So, below is the current status of my fiction books–the sad thing is, the majority of these have never been read. But! The good thing is, since I’m doing 52 Books in 52 Weeks this year, many of these titles are moving over to the “have read and want to keep” side (top shelf on the left) or out completely (taken off my shelf and posted for swap on PBS). I’m essentially on a book diet this year, and this is why–I can basically go shopping from my own book stash. It’s nice to have so many new titles on hand, but I’ve definitely put the brakes on my former excessive buying habits. I organize mine with mass market paperbacks first, then trade paperbacks, then hardcovers. They’re alphabetized, of course, because I am obsessive like that.
And this is where I keep my knitting/crochet books, as well as fiction that I love!love!love! such as the Outlander series, the Twilight series, and my Edgar Allan Poe stuff. (Click through to see the image on Flickr, with all my wacky notes.)
I find it really interesting that you separate your books based on what type they are! even if you had books by the same author, you put them by mm, trade, and hc? interesting! when I worked at the bookstore (why do so many of my stories start this way?), I was CRAZY with my shelves. I guess I was just so brainwashed… everything was in subject, alpha by author, then title (but series in numerical, not alpha). right now my shelves are a mess
when in my right mind, I still like to organize by subject – though I am not as worried about alphabetizing anymore. I, too, have my *favorite* section (Tolkien, Montgomery) – then children’s (I still have some of mine, and is really one of my favorite genres!), mystery, non-fiction, crafting, religion, gen. fiction, etc. 
I love it when people organize by color, but I would NEVER be able to handle that! all the titles, subjects, and authors mixed up would drive me bananas!
Yep, I like sorting them by size because then they’re mainly all the same height. Again with my obsessiveness, haha! Except for trade size, occasionally some are a little larger than standard…and sometimes there are some odd size hcs. But overall I don’t have trouble finding things since I usually remember the edition that I own.
I’m the same way–they look amazing sorted by color, but I’d never find anything either!
v. jealous of both book collection and your storage of said books. I am having to purge the books this weekend as BF has said either the books go (I have read pretty much all of them anyway) or the yarn/fibre stash goes as the house is too small. I also have quite a few book from earlier years at university before I specialism that I can sell.