January DeweyCAT: 000: Computer Science, Information and General Works

000: Computer science, information & general works: computers, libraries, encyclopedias, journalism, museums and rare books


The Library of El Escorial, Spain

In January, we are reading Class 000: Computer Science, Information, and General Works. Within this, you'll find: computers, libraries, encyclopedias, journalism, museums, rare books and more.

Here are a few suggestions that could fit some of these categories. (Just a note that I found these based on their topics, not necessarily their Dewey numbers!)

Computers:
Fiction:
Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Nonfiction:
*Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich
*The Google Story by David A. Vise and Mark Malseed

Libraries:
Fiction:
The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom
The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson

Nonfiction:
*Dewey: the Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron
Running the Books by Avi Steinberg
Free for All: Oddballs, Geeks and Gangstas in the Public Library by Don Borchert

Journalism:
Fiction:
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Last Juror by John Grisham
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

Nonfiction:
Dispatches from the Edge by Anderson Cooper
All the News Unfit to Print by Eric Burns
Losing the News by Alex S. Jones

Museums:
Fiction:
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Nonfiction:
*The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel
*Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum by Richard Fortey
*To Have and To Hold: An Intimate History of Collectors and Collecting by Philipp Blom

Rare Books:
Fiction:
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Nonfiction:
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett
*Books: A Memoir by Larry McMurtry
The Friar and the Cipher: Roger Bacon and the Unsolved Mystery of the Most Unusual Manuscript in the World by Lawrence Goldstone and Nancy Bazelon Goldstone

And don't forget to update the wiki:
www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2016CC_DeweyCAT#January:

*I double checked the nonfiction suggestions. The ones asterisked are NOT actually classified (according to what's listed here on LT) in 000.

And, like with the previous CAT I posted, I am not able to change the image size, but at least it's not HUGE this time. I will leave it as is. I used to not have trouble with changing the image sizes, but the last two I've done won't let me do that for some reason. (And it's not the coding... the last time someone else used the exact coding I did, and because I copied/pasted from what she'd done it worked, whereas it hadn't worked from what I'd done myself. Sigh...)

And, although I haven't yet decided what I'll be reading, I did add one book to my tbr based on the "research" I did to find some suggestions! I added The Last Juror by Grisham to my tbr. However, I will likely try to get to something that's been on my tbr much longer.

I am going to try to read The Art Forger which is about the theft of a Degas painting from one of my favorite museums, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. I hope that this is enough of a connection to the category...

On another note, today I browsed my local library's meagre collection of 000-100 & noticed it included journals/memoirs/essays such as Pulphead and True story: murder, memoir, mea culpa…

I am planning on reading Book Lust To Go (011.6) by Nancy Pearl cause there's nothing I need more than a longer wishlist!!!

Oh! I have a book for this! The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser, about a famous theft at a Boston museum.

>6 RidgewayGirl: Oh it will be interesting to compare notes as that is about the same theft as my book!

>7 leslie.98: Excellent!

>4 leslie.98: - I read that last year this year and liked it quite a bit.

I'm planning to read Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer's Life by Michael Greenberg whose Dewey # is 070.92.

>4 leslie.98: I really enjoyed The Art Forger. I thought it very different from most art theft books, and enjoyed the different focus.

I'm planning on reading The Information by James Gleick, which has been on my Kindle for a while now and is crying out for some attention!

I'm going with one off Planet TBR called A Walk Toward Oregon (070.92). The author was a journalist and came from a publishing family.

I plan to read The Library at Night and The Accidental Law Librarian from my TBRs.

>1 LibraryCin: Thank you so much for setting up the thread with the gorgeous picture on top and all the great suggestions!

I think I will get Auf eine Zigarette mit Helmut Schmidt from the library, it's a collection of interviews with former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt. He was a very remarkable person and as he recently died I find this to be the right choice.

I'm going to read War, Women, and the News (070.08) off of my HS library's shelf and it will probably have to wait until I come back from winter break (starting this Friday - YAY).

>2 LibraryCin: After the url of the picture and before the final > add height="200" then the closing >. The width will automatically adjust to the height. 200 is what I use for my book covers but you can increase or decrease it as desired.

