it's a bit annoying when they're reversed but you can just put the book on the shelf upside down. varied orientation of the shelf is worse than having a chance to have to flip the book you've taken off them
At least it's self-consistent... I own a book series that started to come out in the nineties or so and changed publishing houses in the meantime - and of course some spines had to go bottom-up... Seems that we don't have one standard in Poland.
I was born in Germany, I live in Austria and I like it better when the title runs top-down. It's the more natural reading direction and when the book lies on a table, face up, you can read whats on the spine. The only thing is that a series of books oriented left to right in the shelf will now be read bottom-up.
Goes checking bookshelves.... I have German books in either orientation. I think the English way is becoming more common now and the other one is more traditional. However, ALL my French books are the "inverse" way, much more consistent than the German ones. I'm glad I have sorted my bookshelves by language. What a chaos!
My mind goes crazy when going to the library and browsing the stacks, especially lately for DVDs. Instead of browsing easily in one direction, my brain at some point turns off and then I just look for some sort of patterns. It's bad enough that some titles are in German, some in English, and others in English but that's the German title which is different from the original English title.
I go crazy when visiting my library in Berlin with this issue! It's hard to browse when some titles (especially DVDs) are one way, as well as the other. Additionally, when some titles are in English, some in German, and other titles which are in English, but for the German release which is totally different from the original English title!
it's a bit annoying when they're reversed but you can just put the book on the shelf upside down. varied orientation of the shelf is worse than having a chance to have to flip the book you've taken off them
ReplyDeleteEven with English-language books, it seems like it isn't totally consistent, even if over time the current norm has become by far more common.
ReplyDeleteAt least it's self-consistent... I own a book series that started to come out in the nineties or so and changed publishing houses in the meantime - and of course some spines had to go bottom-up... Seems that we don't have one standard in Poland.
ReplyDeleteI was born in Germany, I live in Austria and I like it better when the title runs top-down. It's the more natural reading direction and when the book lies on a table, face up, you can read whats on the spine. The only thing is that a series of books oriented left to right in the shelf will now be read bottom-up.
ReplyDeleteGoes checking bookshelves.... I have German books in either orientation. I think the English way is becoming more common now and the other one is more traditional. However, ALL my French books are the "inverse" way, much more consistent than the German ones.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I have sorted my bookshelves by language. What a chaos!
My mind goes crazy when going to the library and browsing the stacks, especially lately for DVDs. Instead of browsing easily in one direction, my brain at some point turns off and then I just look for some sort of patterns. It's bad enough that some titles are in German, some in English, and others in English but that's the German title which is different from the original English title.
ReplyDeleteI go crazy when visiting my library in Berlin with this issue! It's hard to browse when some titles (especially DVDs) are one way, as well as the other. Additionally, when some titles are in English, some in German, and other titles which are in English, but for the German release which is totally different from the original English title!
ReplyDelete