I'm definitely finding a concentration of books in a handful of categories, but it's also amazing how some books are categorized--I wouldn't have thought
Candyfreak would count for Economics: Production?
001--Knowledge:
Cryptozoology A-Z016--Bibliographies of works from specific subjects:
Cinematherapy022--Administration of the physical plant:
The Book on the Bookshelf031--General encyclopedic works-American:
An Underground Education051--General serials and their indexes-American:
The World Through a Monocle070--News media, journalism, publishing:
Let Me Finish081--General Collections American:
Dancing Naked in the Mind Field126--The Self:
Consciousness Explained133--Parapsychology & occultism:
In the Devil's Snare153--Mental processes and intelligence:
Pressure is a Privilege154--Differential and developmental psychology:
How a Child Thinks158--Applied psychology:
The Power of Positive Confrontation170--Ethics:
On the Genealogy of Morality181--Oriental philosophy:
The Analects of Confucius184--Platonic philosophy: Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito
230--Christian theology:
Honest to God236--Eschatology:
The Great Divorce248--Christian experience, practice, and life:
Finding God When You Need Him Most261--Social theology:
God's Politics271--Religious orders in church history:
Virgins of Venice277--Christian church in North America:
Searching for God Knows What287--Methodist & related churches:
Methodism296--Judaism:
Thirteen and a Day299--Other religions: Tao Te Ching
301--Sociology & Anthropology:
Ants, Indians, and Little Dinosaurs303--Social Processes:
Resisting Reagan305--Social groups:
False Dawn: Women in the Age of the Sun King306--Cultures and Institutions:
Casino Moscow307--Communities:
Ghosts of Berlin320--Political science:
British Politics by
Dennis Kavanagh321--Systems of governments and states:
The Failure of Presidential Democracy322--Relation of state to organized groups:
Them: Adventures with Extremists324--The political process:
The Making of the President 1960327--International Relations:
American Diplomacy 1900-1950329--Political science/not assigned or no longer used:
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail332--Financial economics:
The Predator's Ball335--Socialism & related systems:
A Fine Old Conflict338--Production:
Candyfreak340--Law:
The Nature of the Judicial Process341--International Law:
Law of the Sea345--Criminal law:
The Return of Martin Guerre347--Civil Procedure and the Courts:
An Introduction to the Law of Evidence353--Public administration of U.S. federal & state governments:
The Modern American Presidency355--Military Science:
La Place de la Concorde Suisse362--Social welfare problems & services:
The Genius Factory364--Criminology:
All the President's Men369--Miscellaneous kinds of associations:
The Brownie Girl Scout Handbook380--Commerce, communications, transport:
21 Dog Years381--Internal commerce (domestic trade):
An Alphabetical Life398--Folklore:
The Night Battles400--Language:
The Language Instinct420--English & Old English:
The Mother Tongue423--English dictionaries:
The Professor and the Madman428--Standard English usage:
Eats, Shoots and Leaves438--Standard German usage:
Handbuch zur Deutschen Grammatik458--Standard Italian usage:
Italian Phrase Book TM 30-603 (Restricted)508--Natural history:
Arctic Dreams510--Mathematics:
Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz530--Physics:
The Dancing Wu-Li Masters526--Mathematical geometry:
Circumference550--Earth Sciences:
The Map that Changed the World551--Geology, hydrology, meteorology:
The Secret Life of Dust554--Earth sciences of Europe:
Geology (Discover Dorset)560--Paleontology; Paleozoology:
Practical Paleontologist576--Genetics & evolution:
The Origin of Species591--Zoology:
Animals in Translation592--Invertebrates:
The Earth Moved597--Cold-blooded vertebrates, fishes:
A Fish Caught in Time598--Aves (birds):
The Big Year 599--Mammalia:
The Red QueenMessage edited by its author, Aug 30, 2009, 10:55am.