I'm reading Book by Book by Michael Dirda.

Right now I'm planning on reading The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer (070.92).

I'm planning on reading The Bookshops of London.

I just browsed my library shelves and found Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life by Michael Dirda, so I might be joining >17 casvelyn:.

Although, I also have these on my wish list (books I'm interested in but don't own)

The Rights of the Reader by Daniel Pennac
Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown
The Grace of Silence: A Memoir by Michele Norris

Too early for me to commit while I'm still wrapping up my 2015 reading!

Wonderful suggestions Cindy, but I am sticking with Book Lust To Go though some of those others are tempting and for fiction I was planning on Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein.

I will be continuing my adventures in the Book Collector series with The Marsh Madness, by Victoria Abbott. It will be a Christmas gift from a friend :)

>5 DeltaQueen50: I am just reading through the original Book Lust and I can't wait to read ...To Go, but I am kind of afraid to because I have such a ridiculous amount of books I want to read already and there is so little time! I'm sure you'll find so many great books in there :)

I'm going to read Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman along with The Lifetime Reading Plan by her father Clifton Fadiman. I've skimmed it in the past but I think it would be a good one to read more thoroughly.

>20 japaul22: The Rights of the Reader is a good (and fast!) read. I read it earlier this year.

>23 SleepySheep: I read Book Lust a while ago and it definitely added a pile of books to my wishlist! I expect no less with this one. :)

>14 streamsong: Thank you so much. I decided a beautiful photo of a library could fit for themes of libraries, information, museums, rare books.

And I did pick out a few of the easier themes to find books for as suggestions. LOL!

>16 mamzel: Thanks. Maybe I can try that after the URL. I put mine before the URL and have tried changing it, but it's doing nothing. I've tried 200, 100, 150... I tried a bunch of things last time, too, but the only thing that worked was copy/paste from someone else setting up the code. (Even though it was the exact code I'd already used!). It's odd....

>21 Kristelh: Thanks, Kristel! I had thought about suggesting a Nancy Pearl book, but I wasn't sure how interesting a bibliography of books would be! I'll look forward to hearing what you think of it!

For others, there are LOTS of cozy mysteries that should fit libraries, as well, but I ended up not adding any to the suggestions.

For non-fiction, I'll probably be reading Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books (Dewey 002.075) and for fiction this seems like a great excuse to pick up the manga Library Wars: Love & War, Volume 1.

>30 inge87: - Ooh, I hadn't really thought of Library Wars in relation to this challenge but it would be perfect. I have 13 & 14 left to read.

I've got a book about computer science which would also fit the Random CAT, but for some reason I cannot find it on my shelves. Where can it be?

>1 LibraryCin: : I have a question on the parameters of the monthly Dewey challenges. From your post:

"In January, we are reading Class 000: Computer Science, Information, and General Works. Within this, you'll find: computers, libraries, encyclopedias, journalism, museums, rare books and more.
Here are a few suggestions that could fit some of these categories. (Just a note that I found these based on their topics, not necessarily their Dewey numbers!)
000: Computer science, information & general works: computers, libraries, encyclopedias, journalism, museums and rare books"

Members' following posts mention books that fit the topics, but some don't fit the Dewey classification. I didn't check every title linked, but, for instance, The Gardner Heist is 364; The Art Forger is 813; Library Wars is 741. A book I was thinking of The Merry Heart: Reflections on Reading, Writing, and the World of Books by Robertson Davies, I thought would fit, but when I check the Work Details, the DDC shows as 814. Some books I had previously considered (don't remember the titles) did not show any DDC under their Work Details.

So -

Are the books read for the Dewey challenge supposed to show a DDC number in the Dewey class assigned to the month? Or are they just meant to fit the topic?

>33 countrylife: Fiction will not fit the Dewey numbers except for the 800s. In order to include readers who read fiction almost exclusively, we broadened the challenge so that those who prefer to read fiction can read books with themes/topics that fit that month's Dewey range. Non-fiction should fit the Dewey range for the month, though. The Merry Heart is in the 800s (literature) because it's a memoir of an author. The Art Forger is in the 800s because it's fiction.

Maybe it would be less confusing if we separate fiction from nonfiction on the wiki each month.

