100: Philosophy and psychology: the occult, dreams, logic, ethics

In February we are in the 100 section of the Dewey System, called philosophy and psychology and this area includes such topics as dreams, logic and ethics.

Here are some suggestions:

100: Philosophy


110: Metaphysics


120: Philosophy of Humanity


130: Parapsychology and Occultism


140: Philosophical Schools of Thought


150: Psychology


160: Logic


170: Ethics


180: Ancient, medieval and eastern philosophy


190: Modern western philosophy


Other popular suggestions
Quiet: the power of Introverts In a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking - Malcolm Gladwell
Pet Loss Eleanor Lee Harris
The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in life and business - Charles Duhigg
Will the Circle Be Unbroken by Studs Terkel

You can find the wiki here: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2016CC_DeweyCAT

Fiction suggestions: You could read a psychological thriller or a novel with a mental illness them/Mentally ill character: I just read Complicity by Iain Banks and I think that one would be a psychological thriller. I think the Alienist or Flowers for Algernon would also be good choices for this month.

Thanks, Kristel! Looking forward to this topic. I sure hope I can find some time to read again soon! Will figure out what I'm going to read a bit later...

>2 LibraryCin:: I know what you mean

I'll read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. I've started it before and never finished.

I'm playing the "fiction equivalent" card again this month and will be reading Never Saw it Coming, by Linwood Barclay. It is a thriller and the main character is a psychic who appeared in one of Barclay's other books.

I'm reading something by Plato. I haven't decided which yet.

I'm thinking of several from Planet TBR. One is Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift From the Sea which is very short - and since I feel that I'm already behind in my challenges, I should probably stick with that. But I'm also wanting to get to a book about equine therapy called It's Not About The Horse and Heaven Is For Real is also on the stack.

>4 luvamystery65: I also have Meditations partially read. Sigh.

>7 streamsong: I'm trying to pick first from what I own so I think I may finally finish it. ;-)

I've got several fiction possibles for this:
The Shadow of the Wind , The Doomsday Key or Calculating God

Dewey .133 includes ghost stories.
I'm going to read Piedmont Phantoms (North Carolina's Haunted Hundred, Volume 2) by Daniel W. Barefoot

I've been meaning to read Quiet for ages so that's at the top of my list for February. If I have time, I'll also read The Right Attitude to Rain from Alexander McCall Smith's Sunday Philosophy Club series.

I have a copy of Andrew's Brain by E.L. Doctorow that I'm considering but the reviews are discouraging. Can anyone here offer an opinion?

I will also be playing the fiction card for this theme and I have lined up Birthdays For the Dead by Stuart MacBride and Cold Light by Jenn Ashworth.

I am planning on Belief or Nonbelief?: A Confrontation by Umberto Eco and Cardinal Martini. Most libraries apparently shelve it at 195.

I'm planning on reading Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh and may also read the next one in the Alexander McCall Smith Sunday Philosophy series. (Which hadn't dawned on me til I saw Carrie's post above.)

I think the top three choices for me from my shelves are Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times, The Logic of Failure: Recognizing and Avoiding Error in Complex Situations and The Ghost of Flight 401 (which would also fill a Bingo square). Other books I have that would fit are The Analects of Confucius and Plato's Selected Dialogues - I would have to feel especially ambitious to read either of those.

I saw one more on my shelf that should work - An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by a professor of psychiatry who has suffered from manic-depressive illness.

>7 streamsong: & >15 dudes22: - I absolutely loved Gift from the Sea - hope both of you have a chance to read it.

My choices right now for this challenge are The Analects of Confucius and Confucius: And the World He Created

>17 LisaMorr: An Unquiet Mind is soooo good! I read it years ago I thought it was rough reading emotionally but good.

>19 Tara1Reads: That's great to hear - I'll move it up the February pile!

