I didn't break my original list up into enough posts, so it's taking a long time to load the touchstones when I want to add a new book. I'm re-posting my list here, with one post for each of the 10 categories.
900s
900--Geography & history:910--Geography & travel:914--Geography & travel/Europe: Down and Out in Paris and London
917--Geography & travel/North America:
Road Fever918--Geography & travel/South America:
In Patagonia919--Geography & travel/Other areas:
Getting Stoned with Savages920--Biography, genealogy, insignia: Eminent Victorians923--Biography/not assigned or no longer used:
Women of the Four Winds930--History of ancient world932--History of ancient world; Egypt:
Unwrapping a Mummy936--History of the ancient world; Europe north & west of Italy:
The Agricola and the Germania940--General history of Europe: Denying the Holocaust941--General history of Europe; British Isles:
Queen Victoria: Born to Succeed942--General history of Europe; England & Wales:
The Wives of Henry VIII943--General history of Europe; Central Europe, Germany:
Frederick the Great by Nancy Mitford
944--General history of Europe; France & Monaco:
Paris to the Moon945--General history of Europe; Italian peninsula & adjacent islands:
Mad Blood Stirring946--General history of Europe; Iberian Peninsula & adjacent islands:
Driving Over Lemons947--General history of Europe; Eastern Europe; Soviet Union: Soviet Politics 1917-1991
949--General history of Europe; other parts of Europe:
The Balkan Express950--General history of Asia; Far East:951--General history of Asia--China and adjacent areas:
Tibet, Tibet by Patrick French
955--General history of Asia; Iran:
Persepolis959--General history of Asia; Southeast Asia:
The Trouser People960--General history of Africa: The Shadow of the Sun970--General history of North America:973--General history of North America; United States: The Spanish-American War and President McKinley
974--General history of North America--Northeastern United States:
The Devil in Massachusetts976--General history of North America; South central United States:
City on Fire977--General history of North America; North central United States:
Rising Tide979--General history of North America; Great Basin & Pacific Slope:
The Woman Warrior980--General history of South America:990--General history of other areas:Message edited by its author, Nov 2, 2009, 7:19pm.
The new book is 801--Philosophy & Theory:
How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom. The book is divided into sections for short stories, poetry, drama, and novels, and in each section Bloom examines several of his favorite works or authors. It took me a while to read this, in part because it was easy to read this in sections without needing to go back and re-read the last part I read. It's dense and pretentious, but really very good. Bloom loves these books and authors and wants the reader to love them, too. I've been re-reading the Sonnets since I read the poetry section, and the book has inspired me to seek out a couple of the other books he describes that I haven't read yet.
I like the new set up, it's easier to read. :)
I like it, too--it seems tidier!
769--Prints:
An Essay on Typography by Eric Gill. This is an odd little book. It was written in the 1930s, and it's partly about typography and the author's views on what kind of lettering, spacing, etc. is desirable, and partly about the conflict between craft and industrial production.
144/1000; 66/100 (Two-thirds of the way through!)
Message edited by its author, Sep 8, 2009, 11:00pm.
66/100 (Two-thirds of the way through!)
Congratulations, that's a great milestone! (And actually once you take out the "not assigned or no longer used" categories, it's only 99 (and 908 instead of 1000).)
> 14, 15
2/3 of the second level categories is very impressive! Congrats.
Thanks! I'm having fun :)
567--Fossil Cold-Blooded Vertebrates:
Lone Star Dinosaurs by Louis Jacobs. My review:
I thought this book was fine but not fantastic. The author clearly loves the subject and wants the reader to be interested as well, and that goes a long way, but it also seemed like he wasn't accustomed to writing for a lay audience. The first couple of chapters tell the history of paleontology in Texas and provide enough background about geology, evolution, etc. that someone who doesn't know much about this at all could still understand the book. The rest of the chapters give a chronological account of dinosaurs in Texas. I liked that the author explained how fossils of particular species could give clues to the way the dinosaurs lived and not just how they looked. On the whole, though, I thought these chapters were a bit jumbled--talking about one formation, then another, then making a comment about the same area in a different period, and then repeating information from earlier in the book (which is not long). The book has beautiful illustrations, but I wished it also had photographs of some of the fossils themselves.
145/908; 66/99 (Thanks, Lorax, for the accurate number of categories, although I may have counted a couple in no-longer-used categories. I'll have to check and adjust at some point, although I'm so far from 908 that it doesn't matter too much right now.)
500--Natural sciences and mathematics:
Birds, Beasts and Relatives by Gerald Durrell. I had a different book planned for 500, but I realized when I finished this that it was also a 500. I thought this was fantastic--I'll definitely read Durrell's other books.
146/908; 66/99
Message edited by its author, Sep 18, 2009, 12:17am.
227--Epistles:
Interpretation Bible Studies: First Corinthians.
448--Standard French usage: Blitz French: A Handbook of Action French for the Fighting Forces.
Handy phrases I learned: Nous attaquerons au petit jour! (We shall attack at dawn.) Avez-vous quelques batons de dynamite? (Have you a few sticks of dynamite?) Notre honneur est en jeu. (Our honor is at stake.)
148/908; 68/99
Message edited by its author, Sep 25, 2009, 12:07pm.
917--Geography & travel/North America:
Road Fever. It's funny that this is in the North America category. It's about two men driving from Tierra del Fuego to Prudhoe Bay, and the majority of the action takes place in South America.
149/908; 68/99
129--Origin & destiny of individual souls:
Spook by Mary Roach. I found this extremely entertaining. Roach researched all sorts of experiments into attempts to contact dead people--supposed reincarnated people, mediums, attempts to weigh souls departing from the dead, etc. She tries out some of the methods herself and even goes to "medium school," but of course, none of the methods work. I do think this should be classified as something in the 130s, paranormal phenomena, rather than 129. My only problem with the book is that, at the beginning, Roach presents it as some sort of evaluation of whether people have souls, when really it is a tour of parapsychology methods and experiments that most people--including those who believe in the afterlife--would dismiss as ridiculous.
150/908; 68/99
I really like Mary Roach. She did a fascinating lecture at Ted Talks this year. Though it was apparently based on her other book "Bonk".
I definitely want to read her other books now. Although I don't think 129 is the best category for this book, I'm glad that something so entertaining was available for that category.
422--English etymology:
Anonyponymous. An ER book
and a challenge book!
151/908; 68/99
241--Moral theology:
Losing Moses on the Freeway by Chris Hedges. Interesting. Each chapter is devoted to one of the Ten Commandments, and Hedges talks about what those commandments look like in modern life. The first couple of chapters seemed unnecessarily bitter and disgruntled, and, in a way, hypocritical; self-righteous rejection of tradition and institutions can be as much of an idol as anything else. After those chapters, though, Hedges settled down a bit. He certainly has thought-provoking ideas about the commandments and what it does to a person to break them.
152/908; 68/99
Message edited by its author, Nov 17, 2009, 12:00am.
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