>35 cbl_tn: I agree that fiction and non-fiction should be separated on the wiki. It will be interesting to see how many choose fiction vs non-fiction.

>35 cbl_tn: Either seperate fiction and non-fiction, or maybe just add "fiction" when we read fiction?

>37 Chrischi_HH: It would be easier to spot if it wasn't mixed with the nonfiction.

>33 countrylife: I haven't read the posts following your question yet, but my interpretation was to fit the topics, not necessarily the Dewey numbers. That's how I was interpreting the entire challenge, personally, so I didn't double check the suggestions I made!

I suppose you could make it more of a challenge for yourself if you wanted to do it that way, but usually for these challenges, there is room for us to interpret, no?

>34 cbl_tn: You said this: " Non-fiction should fit the Dewey range for the month, though."

I'm sorry to everyone, then, because I didn't double check this for the suggestions. I was going simply by topic. I hadn't realized that nonfiction was still meant to actually be in that Dewey range.

So, I guess people will need to take my suggestions with a grain of salt and double check them.

But, for me personally, fiction or non... I'm likely to go by topic. Oops! Sorry, everyone!

I separated January by fiction and non-fiction on the wiki. My code skills are not the greatest, so if anyone wants to make it prettier, feel free. If we like it, I can do the same for the other months. If not, I can mix them back in again. I'm pretty sure I divided the books correctly, but somebody probably ought to glance over that too.

>40 LibraryCin: Dewey assignment is somewhat subjective and in a library setting each book can have only one call number, so just because some library somewhere classified a book as xxx doesn't mean there's not a good argument for putting it somewhere else. (Example: I'm a genealogy librarian. A book on Chinese names and their meanings recently came down from cataloging assigned to "China" (we use a modified Dewey system at my work, so the exact number isn't relevant here). I sent it back and asked that it be classified under "names" because no one will expect to find a Chinese name book in "China" when the German, Irish, etc. name books are all under "names." Cataloging agreed and reclassed the book.)

>41 casvelyn: Thanks. I actually am a cataloguer! (But I work in an academic library, so I use LC classification.)

I did a quick check of my suggestions and see that some (most? More than half, I think, anyway!) of the nonfiction are classified in 000. Would it be helpful if I asterisked the nonfiction books that are listed that are not (here on LT, anyway) listed as being in 000?

ETA: Yes, maybe I'll just go ahead and do that for those who want to be sure what they are reading is classified in 000.

OK, I put an asterisk beside those that are NOT listed as being classed in 000, based on what's recorded here on LT.

It looks like I was about half and half...

I'm so sorry!

Thank you, everyone! Your answers were very helpful!

>41 casvelyn: I like the way you have separated it!

If you're looking for some flexibility, I found that many books have multiple call numbers listed under the Work Details page. So for Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, the primary number is 814 because it's a memoir but some copies are cataloged as 921 or 028--therefore I counted it for January, but it could just as easily be used for October (800) or November (900-939).

I like this CAT because I'm learning so much about the library! I really didn't realize there could be multiple call numbers for a book. I also had always thought that the Dewey system was for nonfiction only since most libraries pull out fiction. Fun learning experience!

>46 SleepySheep: : That's how I managed to get Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader to fit for my January read. And The Kite Runner for February, which "Show More" finds DDC 145.

But I'm glad to know that topics count. So, I may change up some of the books I had planned for other months to something I'd find more interesting.

>41 casvelyn: : I like they way you reworked January's wiki.

I wasn't sure where to list my book, since it is not fiction, but neither does it show a DDC number in the 000s. So far, every book listed under nonfiction has a DDC number that fits, except mine, though the topic is very similar to several others listed. Shall I leave mine there? The Merry Heart: Reflections on Reading Writing, and the World of Books - DDC 814.

Since it seems like this title should have another DDC in the 000s, I tried to find another source that would show it, but could not find anything. I thought WorldCat might, but if so, I can't see it. Does anyone know of other sources to find Dewey numbers for specific books? So far, LT seems best!

>49 countrylife: Even though you can't find a library that has cataloged it in the 000s, you could list it as 028 since that's where similar books are classified. I think it's in the 800s because it includes writing as well as reading, and library catalogers have decided that it needs to be with books about Robertson Davies as a writer (800s) rather than Robertson Davies as a reader.