Part two:
612--Human physiology: Monkeyluv
613--Promotion of health:
The Food Bible614--Incidence & prevention of disease:
The Hot Zone616--Diseases:
The Myth of Sanity623--Military & nautical engineering:
Castle634--Orchards, fruits, forestry:
Epitaph for a Peach635--Garden crops (Horticulture):
The Orchid Thief636--Animal husbandry:
The Lord God Made Them All641--Food and drink:
The Perfectionist643--Household & household equipment:
The You-don't-need-a-man-to-fix-it Book646--Sewing, clothing, and personal living:
The Lucky Shopping Manual647--Management of Public Households:
One Pair of Hands660--Chemical engineering:
Shrinking the Cat683--Hardware & household appliances:
Warman's Kitschy Kitchen Collectibles709--Historical, areas, persons treatment:
The Englishness of English Art720--Architecture:
No Way to Build a Ballpark741--Drawing & drawings:
The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes747--Interior Decoration:
Decorating Junkmarket Style781--General principles and musical forms:
Science and Music792--Stage presentations:
The Greedy Bastard Diary793--Indoor games & amusements:
Word Freak796--Athletic & outdoor sports and games:
Ball Four808--Rhetoric & collections of literature:
Poemcrazy810--American literature in English:
Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend811--American poetry:
Billy Sunday and Other Poems813--American fiction: The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man
814--American essays:
Autobiography of a Fat Bride817--Satire & humor:
The Most of S.J. Perelman818--American miscellaneous writings:
Zen for Cats821--English poetry:
The Canterbury Tales822--English drama:
Julius Caesar823--English fiction:
About a Boy824--English essays:
The Chateau de Resenlieu827--English satire & humor:
Stiff Upper Lip828--English miscellaneous writings:
The English Gentleman829--Old English (Anglo-Saxon):
Beowulf831--German poetry: Letters to a Young Poet
833--German fiction:
The Trial839--Other Germanic literatures:
Out Stealing Horses840--Literatures of the Romantic Languages: Candide
842--French drama:
En Attendant Godot843--French fiction: The Stranger
863--Spanish fiction:
Don Quixote873--Latin epic poetry & fiction:
The Aeneid880--Hellenic literatures; Classical Greek:
Oedipus882--Classical Greek drama:
The Oresteia883--Classical Greek epic poetry & fiction:
The Odyssey888--Classical Greek miscellaneous writings:
Protagoras and Meno891--East Indo-European & Celtic:
The Book of Laughter and ForgettingThe categories really tell you a lot about biases at the time the system was created. I mean, there are separate categories for the general history of the British Isles and for the general history of England and Wales, but one category for the general history of all of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.
Message edited by its author, Aug 17, 2009, 7:56am.
Yeah, I thought it was really interesting to look at the biases. The 200 section is particularly bad. I'm trying to look on the bright side--it will be somehow be useful to read things that are important from a historical, American perspective. I have to say, though, that I was tempted to give up immediately because I'll probably never read that many books on Christianity in my whole life.
683--Hardware and household appliances: Kitschy Kitchen Collectibles. This is a little "field guide," and I wouldn't count it except that I can't imagine what else I would read in this category--a fridge manual?
001--Knowledge:
Cryptozoology A-Z. I'm adding these in to the lists above if the touchstones are working. This was an OK book. The authors list various creatures that have existed primarily in legend or in occasional sightings and give a brief description of each. Some of these, like the giant squid, have been confirmed as actual animals. Others, like Bigfoot and merpeople, obviously have not. The authors believe in these creatures much more than I do, but they are skeptical of some of the evidence for the existence of some of these creatures. This isn't a great read, but it's not that long, and the library didn't have many choices in this category.
081--General collections American:
Dancing Naked in the Mind Field by Kary Mullis. The description on the book jacket made it sounds good--this guy won the Nobel Prize for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction--but it was a major disappointment. He seems to think that he is brilliant and sane, but everyone else is crazy and/or an idiot. For example, he thinks astrology should be taken seriously; that scientists should stop studying quantum physics and try to contact aliens about how to stop asteroids from hitting the Earth; that LSD is great and could stop World War III; that there is no hole in the ozone layer, and that, in fact, a depletion of the ozone layer is impossible; that he got abducted by aliens one night in Mendocino; and that HIV doesn't cause AIDS. Now, I'm open-minded and might be persuaded by a great argument and supporting facts in favor of any one of those theories. But when he puts out all those ideas at once, he seems totally nuts, and his arguments all seem to boil down to thinking that he's so smart that he must be right about everything.