I'm trying to do a bit of planning today, and got looking at your suggestions! How come what I'm reading in Jan will fit in Feb so much (GeoCAT, DeweyCAT...)!? I just got Flowers from Algernon from the library! I had it on hold, so I'm not sure I'll be able to renew it if I put off reading it. Oh, well. This should be an easy category for me.

>21 LibraryCin: It's the Third Law of Reading, that what you are reading now, will fit much better into some challenge for next month.

>22 majkia: LOL! Of course!

Now, I've been so busy this week with shelfari goings-on and trying to figure that all out. And I'm better off than some, being pretty well established at all three other sites! But, I'm also trying to follow groups to whichever other site they end up at, plus as admin for a few shelfari groups (including one of the most popular ones), trying to figure out where to go/what to do with them.

Anyway, not getting much reading done this week. Got a bit done last night and am almost done this month's GeoCAT. I will finish that today!

>22 majkia: so true, happens all the time.

The 170s have a lot of "ethics" books that might make interesting reads too.

I don't have anything on my shelf that will work. I've been curious about You Are Not Special and Other Encouragements by David McCullough Jr.. This is an expanded version of the graduation speech he gave a couple of years ago that got so much attention and my library has it so I'll read that.

Spook was just what I had in mind for next month, as long as it doesn't get checked out. Mary Roach has a great way of engaging the reader.

I looked through my library's 100s shelves today. I got out The Meaning of Human Existence by Edward O. Wilson which I had seen reviewed by someone on LT and thought looked interesting.

I also noticed that there are several Malcolm Gladwell books in this section which might be a popular choice. There are also books on dealing with stress and anxiety that I thought looked helpful.

For non-fiction, I'll be reading philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand's memoir of his life in Germany before he had to flee to the US: My Battle Against Hitler: Faith, Truth, and Defiance in the Shadow of the Third Reich (193). It's been on my shelf since Christmas 2014, so this is a good excuse to get it off the TBR pile.

For fiction, I'll be reading Dreaming Death by J. Kathleen Cheney, which comes out on the 2nd just in time to fit both February's DeweyCAT and SFFKIT challenges.

Umm, we seem to have two threads for February.

I'm planning to read either Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf and/or Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Both would be ROOTs. Later this spring I'll be taking a Virginia Woolf class featuring her short fiction, and I had planned to read Marcus Aurelius' Meditation last year for the history CAT, but didn't get around to it.

As I thought, this one should be easy for me. I guess I should double check (for the nonfiction) if they are actually classified into the 100s, but based on tags (I only checked "psychology" - I have enough of that to choose from, and there will be considerably less for "philosophy".

I See Rude People / Amy Alkon
Thinking in Pictures / Temple Grandin
Bonk / Mary Roach
The Botany of Desire / Michael Pollan
Still Missing / Chevy Stevens (fiction)

Hmmmm, well, none of the nonfiction I was thinking of are actually classified in the 100s.

So, I might be going the way of fiction.

- Flowers for Algernon: I thought I'd get to in Jan, but I haven't got there yet. I have about a week left on my library loan, so I think it's next up after I finish the one I'll be starting today (and hopefully finishing tomorrow!)

Also:
- Still Missing / Chevy Stevens

I'm planning on fiction too with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

I've got two nonfiction books picked out for this month's challenge: The Ghost of Flight 401 (thank you so much, Lisa, for mentioning this one back at post >16 LisaMorr:) and Holy Ghosts: How a (Not So) Good Catholic Boy Became a Believer in Things That Go Bump in the Night. I'll certainly get of one of them, but I'll aim for both.

I have plenty of fiction that should fit for this one, too. We'll see what happens!

>35 Dejah_Thoris: You're welcome, I'll be reading it too, so it will be neat to see what you think.

Flowers for Algernon / Daniel Keyes
4 stars

Charlie is mentally disabled, but is given the opportunity to have an “operashun” to make him smart. He has wanted to be smart his entire life, so he happily accepts. It turns out he is the first human to undergo this experiment.