LibraryCin, thanks for shepherding us through the first month of the DeweyCAT as we figure everything out!

I'll find another book to fit, and read The Gardner Heist in April.

>42 LibraryCin: So you know ALL about the crazyness... :) I tried cataloging for a bit before I got my current job, but I drive myself mad thinking of all the different places a book *could* go, so it wasn't really for me.

ETA: I've divided all the months into fiction and non-fiction. I think I put every book under the correct heading, but feel free to move things around.

ETA2 >49 countrylife: 814 is Essays by Americans (and Canadians), which is an accurate place to catalog your book, as it is a book of essays by an American on the subject of reading. However, lots of people are reading Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman, which is also a book of essays by an American on the subject of reading, and her book is classified under 028. So I don't see why you couldn't call the Davies book a 028. Personally, I dislike the Essays designation, unless the book is a collection of essays on widely disparate subjects, because to me Dewey should tell you what the book is about, not what kind of book it is.

And people wonder why I gave up cataloging for genealogy. Either the people are dead or they are not. None of this "is it a book of essays or a book about books?" business. :)

>52 casvelyn: LOL! Yeah, it can be... interesting... sometimes figuring out where to put it on the shelf when it could fit in more than one place!

I do think the wiki looks good divided up into fiction and nonfiction!

>51 RidgewayGirl: Yeah, for whatever reason, in my head (probably because that's how I was interpreting it, anyway, and it makes it a bit easier for me!), I was interpreting the challenges as: as long as it fits the topic, it will be fine! It didn't even occur to me that others interpreted it as it HAD to fit in the Dewey section we were reading for the month (though I guess that does make sense!) if reading nonfiction.

I guess for people who are reading a book that fits the Dewey theme but most libraries seem to place the book into the "wrong" Dewey class, y'all could note how it correlates with words instead of numbers. For example, putting (reading) after the author on the wiki instead of (028). That would work for the fiction as well.

Ok, I've decided what I'm going to read (as long as I can get my hands on it), and it's nonfiction and it is listed here in the 000s! hmmm, I just checked the suggestions above yesterday, and I was sure this was listed in the 000s, but just now, checking the page to get more specific, I don't see any Dewey number listed. Sigh...

Running the Books by Avi Steinberg

ETA: Well, my local public library has it in 027.

I have People of the Book sitting on my bookshelf. Maybe I'll read that one.

I have a few possibilities that would fit for this month on my wish list. The most likely candidate will be The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett.

>32 MissWatson: My book has turned up again, it is Informatik and the North German union catalogue puts it into 004 of the DDC. It's a guide for the computer department of the Deutsches Museum in Munich and I hope to learn something about the origins and development of computing in small doses. Apparently mine is the only copy on LT, so it can also count for the Random CAT.

I'll be reading fiction for this month, Zer0es by Chuck Wendig. It's about computer hackers.

>59 luvamystery65: Ooh! BB on that one! Thanks for sharing.

>59 luvamystery65: Hoping to join you in reading Zer0es.

Tomorrow or the next day I will start The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller.

Somebody did post some resources for checking the Dewey numbers of specific titles but I can't find it now. Could someone post them in the introduction for the year on the wiki page?

>62 Robertgreaves: Done! I'll put them here too, in case anyone has missed them from prior discussion.

OCLC Classify lets you look up one book at a time and tells you what most public libraries in the US classify a book as: http://classify.oclc.org/classify2/

LT's Melvil Decimal System gives you the classification of the books in your library as well as lists books from around LT that have the same classification (on a handful of books, the classification is just plain wrong): http://www.librarything.com/mds/0

ETA: Neither handle fiction well, as Classify notes that most libraries use a FIC designation and MDS puts everything in the 800s. Classify also has problems with biographies, as many public libraries in the US shelve biographies in their own section (B or Bio), whereas the actual DDC puts them under subject or time period.

Starting The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller

Most common DCC number is 028.90941

>64 Robertgreaves: - I will also be reading (well, listening) to The Year of Reading Dangerously... Hope to start it today.

