I organize my books in a bookcase by subject - all those on scrappy quilts are together because that's what I'm most interesting in lately. All others are by author. I do have a few that I use all the time like Around the Block by Judy Hopkins and Block Magic books by Nancy Johnson-Srebro and have had them spiral bound for easier use. These books take up one shelf. Then I've changed my plan on magazines. They are in cardboard magazine holders labeled by the name of the magazine. I no longer keep every issue and those I do keep all have little sticky things with markings -- all those containing a bag pattern are marked as such so I can find them quickly. Any magazines that I just have a few of are grouped together. And then all the books that I use rarely but am not ready to part with are in a totally different space. Oh, and I also keep 3 large white spiral notebooks with plastic pages that are designated as applique, pieced pages taken from discarded magazines and blocks or quilts from classes or guilds. I look through all of this stuff often when I'm searching for an idea.