This was really good. It's heartbreaking – the ups and downs. He said it himself in the book – there are pros and cons to both. For a while I considered rating this slightly higher, but overall, I think this is the best rating for me. However, I suspect this is one that will stick in my head and the rating – at least in my mind – may go up, as well.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey was excellent! 5 stars!

>37 LibraryCin: It certainly broke my heart as a teenager

>37 LibraryCin: and >38 VivienneR:; both excellent books.

I just finished Jackaby, a YA historical fantasy set in New England that features a detective pair who investigate supernatural crime. He is a seer who may be mad, and she is fresh off a Romanian dinosaur hunt—what could possibly go wrong?

>41 inge87: Sounds like that might be a tripleCAT if it is a relatively new book. Even if it isn't, you have the AlphaKIT, the RandomCAT & the DeweyCAT so congrats!

I just finished Grave Peril that features aspects of the occult - the wizard Harry Dresden is fighting ghosts, faeries and vampires. I didn't realize it beforehand, but I think it qualifies for a fictional entry into this months DeweyCAT.

>42 leslie.98: Jackaby also works for SFFKIT, but since it takes place in New England instead of Kazakhstan, GeoCAT is out. Still, 4/5 challenges is definitely a personal record!

I just finished, and did not particularly care for, Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich, dewey number 155.

I finished Famine, Affluence and Morality by Peter Singer (DDC 170). This is a small book, apparently several essays by Singer collected into one volume. Singer argues a philosophy of philanthropy to eliminate famine, on moral grounds (not religious). Should be recommended reading for all.

In January I finished Spinoza: A Life by Steven Nadler (DDC 199.492). Excellent biography of the philosopher Spinoza, with an emphasis on his time (17th c) and place (Amsterdam).

Starting Ancient Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction by Julia Annas (DDC: 180)

I finished Beastly Bones, which was not quite as good as Jackaby, but still worth picking up if you liked the first book. This time our duo gets involved shape shifting predators, who may have been responsible for wiping out the Dodos, and dinosaur bones that may be provoking murder.

Spacefem is offering a way to determine one's own Dewey designation. Find it here.

They give you a choice of placements and this is the one I chose for myself.




Mamzel's Dewey Decimal Section:

857 Italian humor & satire



Class:
800 Literature


Contains:
Literature, criticism, analysis of classic writing and mythology.



What it says about you:
You're a global, worldly person who wants to make a big impact with your actions. You have a lot to tell people and you're good at making unique observations about everyday experiences. You can notice and remember details that other people think aren't important.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Huh, I got 083 Collections in other Germanic Languages.

018 Catalogs arranged by author, date, etc. for me. :-)

I put in my full name and month of birth and got: 561 Paleobotany; fossil microorganisms. Among other things this apparently means that I "might be a nerd".

I got 291 Unassigned; Religion. Holy crow, that was a wrong number!

This is fun. I got 019: Dictionary/Catalogs. The good: I am honest; The bad: I am stubborn

I finished Spook. Mary Roach is such a blast to read!

OK, I got:

886 Classical Greek letters
Robert Greaves's birthday: 9/29/1957 = 929+1957 = 2886

Class:
800 Literature

Contains:
Literature, criticism, analysis of classic writing and mythology.

What it says about you:
You're a global, worldly person who wants to make a big impact with your actions. You have a lot to tell people and you're good at making unique observations about everyday experiences. You can notice and remember details that other people think aren't important.

I can live with that.

So I only put in my first name & birthday month and got:


Leslie's Dewey Decimal Section:
554 Earth sciences of Europe
Leslie = 259295 = 259+295 = 554

Class:
500 Science
Contains:
Math, astronomy, prehistoric life, plants and animals.
What it says about you:
You are fascinated by the world around you, and see it as a puzzle worth exploring. You try to understand how things work and how you can make them better. You might be a nerd.

