Organise by how you reach, not by what looks neat
Think of your shelving in three zones. Eye level and the shelf just below it is prime real estate: that is where the books you actually consult live — cookbooks if the shelf is near the kitchen, reference books, the current reading pile, the things you lend out and want back. The shelves above eye level take the tall, the beautiful and the rarely needed, because you will see them more than you touch them. The bottom shelves, which require bending, are for heavy things that stay put: albums, box files, children's books if there are children who sit on the floor anyway.
Within those zones, group by subject or by the way your mind files things, which is not always the same thing. Some people need fiction alphabetised by author. Others genuinely think in terms of "the holiday books", "the ones from university", "work". A system that matches how you search is a system you will maintain. A system imposed from a magazine is one you will abandon in a fortnight.
The styling that doesn't sabotage the system
A wall of uninterrupted vertical spines reads as busy, which is why stylists break it up. You can do that without losing function. Stack a few books horizontally at the end of a row — it works as a bookend, uses the awkward last fifteen centimetres, and gives the eye somewhere to rest. Leave roughly a quarter of each shelf empty, or at least not crammed, so you can take a book out with one hand instead of excavating it.
