I've been dragging my heels on this one for a while now. I've been doing the LC Challenge instead, since I understand that system better, and since it doesn't think nearly 10% of all classification space should be devoted to Christianity. But this group is much more active, so I'm jumping in anyway, for a modified version.
I'm mostly aiming for the 100s (how many is it really, when you take out the "no longer used" categories?) but giving myself full permission to ignore the 200s. I'll do the same "one post per top-level category" system that most people seem to use.
200: Religion
230
Welcome: A Unitarian Universalist Primer277
Letter to a Christian Nation (added 5/26)
294
RamayanaThe first is only in the 230s by historical accident. It certainly wouldn't be there if the classification system were developed today -- it isn't Christian at all. (It has the same issues in the LC system, too.)
Not tracking missing categories here, because while I appreciate Zoe's consideration I
am not going to worry about this category.
Meddelelse redigeret af dens forfatter, maj 26, 2009, 12:27pm.
439
Born to kvetch was a pretty amusing look at yiddish - some chapters more than others - there were entire chapters devoted to cursing and body parts, so perhaps not for the faint of heart! But just a suggestion for the Germanic languages category.
Meddelelse redigeret af dens forfatter, maj 19, 2009, 3:43pm.
9> Thanks for the suggestion! It looks amusing.
Standing as of 5/20/2009:
10/10
64/99
159/919
If I ignore the 200s, I need only 28 more categories to complete the 100s challenge. However I've already done the easy ones -- there's only one on my TBR (and it's in the 200s), none on my wishlist, and two or three that got mentioned here that are on my "investigate further" list.
Meddelelse redigeret af dens forfatter, maj 26, 2009, 6:49pm.
16>
Thanks _Zoe_; I'd actually gone through your library and found the first two. I've been waffling between
The Linguist and the Emperor and
The Keys of Egypt; if you've read the latter, which would you say has more emphasis on the decipherment vs. the biography?
While perusing the list of categories looking for areas where I might find something interesting I noticed two more where I've read something that I didn't initially notice above:
918:
Darwin Slept Here (This was in my catalog, but misclassified as a 910. It's frustrating that unlike the LC system there isn't a single authority, so when sources differ (and there is no number, or no clear winner, on LT) I have to make a best guess.)
839:
A Doll's House (read way back in high school, but hey, I don't see this one happening otherwise.)
Adding these to the main tracking posts, but not dating them -- I'm only dating actual new reads.
Well, I read it as much as anyone can. You may not count it, but you're stricter than most.
Yeah, it's true, I'm unusually picky. Oh well, maybe someday someone will decipher it.
595:
Four Wings and a PrayerI'm starting to wish I'd split the 500s into multiple posts; the touchstones are sluggish.
423:
Reading the OEDI'm not sure but I think I may be the only person here who didn't read
The Professor and the Madman for this category. This was a fun book, very suited for reading in short increments as I did. For those who read
The Know-it-All for 031, this is the same schtick, but for the OED rather than the Encyclopedia Brittanica -- the author describes his year spent reading the OED, interspersed with discussions of words he found interesting or amusing. (I was pleased to see that "ambisinister", a word I've coined playfully to describe being clumsy with both hands, is in fact a real word appearing in the OED.)
One other suggestion for the 400s--I like to pick up old travel phrase books in various languages. They're usually short, and I find them entertaining. I have a couple of War Department ones from World War II and some other miscellaneous ones. Because I can actually read them all the way through, I've counted some of those in the standard usage categories. They're educational as well--now I can say, "Are you a sniper?" in Italian. Very useful.
@ 28
how do you find those?
Used book stores or sales, mainly. After getting one of the war department ones from a university book sale (for 50 cents), I've gotten a couple of other off eBay because I like them so much.
945:
Tilt: A Skewed History of the Tower of PisaSlight and forgettable. Really more a "history of Pisa, with the tower as a focus" than anything else. What was the most interesting part to me -- the various projects to stabilize the tower over the centuries -- were glossed over much too quickly.
Too bad, it sounds like it should have been interesting.
32>
Yeah, it was a disappointment. At least I picked it up for fifty cents at a book sale.
>35
That's a good candidate for the "books with great titles" thread that's floating around somewhere.
493:
The Keys of EgyptThis was something of a disappointment; there was more on the biography and less focus on the actual decipherment than I would have liked. It's made me reconsider whether I want to read the other Adkins book on decipherment (
Empires of the Plain, which Zoe mentioned upthread), if it's just going to be more of the same.