>63 casvelyn:. Thanks for those links. In exploring them, I discovered a quite old ROOT (a book I was given in 2003 or 2004!): Schott's Original Miscellany (031.02)

>65 katiekrug: How does the audiobook handle the footnotes?

>67 Robertgreaves: - Funny you should ask - he addresses his love of footnotes in the intro to the audio and notes that they will be indicated in the audio book with a chime. It works just fine. I'm enjoying his humor very much.

COMPLETED The Year of Reading Dangerously

My review:

After reading "The Master and Margarita", Andy Miller decides to atone for the number of times he's said he's read books which in fact he hasn't by reading the books the List of Betterment he compiles.

Variable. I suspect there are stylistic jokes which are going over my head for the books I don't know. The author's pop music world is not mine so there are names which mean nothing to me. But where we share points of reference he is a genial companion talking about his life and reading.

Quotes:
"... if I had learned one thing from the List of Betterment, it was that a love of reading and a love of books are not necessarily the same thing."

"... the middlebrow .... consists of people who are hoping that some day they will get used to the stuff they ought to like."

I hope to join you once and awhile. I just picked up an interesting if quirky title from the ooo's The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries with the Dewey number of 070.4.

My library has Let's Pretend This Never Happened and Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson listed as 070. They both look like enjoyable reads. Hopefully I'll be able to get my hand on one of them before the month is over.

>71 Roro8: Thanks for posting this. I have Let's Pretend This Never Happened on my TBR shelves and did not realize that it fits this month's DeweyCAT.

>72 Tara1Reads:, you're welcome. I love it when that happens to me too.

I just finished You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day. Most libraries had it listed under Biography, but I did find it under 092 at one.

Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian / Avi Steinberg
4 stars

Avi Steinberg, once very involved in Jewish religious life, was writing obituaries when he saw the ad for a prison librarian. He got the job. This tells of his time in that job. We learn of some of the inmates who were regulars in the library, and we also learn of some of Steinberg's past.

I waffled between 3.5 stars (good) and 4 stars (really good), but went with the higher rating. I was more interested in the inmates he came across and his work at the prison than I was in his personal life - most of what he told of that was of his Jewish upbringing. What a difficult job that would be! There are so many issues to working in a prison I wouldn't have thought of. Definitely interesting.

I've started The Book of Lost Books (Dewey 002.09), but I'm not sure what I think about it yet; the entries I've read so far are either too short or too long, I can't decide. :)

I finished Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman. This lady sure has a way with words! Short book, but I really enjoyed it. (DDC 028)

>75 LibraryCin: I'm glad to see your positive comments on Running the Books. I have it in the TBR pile but someone told me it was just terrible and I wasn't sure I wanted to spend the time on it. Now I think I was on the right track buying a copy and will give it a try sometime this year.

>78 clue: Be warned that I have seen a 2 star rating of this book, as well (a friend of mine from shelfari). Only one day later, I feel like I should have gone with the 3.5 rating over the 4 stars, but even when I second-guess myself like that with my ratings, I do leave them be. That being said, for me 3.5 stars is still "good"! I do hope you like it when you do get to it!

I decided to read Dispatches from the Edge (by Anderson Cooper.) I had it in audio, but unfortunately when I went to retrieve it, it seems that I must have deleted it from my queue! I couldn't find another copy at the library, and as all my audio credits have been used, I decided to check out the print instead. I just started, reading the Introduction last night. It's well written; but not very long so I expect that I should finish this by the end of the month, if not sooner, without any problem. Sigh, I think I would have enjoyed listening to the author narrate this one :-)

The first book I finished this year was A Train of Powder a series of essays Rebecca West wrote when she covered several trials, including the Nuremberg trials and a lynching trial in South Carolina. I thought that it would fit because of the journalism connection, but I didn't see that it matched to this Dewey number series.

I guess I could force fit it, but since it's early and I have time, I'll go ahead and select something else from my TBR pile.

So, I have More Book Lust on my pile and even though I need no more recommendations as many others have said, I did enjoy Book Lust when I read it (and it's filled with sticky flags for all the books I'm interested in!), so here goes!

>80 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I bet that one would be good on audio! I think I might go see if my library has the audio version... :-)

I've finished (well, actually quit half-way through) Beg, Borrow, Steal (070.92) by Michael Greenberg.