I didn't intend to read two weirdo books back-to-back. I'm moving on to
The Secret Life of Dust and
The Book on the Bookshelf, both of which look more promising (and normal).
Message edited by its author, Nov 10, 2007, 11:59pm.
Why am I not suprised? We learned about Kary Mullis in a genetics class I took a while ago-apparently he made very little money from his invention and spent a long time essentially living as a beach bum. Just goes to show, brilliance and sanity aren't always correlated.
623--Military & nautical engineering:
Castle by David Macaulay. This is a children's book, but I'm counting it because it was already on my shelf AND I learned stuff from it. :)
Still working on
The Secret Life of Dust and other grown-up books....
660--Chemical engineering:
Shrinking the Cat by
Sue Hubbell. This is about genetic engineering, in particular the effect humans have had on silkworms, cats, and apple trees. Hubbell argues that humans have practiced genetic engineering for as long as we've been around, using selective breeding, grafting, and other techniques, and although modern techniques are faster and perhaps more effective, they are not conceptually different. This is a well-written, engaging book.
I'm so jealous at all the progress you've been making! It feels like I've been bogged down in my Early Reviewer book for ages, plus I have essays and other end-of-semester stuff eating up all my time :(
Thanks...I've had an unusual lot of time to read lately, so this rate of progress won't continue forever! Good luck with your essays.
792--Stage presentations: The Greedy Bastard Diary by Eric Idle. This is Idle's diary during his tour of North America. It's not nearly as funny as I expected.
If I've counted right, I'm at 107/1000 and 53/100.
Message edited by its author, Dec 9, 2007, 9:36pm.
070--News media, journalism, publishing:
Let Me Finish110/1000; 54/100
271--Religious orders in church history:
Virgins of Venice by Mary Laven
112/100; 56/100
Message edited by its author, Feb 3, 2008, 6:49pm.
598--Aves (birds):
The Big Year by Mark Obamscik. This is the story of the three men who attempted the 1998 "Big Year"--a competition to see how many birds you can spot in North American in a calendar year. It is an easy, entertaining read. Although I'm not a birder, I enjoyed it, perhaps because I can relate to trying to check things off on a life list :)
118/1000; 57/100
Message edited by its author, Apr 23, 2008, 9:42pm.
I first read the title of the last book on your list and thought "What on earth does a database have to do with ancient history?" Agricola is also the name of an agriculture database. :)
Great progress, too! You'll be done in no time at this rate.
Thanks! I've been reading a lot of shorter books that qualify, so that helps the progress.
458--Standard Italian usage: Italian Phrase Book TM 30-603 (Restricted). This was a dictionary published by the U.S. War Department for use in World War II. If you need to know how to say "Don't try any tricks" or "Do they have anti-tank guns?" in Italian, this is the book for you. There are also helpful phrases for tourists not in war zones, like "I would like that fried" and "Where is the bathroom?"
122/1000; 59/100
Message edited by its author, Jul 1, 2008, 11:58pm.
022--Administration of the physical plant:
The Book on the Bookshelf. Review
here. This is probably a good choice for this category for those of us who aren't librarians (of course librarians might enjoy it, too).
124/1000; 60/100
153--Mental processes and intelligence:
Pressure is a Privilege by Billie Jean King. This was an ER book.
125/1000; 60/100
Message edited by its author, Aug 24, 2008, 11:43pm.
420--English & Old English:
The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson.
