The colour coded library

I got friends who organize their book shelf by colour. I’m quite aware that some of you will say ”ex-friends, surely” but no. Intelligent people, equipped with the normal intellectual and aesthetic abilities – and then some – do this, and to the extent that I question their behavior it is because I’m genuinely interested. One of my favorite used-book stores in Lund did colour coded displays every now and then, and it was beautiful. It made for interesting juxtapositions. Which is what you need, in these days when all the books you are likely to come across are those that you where actively looking for, or books some program has determined is suitably similar to what you usually buy.

Sometimes, colour coding happens not as a result of conscious decision, however, but as a consequence of something else. When you are juggling different research interests, for instance (as I do, even if I TRY REALLY HARD to make them overlap), you are likely to organize your library according to topic.

So when I was heavily into happiness research, the books tended to look like this

Now, I’m doing hate crime research, and the books tend to look like this

Yes, I know. You shouldn’t, really, but I bet you would pass a blindfold test.