Well The Dead Beat didn't work for me so back to the library I go although the 5 inches of snow and more falling might keep me housebound for a couple of days.

Question. How are people (reading) the many books which are lists of books with short descriptions such as Pearl's Book Lust? Are you reading every page or just browsing? I read both Ex Libris and Howard's End on the Landing in the past, but they are more narrative reads about books.

>84 dallenbaugh: I haven't yet picked up Book Lust To Go at the library but when I read the other Book Lust books, I read every page and took notes as I went. Nothing I like better than reading about books that I might want to read in the future!

One of the books I read for this CAT was a fiction book Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein. It is a work of fiction but I think a perfect choice for this CAT. It is a middle school book that is probably what they call Chapter Books. The reason why I think it is perfect is the setting is a brand new library that an eccentric man call Mr Lemoncello opens in this small town. 12, twelve year olds are invited to opening game ceremonies for the brand new library. They stay overnight (two nights) and they must solve a puzzle and escape from the library to win. The book features books of course, it's about a library but it also discusses the Dewey decimal system over and over and also the ways that libraries are so techy now which I think is part of the 000 call letters of DDS. At the end of the book (e reader) there is a long list of all the books mentioned in the book, classics to more modern works. There is also a puzzle that the reader can work on solving and ways to contact author/publisher if you solve the puzzle. A great book. I was inspired to read this by my granddaughters who started it on a road trip (read aloud) but I was not able to finish it with them.

>86 Kristelh: - I read that last year and enjoyed it a lot. There's a new one in the series coming out next weeek(?) and I'm looking forward to reading that later this year.

>84 dallenbaugh: I did similar to DeltaQueen - read every page and my copy has 'a million' little post-it flags in it...

>85 DeltaQueen50: and >88 LisaMorr: Thanks for your responses. I have all the Book Lust series and pretty much did the same thing as you all - read every page, but I have other similar books that I really don't want to read every page, just browse. The same with my film book. I think I will look for another type of book to fit this category, but I may not make it this month. I made the mistake of signing on for too many other challenges.

>89 dallenbaugh: and >88 LisaMorr:, and >85 DeltaQueen50:. I've been working my way through Book Lust To Go marking books I've read, checking to see which one's my library has, what their Dewey call number is and putting them into lists for possible reads. Such fun ;))

Two books of journalism in my collection would fit well in this category: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson and A Peter Gzowski Reader, a collection of essays by Canadian journalist, which will be my first choice.

The others I pencilled in are all fiction with library or museum settings.

>91 VivienneR:, I read Fear and Loathing last year and was really surprised to actually like it. It is gonzo reporting so lots of drugs and bad behavior. I thought it was fiction but later found out it was not considered fiction. Is on the 1001 Books You Must read list.

I spent most of yesterday and today with Book Lust To Go by Nancy Pearl and have increased my list of future reads.

>81 LisaMorr: I really liked A Train of Powder when I read it several years ago. West's perspective is very interesting and she knows how to turn a phrase.

>94 inge87: I agree - I really liked it. I just stumbled upon it when I was looking for Virago Modern Classics in a used book store and very glad I picked it up.

>92 Kristelh: That's good to know. My son (a journalist) keeps telling me I should read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas so I'll probably read it and keep him happy :)

I finished Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival (by Anderson Cooper) yesterday! This is a surprisingly short autobiography that reflects on the CNN journalist's personal and professional life through 2005. Though wealthy, well-educated, and loved, he was not immune to tragedy in his life; and seems to have deliberately put himself in harm's way in his early career, not to "find his bliss," but to find excitement and feeling. I packed this title off the library shelves because I thought there would be more about his war-front reporting; but his field experience seems to be not only "smooshed" up with his memories, but with multiple assignments - all loosely connected by theme. It's well written and edited; and has a healthy dose of introspection and honesty.

I finished Worm: The First Digital World War by Mark Bowden which was about the efforts made to contain the Conficker virus.

This is a fun thread to read. Lots of interesting suggestions for further reading!

