Spyrunner's Dewey Decimal Challenge

I once challenged a co-worker at Barnes and Nobel to find a section of our store that I had not read a book from. After several incorrect guesses he finally picked New Age Crystals. I have never read a book on crystals, but he was impressed at how wide ranging my choice of books is. Just this week I realized that I have read all the classes, and two thirds of the divisions. I would like to read 33 more books to complete all the divisions. I've already picked out some interesting books for the next few years to help complete this.

Here is what I have read so far. Let me know if there are any interesting books I should read to plug up the holes.

Dewey Book
000 Road Ahead, the by Bill Gates (1995)
010
020 The Voynich Manuscript by Raymond Clemens (2016)
030 The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A. J. Jacobs (2005)
040
050
060
070 Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson (2013)
080 The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action by Wendy Northcutt (2002)
090
100 Astonish Yourself: 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life by Roger-Pol Droit (2003)
110
120 The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip Heath (2017)
130 The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson (2005)
140
150 The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want by Sonja Lyubomirsky (2008)
160
170 Advice from My 80-Year-Old Self: Real Words of Wisdom from People Ages 7 to 88 by Susan O'Malley (2016)
180 On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It (Penguin Great Ideas) by Seneca (2005)
190 Everybody Needs a Rock (For the Junior Rockhound) by Byrd Baylor (1985)
200 Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am? Insights into Personal Growth by John Powell (1995)
210 The Age of reason by Thomas Paine (2019)
220 TNIV New Testament by Zondervan Publishing (2002)
230 Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (Plus) by Bart D. Ehrman (2007)
240 What Wives Wish Their Husbands Knew About Women by James C. Dobson (1981)
250 Church Signs Across America by Steve Paulson (2009)
260
270 Letter to a Christian Nation: A Challenge to Faith by Sam Harris (2007)
280 Under the banner of heaven : a story of violent faith by Jon Krakauer (2003)
290 The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff (1982)
300 The World Without Us by Alan Weisman (2007)
310
320 The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (2008)
330 The Canadian Establishment Volume 1 by Peter C. Newman (1977)
340
350 The Art of War by Sun Tzu (2005)
360 A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer (2012)
370 How to Select Reinforcers (How to Manage Behavior Series) by R. Vance Hall (1998)
380 The Squeaky Wheel: Complaining the Right Way to Get Results, Improve Your Relationships, and Enhance Self-Esteem by Guy Winch Ph.D. (2011)
390 How to Be a Gentleman: A Timely Guide to Timeless Manners by John Bridges (2008)
400
410
420 Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States by Bill Bryson (2001)
430
440
450 Learn Italian: Italian Insults - Bad words - Sex-related terms by Linda Wentworth (2015)
460
470
480
490 The Secret World of Og by Pierre Berton (1991)
500 A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (2004)
510 Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics by William Dunham (1991)
520 A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes by Stephen W. Hawking (1988)
530 Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) by Richard P. Feynman (1997)
540 Building Blocks of the Universe by Isaac Asimov (1974)
550 Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester (2005)
560 The Dinosaur Heresies: New Theories Unlocking the Mystery of the Dinosaurs and Their Extinction by Robert T. Bakker (1986)
570 The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Author by Richard Dawkins (2006)
580
590 Parasite Rex : Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures by Carl Zimmer (2001)
600 Where's My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived by Daniel H. Wilson (2007)
610 The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry (2005)
620 Plastic: A Toxic Love Story by Susan Freinkel (2011)
630 Don't Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching and Training by Karen Pryor (2002)
640 For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage by Tara Parker-Pope (2010)
650 What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School: Notes From A Street-Smart Executive by Mark H. McCormack (1986)
660
670
680 Introduction to Bookbinding & Custom Cases: A Project Approach for Learning Traditional Methods by Tom Hollander (2019)
690
700
710
720
730
740 Big Mushy Happy Lump: A Sarah's Scribbles Collection by Sarah Andersen (2017)
750 100 Famous Paintings by Marina Vaizey (1994)
760
770 Body Knots by Howard Schatz (2000)
780 How to listen to and Understand Opera by Professor Robert Greenberg (2001)
790 Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer (1999)
800 The Boys' Life of Mark Twain by Albert Bigelow Paine (2010)
810 To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee (1960)
820 Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (2004)
830 The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann D. Wyss (2009)
840 Candide by Voltaire (1991)
850 Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi (1996)
860 One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (2006)
870
880
890
900 Caesar and Christ (Story of Civilization) by Will Durant (1944)
910 No Baggage: A Minimalist Tale of Love and Wandering by Clara Bensen (2016)
920 The 100: A Ranking Of The Most Influential Persons In History by Michael H. Hart (2000)
930 Caesar: The Conquest Of Gaul by Julius Caesar (1993)
940 Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (1993)
950 No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden by Mark Owen (2012)
960
970 The Great Depression: 1929-1939 by Pierre Berton (2001)
980
990