This book is essentially a collection of interesting facts and observations about the English language. Bryson starts with a brief history of English but then goes on to discuss sources of new words, changes in pronunciation and why spelling and pronunciation don't always match up, dictionaries and efforts to standardize English, interesting names, and wordplay. On the whole, I liked the book. Bryson clearly enjoys language and words, and he shares tidbits (formerly "titbits" but sanitized by Americans) that he finds interesting. Sometimes he gets bogged down with too many examples, and this interrupts the flow of the book. I did have some concerns about accuracy. For example, Bryson refers to our collection of "redundant phrases, expressions that say the same thing twice," and goes on to list, among others, "pots and pans" and "assault and battery," neither of which is redundant. Later, he describes the sentence, "I think I've just broken my toe" as using "broken" in the present tense sense. If a person has just done something, that act is in the past, even if it happened only a second ago. I don't know enough about linguistics to judge the accuracy of his more important points, but these errors made me hesitant to believe other parts of the book.
126/1000; 60/100
I read
The Mother Tongue a few years ago, and even without any linguistics background, I remember noticing a lot of blatant errors. In particular, he tends to repeat interesting anecdotes (like the number of words for snow) without bothering to check the facts at all. The reviews on amazon are full of examples of this (and, IMHO, are worth reading just for the entertainment value).
I checked out the Amazon reviews--you're right!!
Here's one I read a while ago but forgot to list:
647--Management of Public Households:
One Pair of Hands by Monica Dickens. This was an easy and entertaining read.
127/1000; 60/100
031--General encyclopedic works--American:
An Underground Education by Richard Zacks. This book is basically about weird sex and violence.
128/1000; 61/100
Message edited by its author, Sep 14, 2008, 3:12pm.
051--General serials and their indexes-American:
The World Through a Monocle by Mary Corey. I recommend this one. Review
here.
129/1000; 62/100
Message edited by its author, Oct 25, 2008, 10:13pm.
Wow, it's been a long time since I've read a DDC book (even longer on the LOC challenge).
526--Mathematical geography:
Circumference by Nicolas Nicastro.
130/1000; 62/100
This is an Early Reviewers book, and here is my review:
A good chunk of this book is not about Eratosthenes, the librarian at Alexandria who made a remarkably accuract measure of the Earth's circumference in the 200s B.C., but rather is about the nature of science at that time. I thought that Nicastro's description of the various approaches to science by different groups and the way scientific method changed over time was interesting and informative, and probably much better reading than a book devoted entirely to Eratosthenes's theories. It also helped me to understand why Eratosthenes's method was notable. I liked this book overall, and I felt that Nicastro's other career as a novelist served him well. I got a little bogged down in some of the descriptions of geometrical methods and calculations, and I think the book would have benefited from some more diagrams and such for those of us who remember very little of high school trigonometry.
Message edited by its author, Jan 18, 2009, 5:48pm.
Wow carlym...that's a great description...I majored in math centuries ago, but haven't done any heavy reading on the topic ever. This sounds like a candidate if I need to fill the 526 category. Thanks for the good review.
I'm so annoyed that this book wasn't available in Canada.
That book sounds very interesting. I wish I'd noticed it on the ER list; I might have signed up for a chance at it. Ironically, every time I've noticed an ER book that looked interesting, it wasn't available in the US.
I found a few I missed:
824--English essays:
The Chateau de Resenlieu by Lord Berners
951--General history of Asia--China and adjacent areas:
Tibet, Tibet by Patrick French
974--General history of North America--Northeastern United States:
The Devil in Massachusetts by Marion L. Starkey
So that's 133/1000 and 62/100.
Message edited by its author, Feb 17, 2009, 11:52pm.
839--Other Germanic literatures:
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. I highly recommend this.
Why?
Oh, yes, tell us more. This title sounds familiar, but I don't know why.
Here is my review:
If I say very much at all about the plot, it will ruin it for you. The narrator and main character of the book is a 67-year-old Norwegian man, Trond, who has just moved to a little cabin in the country to be alone, except for his dog, Lyra. The book alternates between his life now and summers he spent with his father in the Norwegian countryside when he was about 15.
It's a very personal, introspective book, although it's also emotionally restrained. Although it's not formatted like a diary, that's what it made me think of, both in style and content. Trond narrates minute details of his life, like getting up, getting dressed, and putting food on the table, but the reader has to infer his feelings for the most part. Bits of his life and the reasons why he is how he is are slowly revealed over the course of the book. It's not a funny book, really, but it's peppered with funny moments that I found exceptionally realistic. For example, early in the book, young Trond's friend takes him into the forest to show him something. Trond thinks it's this big tree and is obviously not impressed: "'It's a big one,' I said. 'It's not that,' Jon said." It's a simple moment, but one I can totally envision.
