Overheard a kid at the shop explain his pull box system, now I sort mine by arc

He said he files back issues by story arc instead of title or number, which seems crazy until you try hunting a crossover without flipping through 12 different bins, so has anyone else found a weird organizing method that actually works better than alphabetical?

2 comments

2 Comments

bettyhunt1mo ago

see the real trick is sorting by when you got them not any system, so i know exactly which shelf is my early twenties nostalgia and which is my "i had money" phase. that way when a crossover spans eras i just grab the whole row and flip through, it's like a time capsule of my own bad decisions. plus it kills the urge to alphabetize because the spines are all mismatched and that chaos actually makes me remember the story better.

claireg8128d agoTop Commenter

bad decisions" is honestly the most accurate way to describe my entire bookshelf, thank you for that. i tried the chronological thing once but gave up because i kept picking up books and being like "wait, did i really buy this in 2016?" and then id spiral into a full on life audit. the mismatch thing is real though, my shelves look like a yard sale threw up on them and somehow that makes me read MORE because nothing feels precious. i have a whole row that's just "i was sad and bought six fantasy novels with red covers" and honestly i can tell you exactly what was going on in my life for each one. alphabetical order would just be lying to myself about how messy my brain actually is. chaos for the win.