Re: [Meta] Wait, you sort your books how???

On Mon, 15 Jul 2024 09:32:33 -0400, Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com>
wrote:

>
More signs of madness in this crazy world:
>
I just ran across the results of a poll that asked 29,000 Americans
about their book-owning habits, and friends, I am shocked — shocked! —
to report that there are people who have absolutely no organizational
system whatsoever. Worse — worse, I tell you — there are some who sort
their books by color. Color!
>
Here’s a link to the main source (published in October):
https://today.yougov.com/society/articles/47712-how-many-books-americans-own-and-how-they-organize-them

I'm sure it makes for a pleasing display.

Particularly if, recognizing that they are trade paperbacks with the
type of binding guaranteed to crack if anyone dares /read/ the book,
they are left unread.

The survey is fine, but reality can be rather more complicated.

I could, for example, say that my basic sort is fiction/nonfiction
with topical subcategories as needed. Thus, my comic strip/graphic
novels are a topical subcategory of fiction, and language aids
(dictionaries, grammars, books purchased for the purpose of reading
them in their original language) are a topical subcategory of
nonfiction. And further subdivisions exist, with "by Author/Title"
often being one with, as in the case of (for example) CJ Cherryh, one
or more "series" subdivisions.

And then there is the JRRT collection, containing the novels and the
Silmarilion and so on and The History of Middle Earth and the The
History of the Hobbit and a lot of smaller works plus books of his
artwork and maps/guides. Fact? Fiction? Both? Neither? Who can say?

(This might seem obvious, but HOME is about how JRRT wrote his works,
and so "nonfiction" as such but contains what he wrote (at various
stages) which is generally regarded as "fiction". And so it goes.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"