Here are some of the books I've found that I may read. The information at the end in parenthesis is which library owns it.

010 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die by Peter Boxall
Bizarre Books: A Compendium of Classic Oddities by Russell Ash (Georgetown)
040 unassigned
050 Mad About the Sixties: The Best of the Decade by Mad Magazine GR (LOC)
Good Days and Mad: A Hysterical Tour Behind the Scenes at Mad Magazine (Herrick)
The Playboy Book: Forty Years by Gretchen Edgren
The Playboy Book: Fifty Years by Gretchen Edgren
060 Robert's Rules in Plain English by Doris P. Zimmerman
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder by Lawrence Weschler
Smithsonian Institution: A Photographic Tour (GR very short)
090 Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts by Christopher De Hamel
Miniature Books: 4,000 Years of Tiny Treasures MelCat/Herrick
The Role of the Scroll (GR)
Rare Books Uncovered (GR)
Elements Of Pop Up: A Pop Up Book For Aspiring Paper Engineers by David A. Carter (GR rare books)
110 Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility (own)
Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology by Jean-Paul Sartre
The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
140 The Good Book: A Humanist Bible by A. C. Grayling
260 A Comfortable Pew by Pierre Berton (GR)
310 Seeing the Bigger Picture (GR)
Atlas of Global Development (GR)
How to lie with statistics by Darrell Huff
340 Constitution of the United States by Founding Fathers (Librivox)
400 The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature by Steven Pinker
410 The Joy of Signing by Lottie L. Riekehof
Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It by Gabriel Wyner (GR 7 CD)
Learn Any Language by Barry Farber
Other wordly (GR)
430 Yiddish with Dick and Jane by Ellis Weiner GR
Conversational Dutch (GR 2 CD)
Complete Icelandic (GR 2 CD)
440 Merde! The Real French You Were Never Taught at School GR
460 Talk Dirty Spanish: Beyond Mierda
470 Carpe Diem (GR 5 CD)
480 Modern Greek: the short course (GR 5 CD)
The Riddle of the Labyrinth (GR)
Man Who Deciphered Linear B (melCat)
580 Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart (GR 4 CD)
700 Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh by Vincent van Gogh
Leonardo's Notebooks by da Vinci Leonardo
The Lonely City (GR 8 CD)
720 Treehouses of the World
730 Origami
Towel origami
760 M. C. Escher: The Graphic Work by M. C. Escher
870 The Aeneid by Virgil
The Gallic War and Other Writings by Ceasar
880 ?
890 What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir by Haruki Murakami (Georgetown 4 CD)
980 Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read (GR 9 CD)
990 People of the Deer by Farley Mowat
Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell (GR audio 7 CD)

I was hoping to complete a book in every division by the end of next year, but I made great progress in one month.

