Books, Books, & More Books!!

Category: Blog, Books
Author: heartbodyandsoul

When we opened Heart, Body, & Soul, we bought books.  Lots of books, on lots of topics, all of which had to be organized into sections with handy little category labels just like every bookstore we’d ever visited.  Easy-shmeezy, right? Not so much. We quickly realized there are lots of tough questions to be answered when figuring which books to put in what sections — and turns out those questions aren’t a once-and-done kind of thing.  We’re STILL fighting that fight, 3 1/2 years in, with every new book order, every reset of the shop.  It’s a constant game of ‘which of these things is not like the other?’

• Should each Energy Healing Modality be its own category — Reiki, accupressure, craniosacral, reflexology, tapping, sound healing, and more — or is it more efficient to just lump them all in together under Energy Healing?   What about books on Medical Intuitives — do those fall under Energy Healing or Psychic Abilities?   (And should books on Kundalini Yoga go in the Yoga section or the Energy Healing section??  Inquiring minds would really like a definitive answer on that one.)
• Should books on Native American spiritual traditions be combined with books on Indigenous Spiritual traditions of Africa, Australia and South America?  Seems like a good fit.  But then what about books on Core Shamanic Techniques that aren’t tied to any particular culture? Lots of overlap with the first group, but not quite the same.  Yet, you can’t have a separate section on General Shamanism and leave out all those cultural traditions long associated with shamanic spiritual practices, can you?  Of course not.  So …. hmmm.  
• Where exactly are the lines distinguishing Taoism from Buddhism from Confucianism (especially when the title doesn’t have any of those words in it and we’re kind of guessing from the back cover summary.) Is it tacky to have a section just entitled Eastern Mysteries to cover them all?  But then do the Hindu texts go there too or do they get a section on their own?  
• And what about those eclectic authors who pull from several traditions?  Where in the name of the gods, do they go??   Or authors who write about lots of different topics?  Do you put all of a single author’s books together in one place or do you scatter them about according to category??  (Really, can’t these people just stay focused???)
• Should Tarot texts be mixed in with texts on Runes and Scrying, Palm Reading, Numerology and Geomancy in one massive All-Things-Divination section?  Or should they be over by the Tarot decks in a category unto themselves?  We keep changing our minds on that one.  Perhaps some divination on that question would be in order. 
• Do books on ghosts go with the books on Psychic Self-Protection or with the Fantastic Creatures selection?  And where does Joseph Campbell fit in??
• We have sections dedicated to Celtic, Egyptian, Norse, and Diasporic spiritual traditions — but what do we do when we get that lone book on Russian Magickal Practices?  Seems tacky to lump it in with general Magick when all the other cultures get their own … but one book a section doth not make.  
• Separate shelves each for Christianity, Judaism, and Islam?  Or one combined section on Abrahamic Religions?
• Should Goddess books go in a separate Divine Feminine section or be mixed into a more general ‘Books on Deities’ category?  
• What about putting the section on Relationships next to the Women’s Spirituality shelf?  Are we advancing the stereotype that women care more about relationships than men?!?  Pressure, pressure … 
• What should we do with those daily devotionals that aren’t tied to any particular year?  Should they go with calendars and date books or should they go in general spirituality — or should they have a shelf all their own?   OR should they be shelved according to their focus??  The one with daily prosperity affirmations with the Prosperity / Manifestation / Creative Visualization books and the one geared toward women with the Women’s Spirituality books and the Earth-focused one either with the Gardening / Herbs books or the Green Magick ones?  
• And what about Magickal Uses of Essential Oils — with the Essential Oil books or with the books on Magick?
• Should Angels and Spirit Guides share a shelf or each have their own? And what about Animal Spirit Guides?  Should they go with Spirit Guides or with the section on Animals generally?? (Why can’t anything be clearcut???)
• Do books on Starseeds go with books on Atlantis / Lemuria? And if so, should they be a category of their own or overlap with Science and Metaphysics?  Not quite the same, but some of those books are a slow slide down the same spectrum.  Where exactly does one draw the line? 
• Books on Grief and Death/Dying … part of Books on the Afterlife / Reincarnation (because the latter concepts do seem to help a lot with the former after all) or a category unto themselves? 
• Ceremonial Magick definitely needs a separate shelf from Folk Magick.  But what about historical books on The Golden Dawn and other ceremonial magick orders like The Templars and the Rosicrucians?  Do they also go in the Ceremonial Magick or should they have their own shelf?  Maybe a shelf just below the Ceremonial Magick shelf…?
• The questions continue within each section: Alphabetical by title?  Alphabetical by author?  Grouped into subsections according to subtopic?  
• And what about those books that are too big to fit in the shelf assigned to their category??  AUGHHH!!!!  (Yes, we have been known to just buy a book ourselves and take it home because it was less stressful than trying to make it fit. Sorry you missed it. ) 

For a hot minute, we looked into just organizing everything according to the category it was assigned in Amazon, but quickly realized Amazon lumps most of the books we have in the store into a single ‘New Age / Spirituality’ label.  Not so helpful.  We also learned we’re not alone in our categorical angst.  There are entire books on how to organize your bookshelves!  (I wonder if they have their own category?)  Perhaps we should have just listened to Cat’s librarian sister at the start and done it the Library of Congress way; but that would have required us to learn the Library of Congress way and … yeah, that wasn’t happening.  So, we prefer to think of it as a continuous quest we are offering to our customers.   You never know j-u-s-t where that treasure you’re seeking will be found.  So hey — happy hunting!  And you’re welcome.  

Cat & Deb