Shelving

Someone recently asked me if I had a method to how I shelved my books. I was thinking about it as I stood in front of a shelf looking for my Borges.
I have one specific goal. I want all the books by a specific author together. That was a challenge for me before I had so much shelf space. An author can have a bunch of books in the same size and then one that is much bigger, or smaller. If the new book doesn't fit on the shelf sometimes the best you can do is put it near by. There are exceptions to all-books-by-the-same-author-in-the-same-place. I have a few sets in which a group of authors were asked to write in a given format. I have almost all of the Canongate myth series. I lost interest when they change the size of the books. I wasn't alone. Comments on the web site were scathing. When you invest in the idea of a set you get a little attached.
If you're a crazy person.
Like me.
I also really like the Modern Library and Library of America books. I love the line of matching spines.  And I have a few stacks around the nest of very small books. There are some scattered authors.
I forgot to mention that there is a row of poetry and literary journals. That shelf moved several times. Downward. It was too high. I needed it right beside me. There is a row of books about food. Memoirs and essays. I have a really chunky bunch of my beloved Mary Francis (MFK Fisher) many of which were given to me by Val. I only have half a shelf of those kind of books so right in the middle It shifts to random titles.
In the conversation about shelving I mentioned my idea about reading Proust right away if I'm ever diagnosed with a terminal illness. Penquin started publishing really interesting translations of the books years ago and I have the first four. Then (when he was a congressman)  Sonny Bono authored the Copywrite Term Extension Act. It froze the date at which things can become public domain. He did this to protect Micky Mouse. (eye-roll) It also stopped the publication of the Proust translations. The copyright on the last two books expired in 2019 but it isn't clear if Penguin will publish them. I'll be impressed with myself if I make it through the first four. It still aggravates me to look at them and know there are two missing. 
This obsession with books on shelves started when I was young. The mommie wouldn't buy books but she took me to the library. I can still visualize the row of Little House books. I read them all several times. I remember Little Women. It was a white cover on which there were little squares with drawings of the four March sisters. Under those were another row of images of all the interests of each of them. I checked it out a few times. When I didn't have it I usually checked to make sure it was still there and I worried when it wasn't. It was my book.
My aunt took me to the tiny library in Fredericktown, Mo when I visited my grandmother. My aunt was a teacher and was well versed in books for children. She had arranged for there to be a stack of her choices available. She was big on Lois Lensky, as was I. I looked around as we picked up our stack. There wasn't much there. Made me sad. She went back to St Louis for the week and when she returned we'd discuss the books. I often tried to begin the conversation before she was half out of the car.
As soon as I was old enough to earn my own money I bought books, much to the dismay of the mommie. I love libraries but I also love having my own.
This standing in front of a book case looking for a book thing happens all the time. I don't actually have that many. I do have enough to be confused about where things are. I was looking for the Borges because I found two books about him and wanted to put them beside the books by him. One is by Manquel, a very small volume. I think I have read it but I'm rereading it. I was looking in the library and suddenly remembered the Borges was in the living room. Now I'm thinking I'll move the Borges next to the Manquel.
Crazy person.