016 Bizarre Books
A fun book of strange and fascinating books published through the years. I actually ordered one of them for Dewey number 439.
069 Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder by Lawrence Weschler
091 Roll of the Scroll
Fascinating book with beautiful pictures.
092 Apocalypsis Sancti Johannis
I found a block book in Google books. I just looked at the pretty pictures as it is written in German.
096 The Elements of Pop-Up
This short books shows how to create a pop-book.
194 Regrets sur ma vieille robe de chambre: suivi de la promenade Vernet
Another book that took minutes to read. I tried reading it in French, but I was lost.
447 My First English-Haitian Creole Illustrated Dictionary
Yes, I read children's language books. I'm not reading an entire dictionary.
659 Race Me in a Lobster Suit
This should have been in humor, but I'll take it.
717 Labyrinths & Mazes
This is a great book for those who don't want to read about how to build a deck. It's not worth reading, but the pictures are beautiful.
728 Treehouses of the World
Awesome book. Highly recommended.
824 How Should One Read a Book?
This took no time to read.
982 Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors
I remember when this occurred. It was interesting to hear an account of what actually went on.

Here are November's books. I loved Flirting with French and I was sad to see that $64 tomato was not in farming to fill up a vacant Dewey number. Thanks to this group for suggesting Miniature Books. I also enjoyed Good Days and Mad as I used to read that magazine in my youth. I found Organized Obsessions rather tedious, but the author added enough humor to keep me going. I found out about the Irishman's Difficulties with the Dutch Language from last month's Bizarre books, but I think you need a little understanding of Dutch to really appreciate it.

Good Days and Mad: A Hysterical Tour Behind the Scenes at Mad Magazine 051
Organized Obsessions: 1,001 Offbeat Associations You Can Join by Deborah M. Burek 061
Miniature Books 099
Constitution of the United States by Founding Fathers 342
Irishman's difficulties with the Dutch language 439
Flirting with French 448
The Book of Signs by Rudolf Koch 652
100 Greatest Baby Boomer Toys 688
A Little Book of Gargoyles 729 (officially 703)

I had a busy December reading, mostly because I had two weeks vacation from work. My favorites were Lost Languages and the beautiful libraries. All books were worth reading, and worth reading for their Dewey decimal number.

The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World 022
The Good Book: A Humanist Bible by A. C. Grayling 144
Have a Nice Doomsday: Why Millions of Americans Are Looking Forward to the End of the World 236
The Legend of Pope Joan by Peter Stanford 262
Seeing the Bigger Picture 310
Lost Languages : The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts 411
Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It by Gabriel Wyner 418
Infographic Guide to Grammar 425
Hide This French Book 447
Carpe Diem 478
Language of Angels 492
Bowwow Powwow 497
Rorstrand Porcelain: Art Nouveau Masterpieces 738
Prelude to a Million Years, Song Without Words, Vertigo by Lynd Ward 761
The World of M.C. Escher 769
It's all Relative A. J. Jacobs 929

In January, I read a book in every class. I've never done that before. Granted, many were rather short, but I enjoyed the wide range of topics.

Dirty! Dirty! Dirty!: Of Playboys, Pigs, and Penthouse Paupers An American 050
Nietzsche in 90 Minutes 193
How to become a bishop without being religious by Charles Merrill Smith 250
Aesop's Fables 398
What they Didn't teach you in Spanish Class 468
Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist 580
Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart 581
Shrinking the Cat by Sue Hubbell 660
Bum Fodder 676
How to Build An Igloo 693
Masterpieces of the J Paul Getty Museum: Decorative Arts 745
Chopin : the Man and His Music 786
The Public Orations of Demosthenes 885
Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell 996

I think my favorite was Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell. Unfortunately, her other books are not ones I need for this challenge. Thanks for suggesting Shrinking the Cat, it was quite enjoyable. Bum Fodder - a history of toilet paper, was quite well researched, but the bathroom humor got old. I loved the first half of Chopin, but I was not familiar enough with his work to really get much out of the analysis of his music. I found the orations of Demosthenes quite enjoyable, but I only listened to half of them - the ones from volume one. How to Become a Bishop was an interesting account of how ministers view their jobs. I would recommend all of these books for the Dewey Decimal challenge, as long as you know what you are getting yourself into with the Bum Fodder.