I had fun trying out the link in >63 casvelyn:, it turned up two books that fit this challenge:
The pleasure of reading
and 1001 books. The first I'm reading for the biography challenge in the 75books group. It's an anthology of authors writing about reading, growing up, and their favorite books. Really nice.

Two others, that I was certain would also fit did not turn up: Lezen, that had no classification at all. I guess because it's in dutch, and we use a different classification system?
And Garden Eden that is classified under art, but is in fact about old botanical books and manuscripts in the Austrian National Library, so it's a book about books, and would fit here;)

So, fun challenge this, and it made me take my books from my shelves and look through them again.

I definitely can't read books like these in one go, I need to browse, and digest in small bits.

Can anyone participate in this challenge?

Can anyone participate in this challenge? Yes.

I finished How to Read A Book. One fun thing about it was that I didn't realize I was about to find another NZ author. This was a fun little book, more about the books Morey reads while she's writing a book, the writing process and some snarky, but entertaining peeks at some of the book reviews she has written. I may try one of her novels, but she implies some use of stream of consciousness (blech), so we shall see.

I finished Zer0es and am counting it for this challenge.

>102 majkia: Just started Zer0es. Any thoughts?

>103 luvamystery65: Not the sort of book for everyone, but if you are at all tuned into software folks, or follow the whole white hat/ black hat hacker stuff or like Mr Robot, you'll most likely find it intriguing.

I've been browsing through a book that I'm using for one of my categories this year - 500 Great Books by Women. I can't say I've "read' this since it isn't that sort of book, but I've spent enough time with it to mention it here.

It includes 500 books written by women from around the world and limits itself to one per author. It was compiled by women - a bookstore owner, a teacher, and a writer. They solicited opinions from all over the world and then compiled this book. There is a short entry for each title describing the book and significance. I particularly love the indexes included. There are separate indexes by title, author, genre, country of author's origin, books about women of color, and books with gay or lesbian protagonists. I've found a lot of familiar authors and many, many more that I've never heard of. I also have been surprised at some of the choices for an authors work - they don't always choose a famous authors most famous work. All in all I think this is a great resource that I'm glad to own.

*I was unable to find this book new as I think it is out of print. I bought a second hand copy on ebay. I think it was published in the 1990s so it is missing some newer women authors that I love but I still highly recommend it if you can find a copy.

I finished Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder (MDS 069.5) by Lawrence Weschler. This contains two lengthy essays about the very unusual Museum of Jurassic Technology. It includes some history about early Cabinets of Wonder and how some of our modern museums have evolved from these collections of curiosities.

I finished The Year of Reading Dangerously and it was meh. My review is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/206723#5429689.

I've finished When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning, which is an excellent book. It discusses the paperback books which were sent to the soldiers in World War II, and their impact; the books provided an activity that soldiers could do anywhere. Soldiers, who had read very seldom prior to the war, read them enthusiastically, and some became lifelong readers. Books of all kinds were sent to the soldiers. This is contrasted to the banning of books and book-burning done by the Nazis.

I finished Schott's Original Miscellany (Dewey 031.02) -- this is a ROOT I hadn't realized I had and I enjoyed it more than I anticipated. If you have any liking for trivia, I recommend it!

I've finished Chaos: Making a New Science by Gleick (003).

I finished Firmin and counted it for 028: reading.

I read Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch (028.9) for this challenge. It was obvious that Sankovitch had a deep relationship with her sister who died of cancer at the young age of 46. For the next 3 years the author tried everything she could think of, which was mainly manic activity, to come to terms with her grief and guilt for living when her sister had died. Her next thought was to read a book a day to try to understand her grief and how to live going forward with her pain. It seemed to me like another type of manic activity although it obviously worked for the author especially when she forced herself to write about each book and share her thoughts with others through her blog and through this book.

It seemed restrictive that she had to choose books by their size to get through reading them in a day, but I have read many of the same books and found them to be excellent, so maybe it was as good a choice as any. The book list at the back was quite good and varied.

