What do I do? I'm anally retentive about my bookshelves. It pays, because we had some visitors last weekend, and they all said how conducive our shelves were to just pulling a book off. And they did!

I keep my books dynamic - a one in one out system. I tend to keep my favourites or the ones that look nicest. If I lend one out, I can usually find one from a stash elsewhere to fill the hole.

I separate everything into specific areas, and then separate them with an ornament. So between travel literature and Spanish language, there's a little stuffed llama. We have a little document box for bits and pieces separating some other books, and a jar full of foreign coins in another spot, just to break it up.

I also keep things of similar size together where I can. Really little books, like pocket dictionaries or those little quote books, go into a gift box type arrangement, sometimes with an ornament on top.

Some will call it blasphemy, but I'm not affraid of having some books stacked horizontally. I have one small bookshelf, that is quite open, and until recently, all the books on it were horizontal. Now the lower shelf is vertical and the others horizontal, but it looks good.

I have a row of cookbooks in the kitchen, held in place between our knife block and the wall.

In our bathroom, on the window sill is a selection of old-looking books. I just decided to put them there one day and I quite like it.

So no rules, just being creative and keeping it orderly!