Every so often, I like to sort our books by color. I find the process relaxing and it makes the bookcases less chaotic-looking. This time, I decided to make it even more enjoyable by estimating the distribution of colors. This is a sample of about 10% of our Amsterdam books. I was limited by the size of our dining table, so the long tail of orange (7%), purple (4%), pink (2%), other (2%) and unclassifiable (2%) isn't in the picture.
A good book store is a 3D, immersive search engine and book covers are like banner ads. Each jostles against its neighbors, using its strictly limited area to convince you that it links to something interesting.
Very innovative way of arranging books. Doing it alphabetically is so predictable, plus arranging it by colour scheme in many ways makes it art, in my mind. Wish I'd thought of it!
Posted by: Anjali | October 05, 2008 at 05:57 AM
It's a pleasant but subtle effect. More than one person has suddenly noticed it after an hour or more and said, "Hey! Did you do that on purpose?"
Posted by: Jeffre Jackson | October 08, 2008 at 09:43 AM
OK to use this image in my Superpatron blog? http://vielmetti.typepad.com/superpatron is the URL; it's an on-again, off again blog about libraries and bookstores and their patrons, and my postings about sorting books by color always get a positive response.
Posted by: Edward Vielmetti | September 22, 2010 at 10:37 PM
Absolutely.
And sorry about the delayed response.
Posted by: Jeffre Jackson | October 04, 2010 at 09:59 PM
The books arrangement was too good to see very nice blog thanks for the blog and i really loved the blog thanks for the blog...:)
Posted by: bible player | July 20, 2011 at 04:50 AM
Cool post, just subscribed.
Posted by: vibram five finger | August 14, 2011 at 12:35 AM