I'm grateful for the addition of fiction to this category as it encouraged me to finally get to The Help by Kathryn Stockett. All I can say is, OMG. I can't believe it took me this long to read this book. Initially I put it off because of all the hype, and later it just didn't seem like something I'd like. Was I wrong! I read this via audio--and it's possibly the best audiobook I've heard. I LOVE this book. Exceptional narration by Jenna Lamia, Bahni Turpin, Octavia Sencer, and Cassandra Cambell. They brought Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter to life. I laughed. I cried. I cheered. I anguished. By the end of the book I wanted to reach out and give each character a big hug.

>113 bluebird_: Glad you finally made yourself read it! :-) And glad you ended up enjoying it so much!

I read Howard's End on the Landing about the authors' year of reading books from her extensive personal library. Some of the LT tags include memoir, autobiography, book collecting, books about books, etc. It is clearly non-fiction.

However, the DDC/MDS classification lists it as "823.914 Literature > English > Fiction > Modern Period > 20th Century > 1945-1999". While the author, Susan Hill, is primarily known for her fiction, this is not a work of fiction.

So, my question is: Should I list it under the Non-fiction section in the wiki or under the Fiction section?

>115 LoisB: List in in the nonfiction section. It has an alternate Dewey number of 028. Lots of libraries put it in the 800s because it's about an author, and the 800s include literary criticism.

>116 cbl_tn: Thank you! Now, being a purist at heart, I am happy to have read something that actually fits in the 000 class.

I finished and reviewed my non-fiction choice for this challenge: Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books, Aaron Lansky's memoir of his life as a Yiddish book rescuer and how a crazy idea he had while a graduate student went on to become the National Yiddish Book Center.

>22 rabbitprincess: Finished The Marsh Madness. Am rather pleased with myself for actually finishing it in the same month as the challenge!

Just realized that I read another book this month that qualifies: A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband, Danny Pearl.

Absolutely loved The Tender Bar and am so happy that it has a Dewey number in the 000's.

>76 -Eva-:
Well, I tried, but I'm having to give up on The Book of Lost Book. It's not at all what I was hoping, but more anecdotes about various authors without the research I wished for. It feels like I'm reading someone's notes from a series of lectures or something like that. My copy will be donated to FoL.

I finished Informatik, a museum guide to the computer science department of the Deutsches Museum, which has the Dewey number 004 in the North German union catalogue.

I was pretty focus on the GEOCat Challenge early in the month, but I finally managed to get my DeweyCat books finished! It's been years since I reread any of the Miss Zukas mysteries by Jo Dereske, so this was the perfect excuse to go back to the beginning of the series with Miss Zukas and the Library Murders. I'm going to end up rereading the entire series, I can already tell!

My nonfiction selection was The Thieves of Book Row: New York's Most Notorious Rare Book Ring and the Man Who Stopped It by Travis McCade. Who knew that stealing books from libraries was once both an organized and extremely profitable business? And that for years, the thieves stole with impunity? Having lived in both New York and Massachusetts, where most of the action takes place, I not only knew where many of the libraries were located, I've actually been in many of them, which increased my enjoyment.

>104 majkia: I'm not into software and hackers but I found Zer0es well written and actually pretty creepy. My aunt got an Echo for Christmas and now I don't trust that Alexa one bit!

>125 luvamystery65: LOL! Glad you enjoyed Zer0es. Us old style programmers have been scared for a long time!

I finished The Art Forger as my fiction book about museums (it is about the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum & the 1990 theft).

>124 Dejah_Thoris: I loved Miss Zukas. I just wish the series had been longer.

A little late, but this month I finished I. F. Stone: A Portrait by Andrew Patner; Dewey 070.092

Andrew Patner interviewed I. F. Stone for this book over a series of days in 1984, when Patner was a young 25-year-old journalist. Stone had been a left-wing journalist starting in the Depression until the Vietnam Era, and his I. F. Stone Weekly had a circulation of almost 70,000 in 1971.

The book is basically a transcript of the several days' interviews with Stone. The topics range from Stone's life in journalism, the Korean War, the 1950's Red Scare era (HUAC and the Rosenbergs), the Vietnam War, and large sections on Stone's fascination with the Ancient Greeks. The transcripts wander through these topics, probably just as Stone rambled through them himself. It's an interesting look at the politics and behind-the-scenes maneuvering in journalism during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, much of it new material to me, and certainly Stone was new to me. This was way out of my regular reading, but still worthwhile.