38>
Well, you said you hadn't read
Keys of Egypt, so you didn't mislead me, I did that all on my own. :) And I don't mind a little biography mixed in with the history, the balance of this was just a little too much on the biography side.
628:
Seven Wonders: Everyday Things for a Healthier PlanetThis is a good one for those of you struggling with the 600s -- while it's a little dated and didn't have much I didn't know, it was still interesting -- it looks at seven small things like the bicycle and the clothesline and the environmental benefits of using them.
915:
Lost on Planet ChinaBill Bryson-style travel narrative about China. I'm amused that this one falls in the travel section (which it should), while the fairly similar
Fried Eggs with Chopsticks has just enough history mixed in between the travel sections to get classified as 951 (history).
What a wonderful review of
Where the wild things were. I have now immediately added it to my wishlist.
It's interesting though - the debate about top-down (ie predators control what ecosystems look like and how they function) vs. bottom-up (ie. the supply/limitation of nutrients controls ecosystems via the growth of primary producers - plants - and hence primary consumers - herbivores - and secondary consumers - omnivores and carnivores) goes back and forth, and some ecosystems show evidence of one while others show evidence of the other, etc. Likely, it is not hard and fast, but a spectrum whose rules we still don't fully understand.
It's really cool that the book starts out with the otter and star fish examples. Those papers are very famous within the ecology and marine biology communities, and are getting to be considered 'classic' by many. I remember reading them for classes I've taken.
Thanks, bfertig! I agree that the top-down vs bottom-up issue is probably a false dichotomy, and I'm glad that someone who actually knows what they're talking about agrees. :)
634:
Introduction to Fire in CaliforniaI've had this on my shelf for about a year now, and was finally prompted to pick it up by the
Station Fire which is now burning near us (not close enough to be a threat -- just close enough to ruin the air, and have very impressive views of flaming mountains when they aren't obscured by smoke).
This should be required reading for anyone living in southern California.
Edited to close rogue HTMLMeddelelse redigeret af dens forfatter, sep 1, 2009, 2:40pm.
Interesting - I received
Wildfire and Americans from someone on Bookmooch - it looked interesting at the time, but I haven't gotten to it yet. Have you read that one? It's 307 (Communities), so it could give you another DDN as well.
Meddelelse redigeret af dens forfatter, sep 1, 2009, 3:46pm.
>47
What did you think of
Why People Believe Weird Things? It's a subject that's always interested me. I read
How We Know What Isn't So last year and enjoyed it, especially the first parts of the book that talked about the cognitive and social elements of how we are given and how we perceive information (backed with simple psychology experiments). The later parts just devolved into the author pointing out how silly some of these beliefs were instead of tying them back to the earlier topics. I know the beliefs are silly - that's what makes the topic interesting to me. Does the author really dig into
why people believe these things?
Meddelelse redigeret af dens forfatter, okt 15, 2009, 5:06pm.
48
Sorry I missed your question earlier! It does dig into the "why" somewhat, especially in the introductory and concluding chapters, but I wouldn't say that's the sole focus.
Thanks. I read a bit of the introduction at the library today. It seems interesting. And I need something for the category - it's either this or a history book the Salem witch trials.
930:
Time DetectivesThis is a good popular overview of a number of interesting archaeological finds, with the unifying theme of 'archaeology isn't just digging up pots anymore'. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
#52 This one looks very interesting, I'm adding it to the wishlist to check out later.
Agreed, I was convinced I wanted to be an archeologist when I was a kid.
954:
India: A HistoryFinally! I've been reading this on and off (a couple chapters between other non-fiction books) for what seems like forever. I'd been looking for years for a good, comprehensive history of India that didn't start when the British arrived (or worse, when they left) and this fit the bill in spades -- sufficiently comprehensive that it was very slow going and hard to follow at times. I would have liked it to be a little less of the kings-and-battles school of history, though I do understand that sometimes that's all that's available.
650:
Bait and SwitchThis, on the other hand, was a quick read. Not as good as Ehrenreich's earlier
Nickel and Dimed but still worth a read.
#56
India, A History looks very interesting, I've added it to the wishlist. Have you seen that
Keay has another - similar - book out called
China, A History? Will fit in #951, if you don't already have something there.
(til toppen)
