categories

i am having a quite silly, yet very real, dilemma over how to re-organize my cookbook shelf. i finally broke down and switched bookcases from the small (but still 4 shelf) metal one i had in the kitchen to a wide and tall white 5-shelf bookshelf that i moved from my "craft room"( aka: the room that hubs has taken over for his SECOND office. this room was supposed to eventually be a child's room. it is full as is the rest of our house...but don't get me started on that one...). on my little shelf i had one shelf devoted to magazines, the rest just stuffed full of whatever would fit. i have mentioned (here and here) my cookbook collection before, but i am overwhelmed right now!

since i was young i have always tried to categorize my things: when i had a huge CD collection i would organize them by label, then alphabetically by group and then album & year. currently our dvd collection is ordered alphabetically, but i would really prefer to do them by genre, then alphabetically within the genre (i.e., disney movies, musicals, comedy, comic book, etc...) books are a little harder b/c you get authors who may write in different genres. at this point i have separate shelves for fiction, religion (divided in to christian living, biblical history, and world relgions, and then alphabetical by author), & magazines (different shelves for different types: "current events" (aka: tabloids that i love--please don't judge me), general women's interest (woman's day, family circle, redbook, etc...) home & garden, and then the cooking-exclusive magazines in with the cookbooks.

then comes the cookbook shelf. my natural tendency is to want to group them by author or company (i.e., paula deen, pillsbury, taste of home, southern living, etc...) but then what about the genres?!?! i really want a shelf devoted to baking, but do i split up the taste of home or paula deen sections just because i have a few devoted only to baking? then what about the holiday issues?? i could probably have two shelves devoted purely to holiday food preparation! and then there's the holiday cooking and the holiday baking, and some devoted to just holiday cookies! oh goodness. i know i'm over-thinking this but it's an area where i am a bit obsessive compulsive. i have so many cookie cookbooks, and am developing a collection of cupcake cookbooks, and of course martha stewart has both--plus the baking handbook. what to do what to do?

bah. that was a long rant and ramble about something fairly pointless. how would you organize it?