Along with the funny bits, Trond makes random observations about life that gave me new insights into common things, or put something in a different way that really made sense. One example--he says that you tell people facts about you, stories about your life, and they think they know you, but really they take those facts and fill in their own story about you.
The imagery in the book (and the writing in general) is also fantastic. One of my favorites is about his dog: "Lyra sits watching me with a pine cone in her mouth, it sticks out like an unlit cigar of the really bulky type . . . ."
The book does not wrap up all the loose ends in the story, but I felt that it came to a resolution nonetheless, sort of like playing a wind instrument and letting the note tail off, without going flat but also without an abrupt stop.
Read it.
277--Christian church in North America:
Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller. I liked a lot of the ideas in this book, particularly that Christianity isn't a formula but a relationship with God, and that Christianity shouldn't be used to make a person feel that he or she is better than someone else. In general, I liked the style--it's very conversational, and the author is refreshingly honest about the odd things that he thinks about and his own failings. I do think that he needed a better or more careful editor. The book had several spelling mistakes (some of them repeated) and other simple errors that should have been corrected.
135/1000; 62/100
287--Methodist & related churches:
Methodism by Rupert Davies.
136/1000; 63/100
236--Eschatology:
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. Even better than expected, and it also counts toward the Library of Congress challenge, which I haven't made much progress on lately.
137/1000; 63/100.
I have not been very diligent about this challenge lately! Here's another one I read for my church group:
248--Christian experience, practice, and life:
Finding God When You Need Him Most by Chip Ingram. This was OK--some good points, but also repetitive.
I'm reading
Problems of Men, but it's slow going.
138/1000; 64/100
Message edited by its author, Jun 20, 2009, 7:29pm.
918--South America (in Geography & Travel):
In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin. When I first started reading this, I really liked it, but by the end, I felt like I was just getting through it. Chatwin travels all around Patagonia, tracking down the stories of historical figures and legends, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The book definitely gave me a sense of the land and the people. I was also amazed at Chatwin's sense of adventure--he just walks and hitchhikes for the most part, and he sleeps in all sorts of places.
139/1000; 64/100
Message edited by its author, Jul 4, 2009, 11:37am.
831--German poetry: Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. Since this book consists entirely of letters (and commentary), you'd think it would be in 836--German letters, but I guess the poetry connection was too strong. Anyway, I thought this was interesting, if a little weird. It's a bit hard to imagine the life of a poet, and this is a small insight into that life.
140/1000; 64/100
Message edited by its author, Jul 11, 2009, 8:25am.
720--Architecture:
No Way to Build a Ballpark by Allan Temko. This is a collection of essays on architecture and urban planning in California. It's a Pulitzer Prize winner, and the essays are very well written. I don't know much at all about architecture, and the book unfortunately does not include many photos of the buildings Temko discusses. It was a slow read for me because I was trying to visualize the buildings from his descriptions. I liked the book, though, and it has made me think more about the buildings I see every day.
I think this is a decent book for the architecture category for others who aren't knowledgeable in this field.
141/1000; 65/100
Message edited by its author, Aug 17, 2009, 7:54am.
381--Internal commerce (domestic trade):
An Alphabetical Life by Wendy Werris. This is a memoir about Werris's life in the book industry, first as a employee of an independent bookstore and then as a sales representative for publishers. She mixes in stories about her personal life, which I generally found interesting, although I would have liked to have seen more book-related stories. I appreciated that, although she mentioned drug use in a couple of places, she didn't focus on that; so many memoirs do, and it's just not that interesting. The one thing that annoyed me was her over-use of poor similes and metaphors. I had the sense that someone told her she needed a certain number of those per page. Most of them are bad or overused: mad as a hatter, smart as a whip, "knowledge and madness in the salty soup of life," etc. She needed a better editor.
142/1000; 65/100
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