unlikely they will read much outside of school.
Browsing books with abandon develops vital skills readers need to find joy and competence. Selecting books based on our own preferences and desires builds confidence in our own judgment and decision-making, both as readers and as people. Even when our book picks aren’t satisfying, we learn more about ourselves as readers. Readers who depend on someone else’s criteria for choosing books rarely develop intrinsic reasons to read. We are not simply teaching the readers our children are right now, we are teaching the readers they will become.
Empowered readers remain readers.
My idiosyncratic book sorting system doesn’t have to be transferable or marketable or make sense to anyone but me. How do you organize your books? What ideas do you have for providing children more freedom to browse and develop their own selection criteria?
Donalyn Miller has taught fourth, fifth, and sixth grade English and Social Studies in Northeast Texas. She is the author of two books about encouraging students to read, The Book Whisperer (Jossey-Bass, 2009) and Reading in the Wild (Jossey-Bass, 2013). Donalyn co-hosts the monthly Twitter chat, #titletalk (with Nerdy Book Club co-founder, Colby Sharp) and the Best Practices Roots (#bproots) chat with Teri Lesesne. Donalyn launched the annual Twitter summer and holiday reading initiative, #bookaday. You can find her on Twitter at @donalynbooks or under a pile of books somewhere, happily reading.
Nerdy Book Club 
This is why we have shelves in our classroom library that are organized alphabetically by author’s last name. We talk about finding books this way because it will help us in libraries and bookstores.
Having students be a part of the library organization is pivotal. The conversations about genre and arguements over where a book belongs and why are powerful. Students read the back and inside covers of books, consult with friends who have read the title and then ultimately have a say in where it goes.
As for myself, my nightstand, dresser, and upstairs steps house all of my personal reads. My daughter reorganizes her own tall and overflowing bookshelf in her bedroom when the mood strikes. She even organized them in bins by series once.
I think the most important thing is that when we look at the shelves that they bring us joy and leave us reaching for the next adventure.
I couldn’t agree more!
Loved this post! How you arrange your books it s a very personal thing, As a gift while I was out of town, my daughter and son in law alphabetized my entire collection by author. I cried for hours.
We are our own librarians in our homes aren’t we? Great post. I love to hear that I’m not the only one lugging boxes of books from house to house! 🙂
My books are divided into hardcover and paperback. All books are shelved in alphabetical order by author. I love the color shelving that you do. When I taught first grade I would have a number of books available in my library but I never rated them. The children could browse and pick and choose whatever book they wanted.
“Why do we own three copies of The Polar Express?” you ask. How many children do you have? If three, then you have a copy to send with each of them when they move out and have children of their own to read to one day. Only two children? Fine, one for each of them to take away, and one for you to keep when the grandkids come over during the holidays and need to hear a story from Grammy.
Like you, our home was overflowing with children’s books when our boys were little. We collected signed copies for each of them from Bill Martin Jr, Eric Carle, and Steven Kellogg, then Lois Lowry, Gary Paulsen, and Suzanne Collins as they matured. I’m pleased to know you are sharing your bounty of books with others, but don’t forget that those closest to your heart will need a strong reading foundation to build their families on.
I wish you the best in figuring out what goes where. With much respect and appreciation for all you do.
No worries! My granddaughters and daughters (and random kids who visit our home) walk out of here with books every time they come over!
Love this, Donalyn. We had construction at school last summer, so I packed up all the books. In unpacking, randomness reigned. I don’t know that those shelves will get organized before retirement!
At home, books are scattered everywhere, and that’s how I find them. I need more shelves! My to-do list for the summer includes organizing the books at home.
BTW, I love “Bel Canto.”
The children’s books in our house are organised by height. small Girl’s picture books are at the bottom. First chapter books above that. Then some reference books and YA up top. I didn’t even realise I had done this until you asked.
J.K. Rowling, Jacqueline Wilson and David Walliams each have a shelf of their own as does my 4 foot long stretch of Ladybird books.
Crikey, I could talk about this all night. Great topic!!
Wow! Finally someone like me. I can certainly identity with the sorting of books and having 2 and sometimes 3 copies of the same books.
I just had my son pull a plastic crate and a huge box of boxes from my attic last weekl.
I love books – thanks for sharing
Congrats on your move.
You MUST read Bel Canto!!! I have a love/hate relationship with it, but always recommend it to everyone!
My eight-year-old’s shelves are groaning with picture books, early fiction and middle fiction titles which are arranged in those categories (or thereabouts). She loves pulling out old and forgotten picture book favourites from her preschool years and reading them with confidence (and by rote!) as a big girl. Anything too hard she’ll pass to me and it becomes a shared read. It might be crowded in that room but it’s worth it – for a couple more years anyway. My only provisos are to keep the books low so she can reach and browse, not to pack them in too tightly and to ciruculate them from time to time as I find that the eye-height titles get choses most frequently. Supermarkets have several marketing terms for this I’m sure!
When we moved I also reorganized. My old bookcases were donated because they were supposedly an eyesore and our large walk in closets have bookshelves. But alas the closets do not have enough shelves for books. So when our youngest moved out, I designed my home library for the large, now empty room.