That isn't bad but out of curiosity (because I like to understand how things work!), I went back and added in my birthday date & year to see how it affected the results (keeping my favorite number and color the same). I got the same as above but another was added to it. I played around with differing input -- the results are only dependent on your name (birthday, favorite number, etc. don't change what you get). My full name got:

Leslie xx xxx's Dewey Decimal Section:
941 British Isles
Leslie xx xxx = 25929505147182144 = 259+295+051+471+821+44 = 1941

Class:
900 History & Geography
Contains:
Travel, biographies, ancient history, and histories of continents.
What it says about you:
You're connected to your past and value the things that have happened to you. You've had some conflicted times in your life, but they've brought you to where you are today and you don't ignore it.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com



That was fun, thanks >49 mamzel:!

I have finished Birthdays for the Dead by Stuart McBride, a psychological thriller that I read for this month's Dewey.

Just finished reading Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf for the this challenge (172.4 which is probably not the number I would have assigned to it).

The reason I would not have chosen 172.4 is because that number is about the ethics of peace and war. Although these essays talk about peace and war, they are more directed toward the place of middle class women (the daughters of educated men) in English society in the late 1930s. Virginia Woolf justifies giving one guinea each to a building fund for a women's college, a society promoting the employment of professional women, and a society -- run by males -- to help prevent war and protect culture and intellectual liberty. Ms. Woolf links these three causes.

For this challenge I'm also reading Female Desires: How They Are Sought, Bought, and Packaged by Rosalind Coward (155.3) which is definitely British oriented and discusses this culture in the 1970s and 1980s; the book was published in 1985 and was on my long-time to be read shelf.

I probably will not be reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (188) after-all. The introduction to it is rather deep.

COMPLETED Ancient Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction by Julia Annas (DDC 180) (touchstones not working today)

Starting Socrates: A Very Short Introduction by Christopher Taylor (DDC 183.2)

I just finished the excellent Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life is Your Hidden Strength by Laurie Helgoe for this month's DeweyCAT. 155 is the Dewey number. I highly recommend it. My review is on my thread here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/204813#5469857.

COMPLETED Socrates: A Very Short Introduction by Christopher Taylor (DDC 183.2) and starting The Symposium by Plato (DDC 184)

My review of "Socrates: A Very Short Introduction"

This started out OK with a general discussion of the sources about Socrates and whether they are reconcilable to show us the historical figure behind the different accounts. This is followed by an in-depth discussion of Plato's earlier dialogues and then a quick guide on Socrates through the ages, focussed particularly on the 19th century.

There is no way that this is an "Introduction". I don't have a great knowledge of Plato's work but I do have some, and I found the central section discussing the chronology of the works and then the earlier dialogues in particular a real struggle. The last part focussed on Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche, who I freely admit I know very little of beyond their names. I understood very little of this section and ended up skimming my way through it.

Will the Circle Be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith (DDS 128.5)

I so wanted to love this book, but I didn't. In fairness, I have to say that I just got tired of the stories. As with his earlier book Working, the book consists of interviews with a wide variety of people across many socio-economic categories. This book focused on people's association with death, their feelings about it and their thoughts about what happens after death. I do think I would have rated it much higher had it bee shorter - the last 100 pages were a struggle.

>63 LoisB: I was curious about this book, glad to see your review.

I just finished reading Hunger and think that it might work for a fiction book about ethics. The main character is very concerned about his ethics and honor even though he is destitute and starving.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette? / Maria Semple
3.75 stars

Bernadette was an architect and won a prestigious award for it. She left it behind when she and her husband Elgie moved to Seattle, where Elgie was working for Microsoft. Their daughter, Bee, is rewarded with a trip to Antarctica when she does well in school, but that seems to set off some kind of panic in Bernadette.

This was written from many different points of view, and apparently (at least partially – hard to tell with audio) via letters, invoices, etc., so it was a bit hard to follow at times. I liked the end better, but for the first 3/4, I wasn't sure how I was going to rate it. It was definitely a little odd. I didn't really like any of the characters. But I liked the "story" (if you could call it a story!). The extra .25 is for the very "enthusiastic" narrator of the audio book.

