The Organization

Regarding my Archies '09 post, Donna B. of Arkansas writes:

Have you always done it alphabetically and this is the first time I've noticed?

Also, how do you do it alphabetically -- by hand, or using computer-assisted sorting?

We need an "Archies Behind The Scenes" featurette for this post!

Why yes, Donna, I have always arranged my Archies selections in alphabetical order. How else would one give shape and symmetry to such a list? One alternative might be to place them in chronological order, the benefit of which is to show an evolution through the year, but I've not kept track of these things well enough to do that method justice. Also, that just occurred to me as another way of doing it. For my purposes, alphabetical is where it's at.

As for the how, I follow in the tradition of the finest artisans and sort the list by hand. More specifically, I sort by hand with the computer screen as my blank page to work on. As the items come to mind, I enter them into a word processing or blogging document and then proceed to put them in order by cutting and pasting each into the appropriate position. This could probably be done faster with a spreadsheet document like Excel, but that's not what I've done in these instances.

Alphabetical sorting, or sorting of any kind, is something that comes second nature to me. I had at least one temp job that required putting stacks of files back in many rows of drawers, so the easiest way to attack such work was to alphabetize the files first. (I also worked part-time in a library for a few months in high school.) Keep in mind, many years after junior high choir I have retained the useless talent of being able to name the states in alphabetical order from learning the song "Fifty Nifty United States".

I think it's all about seeing structure where it may not be immediately apparent or providing structure where there is none. For instance, my music collection is arranged alphabetically by artist. (I use the artist's last name, not the maddening first name method that iTunes favors, although I understand why it is set up in such a manner.) The albums are arranged in order of release. Singles follow their corresponding albums and are also arranged in order of release. Multiple artist compilations and soundtracks are grouped together in alphabetical order after all the artists.

I also keep books in order first by author name and then by the order in which the books were released. (This tends to pertain to novels and non-fiction. Specialty books, such as knitting books, are not in the above mix.) DVDs and Blu-ray discs are alphabetized by title, with music and television programs each self-contained subsets. Naturally, Criterion Collection titles are separated out and put in numerical order.

Maybe this all sounds obsessive-compulsive, but it has value to me. In High Fidelity, both in the book and the film, main character Rob Gordon puts a great deal of thought in how he arranges his collection and reorders it on a regular basis. (I believe one method is the order in which he acquired the albums. Good luck with that one.) Like much of the book (and film), it struck a chord with me. Other than making it easier to find what you want, is there a need to do this alphabetizing? Probably not. Does it please me? You bet.

(And yes, it's shameful that those are the only three Springsteen albums I own and that I have more Tobin Sprout solo albums.)