The Grandma books are by the rocking chair, not in any particular order. My autographed books fill the set of shelves by the desk. Those are arranged by series, author and size and color. Whatever suits me.
My research books are on shelves in the closet, underneath the shelves of binders that are organized by family name. Many of these books are old and were given to me by my grandmother, so they need the protection of the dark.
The shelves in the closet are still piled with books that have little order, other than they are mine. Book owners took their books with them when they left to go out into the world on their own. The guest bed recently left when one of the children needed it, so now I can acquire additional shelves in my library.
An aspect that resonated with me: “Scaffolds are meant to come down. If a book selection system or strategy is not employed by readers beyond school, we must reduce students’ reliance on it as they grow older or reconsider implementing the system at all.” This is an ongoing challenge as a school librarian trying to support classroom instruction (which often involves versions of the 5 finger rule and points) while simultaneously promoting student choice and interest as an enduring strategy. I think this is a major challenge in our educational system today. Plus of course I laughed at sorting books by color… and yet more often than not, that visual memory is attached to our recollection of the book/story itself. Thank you for this post.
Solidarity! As a youth services librarian at a public library, I’m right there with you. Try talking the “just left conferences and the teacher said she’s a level purple dinosaur reader, where are the level purple dinosaur books” caregiver into letting their child take home a graphic novel or fairy book they can’t keep her hands off of too. I purposely added some elements to my summer reading program and displays within the library this year to try to build and support serendipitous skills and reading experience. I’m trying to find way to apply Book Whisperer theory and techniques to the public library– total guess and check methodology!
Thank you for this wonderful article on the habits of a reader. I organize our book shelves at home by series and authors. Then as I thought about my classroom method, I shelve the books by series, reading levels, and sometimes authors. I try to encourage my students to becoming lifelong readers by sharing my reading habits. Your article spoke to me in a way that gives me hope I can make a difference in a child’s life.
My book sorting system is a bit like in a library I think:
books are separated by language.
Mangas, Fantasy, Young Adult…
authors
first part, second part…
and to-be-read books are put with their back in the shelf, and not standing.
I haven’t completely ordered my books like that, because new books arrived. And arrived. And arrived.
But now, also new books arrived, and I will tame the little mess that has grown over the last year.
Bonnie Bryants books deserve a nice, little place.
It’s so fun to read about others’ shelving lives!
I’m constantly building, buying, and acquiring bookshelves for our home. Each of our 3 children has a tall bookcase in her room, home to those special books she claims as her own, whether they started as hers or not. Sometimes I go in and do minor reorganizations…grouping a series back together or stacking all the Greek Mythology on one shelf – but mostly it’s the girls’ own domain. My littlest has taken to turning current faves face-out.
My bedroom shelves are often several layers deep – and only I know to look for Cynthia Voigt behind Orson Scott Card because only I know when I fell in love with those books.
And on the main floor, it’s generally age-leveled so kids and friends if kids can always reach something they’ll love.
This is my first year with a significant classroom library, and I’ve tried different things to encourage my middle schoolers to browse. There’s a fiction section and a nonfiction section. Fiction books are shelved alphabetically by author, but they’re also in some thematic or genre bins. I try to change the books on display frequently–right now I have one shelf that’s topped with five books with swords on their cover, an end table showing three books I’ve recently read from our class library, and random books standing face out where there’s room on the shelves. I was lucky enough to get a free standing bookcase that displays five rows of books face-out on each side, and I find that’s where kids will go to first to look for books. I still don’t have many kids that are confident enough to navigate the shelves independently and successfully, so this is definitely a topic I need to think about as I prepare for next year!
Love your articles! I had to smile to myself because I had Bel Canto on my bookshelf for years. I just finished in last week, and I’m glad I did! You may want to pick it up and give it a second look.
I LOVE the color scheme- I saw that on Instagram once and rearranged my books accordingly. I also love the idea of leaving open the opportunity for books to find us. Thank you for sharing! By the way, I too guiltily got rid of Bel Canto without reading it!
Read Bel Canto and liked it, but you have my full permission to toss whatever you want. I actually stashed a box recently in the closet of books I want to read, but haven’t read yet (shelves were overflowing). I have sort of a system, but am always delighted to find a book that’s been misplaced. I always have a stack by the bed and near my desk of current reads or things I want to get to. The color coded bookshelves looks fun, but I fear I would never find the book I wanted or needed. I have picture books, poetry books, and seasonal teaching books by holidays and events in the year (even though I’m no longer teaching). Upstairs are my professional books and far too many books I plan to read “someday.” I love meandering my shelves! Thanks for this peek into your new bookshelves and system.
There really is something magical about browsing the stacks and having a book choose you. I feel that my school library (I’m the librarian) is becoming more rigid as spines are getting more stickers for leveling and teachers are delegating what a student can and can’t check out. I am fighting for students’ freedom to choose but up against administration and teachers to do what is “best” for our students. Ug.
I unsuccessfully tried reading Bel Canto twice.
The American Library Association has issued a position statement speaking against the leveling of school libraries because it violates student privacy. I strongly urge your school staff to review this document and consider implications. http://bit.ly/1vkjUYR