Finished God's Debris by Scott Adams this weekend. A short, and at a times, thought-provoking read. Interesting, Adams feels that his book should be classified as fiction because the characters are not real, but my local library has it cataloged as nonfiction with a Dewey number 110.

I finished The Ghost of Flight 401, Dewey number 133, which was about the crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 into the Everglades in 1972 and the supernatural happenings that were reported afterward. I vaguely remember the crash as my dad flew for TWA and airline crashes would be a hot topic at our house. My dad gave me the book some time ago, and now that I've read it I'll have to ask him if had heard of any of the ghost sightings - TWA leased some of Eastern's L-1011's during their slower periods.

I found it to be an interesting book, but there were some slower parts when the author talked about his readings into the supernatural and ghosts and tried to explain his view - a lot of time this didn't make sense to me.

Still Missing / Chevy Stevens
5 stars

Annie is a realtor who was kidnapped at the end of an open house. The story is actually told while Annie is in therapy and it's told as she is relating it to her therapist, so we know she gets away somehow. But where she was, what happened while she was there, who did this, etc. is still a mystery. She is also having a hard time dealing with fitting back in to her “normal” life.

Wow! This gripped me from the start. I have to admit to not liking Annie much at the start of the book, but of course, how she became that way is - at least in part - shaped by what happened to her. There was language and awful situations in the book. It was a solid 4.5 star book through most of it, but the twist at the end upped it to 5 stars for me – not a rating I give out very ofte

I am about 1/3 through Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. I am enjoying it but I have to keep rereading certain passages. I decided to try a more modern translation and now I am really enjoying it. I think I will reread this one next year or the year after with the old and new translations side by side.

I've finished Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Dewey number 170.8. A book of personal essays, she reflects on the various aspects of a woman's emotional life.

>71 dudes22: Thanks for letting me know that Gift from the Sea falls in the 100s. This is a book which I have wanted to reread for a long time; I think that I was a teenager when I read it. Fortunately, it is listed as being available at both our public and university libraries.

I've decided not to continue reading Female Desires by Rosalind Coward (155.3) for the time being since it is rather outdated (and very British), and I've so many other books i want to read.

I completed Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain for this CAT. I really enjoyed it.

I'm late to the party of people who loved The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Well, maybe not "loved", but I liked it enough to give it 4 stars. I thought it was very well written for a debut book, and the story held my attention. He evoked a strong sense of place, especially in the Afghanistan portions of the book, and engagement with the characters. For this challenge, I'm clutching onto the 145 Dewey number from the list on the work page.

I borrowed Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh from the local public library and read it. I read the 1975 edition, which has an update, "Gift from the Sea Re-opened giving Ms. Lindbergh's comments twenty years after she initially wrote the book. I have discovered that this is not the most current edition; a 50th anniversary edition was published. I found particularly interested the first essays about the discontent of women in the 1950s before Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique and the 1975 update; the sections about relationships in mid-life were not as meaningful to me.

>73 Kristelh: I read that a while back. I liked a lot about it, particularly her gentle description of introverts - we DO like people, we do!

I haven't started mine yet, but I've picked up Kids Behaving Bravely - 155. something. It caught my eye as I browsed through the section. I've been trying to help my 9 year old increase his resilience, so why not read this book?

>49 mamzel: Here's mine - which oddly works well with the Left brain/Right brain quiz I took today that put me 63% left brained...

Jennifer's Dewey Decimal Section:
608 Inventions & patents
Jennifer = 05449658 = 054+496+58 = 608

Class:
600 Technology

Contains:
Health, agriculture, management, public relations, buildings.

What it says about you:
You are creative and inspired to make the world a better place. You can work hard on something when it catches your interest. Your friends have unique interests in common with you.

I just finished Geography of Genius which a bit philosophy, a bit psychology, a bit history, a bit travel and a bit geography. I really enjoyed it. 153.9809

I am currently rereading Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. It is science fiction but it would work for this Dewey as a fiction as it is philosophy and about memory.

