We’ve been married eighteen (yes, 18) years. And I’ve always shelved our sci fi and fantasy books as his/her shelves.

Most of the time that is not a problem. He hates Lackey. I despise Heinlein.

But then what do you do with John Ringo, who we both read? Or Elizabeth Moon? Usually, the books I thought I liked better went on my shelves. The books I thought he liked better went on his.

His were always alphabetized, because he liked them that way. Mine were always shelved by author or category. Author if I would know the author’s name, category if I liked a single book, but not all the ones by that author.

Now we have three bookshelves, our biggest, filled with sci fi and fantasy books. They are alphabetized.

I kept one shelf out for “I bought this but haven’t read it yet” books.

But after eighteen years of marriage I finally decided I won’t really get cooties from having my books sit next to his Heinlein’s on the shelf. (Although that could be why we both got sick this week. Maybe it wasn’t from licking File it Under’s screen after all.)