>69 LibraryCin: Thanks for your review of Still Missing Cindy. I'd forgotten I had it languishing on my TBR pile. I just finished it a few days ago and agree with you: Wow is right! I loved how the story unfolds via Annie's sessions with her psychiatrist. Creepy and disturbing at times but one book I didn't want to put down until I was finished.

I wonder if this would also fit in February's RandomCat: It Takes Two. It's not a traditional "couple" or "pair", but there's Annie and her kidnapper or Annie and her mother. Hmmm.

>80 bluebird_: Hmmm, good thought! Maybe it could go in RandomCAT, too. My first thought was Annie and her kidnapper...

I finished De brevitate vitae / Die Kürze des Lebens by Seneca, which the German union catalogue puts into DDC 188.

>81 LibraryCin:. Still Missing doesn't quite fit the spirit of February's RandomCat: It Takes Two, but since the category isn't just for "loving" couple and includes a title with two names or picture of two people on the cover I guess it fits. I'll add it there. Yay, my first foray into RandomCat. : )

I read another psychological thriller for this challenge. I didn't really like Cold Light by Jenn Ashworth, it was very dark with nasty teenage girls. I do, however, suspect this will be a book that I long remember.

I also read Gift From the Sea.

I agree that parts of it seemed a bit dated, but other parts seemed very relevant.

The need to go off to by herself for renewal reminded me of Quiet which my book group read last year.

The quiet contemplation in the moment was enough like current mindfulness trends, that I wondered if she had ever read any Buddhism texts or perhaps, more likely, Thoreau?

I wish LT had her legacy library cataloged!

Her writing was beautiful and poetic. This is one of the many passages I liked:

Before we sleep we go out again into the night. We walk up the beach under the stars. And when we are tired of walking, we lie flat on the sand under a bowl of stars. We feel stretched, expanded to take in their compass. They pour into us until we are filled with stars, up to the brim."

I read Solaris has my fiction selection. My second time of reading this book. A science fiction work by Polish author Stanislaw Lem written in 1961. Kris Kelvin is coming to Solaris to work with another scientist on the planet Solaris. Solaris is an ocean without atmosphere. The question is whether Solaris is a sentient being. When Kelvin arrives he finds that the scientist he was going to work with has committed suicide. The other two are holed up in their rooms and will barely leave for short periods of time. Something is not right about the space station. Soon Kelvin finds out what the others already know. This is also a philosophical work that explores human memory and communication with non human. I read the audio and want to add that this was narrated by Alessandro Juliani who does such a superb job of making each voice unique. He even does an excellent female voice.

I've read and reviewed a few more for this month's challenge.

For Fiction:
Dreaming Death a fantasy, whose plot is driven by one character's dreams of murder
Winterwood a historical fantasy in which the heroine's late husband's ghost is her constant companion
Wild Hearts & Cold Hearts the first two books in a romantic thriller trilogy in which one character's mother's dream reveal the reasons for a series of murders

Non-Fiction:
The Ghost of Flight 401 Very 1970s. The parts about the crash and the ghost sightings are much better than the parts where he tries to contact the dead himself.

I finished The Just City by Jo Walton, a fantasy book about the gods Athena and Apollo setting up an experimental city based on Plato's Republic, featuring Socrates as a character.

I also finished Beyond Fate, an exploration of fate based on Margaret Visser's Massey lectures. It was interesting reading this book following The Just City because it too explores the Ancient Greeks' notions of fate.

I read one more for this month, The Relaxation Response by Herbert Benson. The Dewey number is 155. It's a quick read that is important health-wise for everyone, but especially with people with high blood pressure or anyone at risk of developing heart disease, or suffering a heart attack or stroke or anyone who already has. I recommend reading this book. My review is here https://www.librarything.com/topic/204813#5499722.

I'm going to finish The Screwtape Letters, which I started to read many years ago, then I moved houses and misplaced the book and then RL takes over like it does... Time to finish it.