In February I mostly read Empires of the Word. It was wonderful, but it was slow reading. The rest of the books took almost no time. I was the most disappointed with Finite and Infinite Games. It started out so well, but could not keep up the wonderful comparisons between infinite and finite games. Thanks for the two suggestions DaynaRT and Fundevogel. I was pleasantly surprised to see a statue of Mary Seacole (947 below) in the Masterpieces of the J Paul Getty Museum sculpture book (730 below). I'm finding several of these connections as I read. I would recommend all the books below for fulfilling the Dewey except maybe Adelphi - there has to be something better in that category. I also only read the dictionary of Witches as there wasn't much else there in that category available at my library. The Lonely City was good, but sad. The Fables of Phaedrus was too similar to Aesop's, read one or the other.

110 Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility
409 Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World by Nicholas Ostler (one of my favorite books on language and history - DaynaRT)
433 My First Book of German Words
458 Hide This Italian Book
489 My First Book of Greek Words
700 The Lonely City
708 Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum: Illuminated Manuscripts GR
730 Masterpieces of the J Paul Getty Museum: European Sculptures
760 Harry Potter Magic Eye Book: 3D Magical Moments
831 Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffman (Fundevogel)
847 Dictionary of Witches
871 The Fables of Phaedrus
872 Adelphi: or, The Brothers by Terence (c.195 BC - 159 BC)
947 Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands by Mary Seacole

Lent 2022
202 And the Laugh Shall Be First William H. Willimon
215 Religion and Science by Bertrand Russell
234 A Dialogue Between a Methodist and a Churchman
238 The Heidelberg Catechism
241 Lying by St. Augustine
243 The Big Red Tractor and the Little Village
246 Symbols of the church by Carroll E. Whittemore
247 Basket, Basin, Plate and Cup
249 Yesterday, Today, and Forever by Maria Von Trapp
259 The Cross and the Switchblade
261 On Heaven and Earth by Pope Francis
264 25 Most Treasured Gospel Hymn Stories by Kenneth Osbeck
266 Not Forgotten the True Story of My Imprisonment in North Korea
268 An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture Andrew M. Davis
270 The Triumph of Christianity Ehrman, Bart D.
272 The Grand Inquisitor's Manual: A History of Terror in the Name of God
275 The Lost Sutras of Jesus Unlocking the Ancient Wisdom of the Xian Monks
276 My Father, Maker of the Trees: How I Survived the Rwandan Genocide by Tracey D. Lawrence
280 The Year of Living like Jesus
283 Kilverts Diary
285 A Man Called Peter: The Story of Peter Marshall by Catherine Marshall
287 The Methodist Articles of Religion A.D. 1784 by Thomas F. Chilcote
296 Thirteen and a Day by Mark Oppenheimer
726 Sacred Spaces the Awe-inspiring Architecture of Churches and Cathedrals Laubier, Guillaume de

I decided that I would only read religious books for Lent this year. I wanted to get every division down to needing at most 7 books, which meant reading a few books from 26, 27, and 28. Wow, did I surpass that mark. I picked several books only because they were really short (one was a children's book) and I didn't really want to read that category anyway. I was able to complete about two audiobook almost every week.
I enjoyed the non-religious aspects of many of the books. Kilvert's diary had poetic descriptions of Victorian Wales, it was eye opening to learn about North Korea and the Rwandan Genocide. I enjoyed learning about the b'nei mitzvah (that is the plural for bar mitzva). The photos in Sacred Spaces are gorgeous. After reading abou the Spanish inquisition, I couldn't open up the book 'Out of the Flames' although I still would like to read it.
I would have preferred a different book in many of the categories. I read the Lost Sutras of Jesus because it was shorter than The Jesus Sutras. I also listened to On Heaven and Earth because it was available on CD and I needed something to listen to in the car. I had my eye on a book of Mormon diaries with the same Dewey Decimal number. I expected a biographical account of the Von Trapp family singers; but the book Yesterday, Today, and Forever was nothing like that. I'll have a hard time watching the Sound of Music after hating it so much.
I'm not over half way through the religion section needing only 39 more books. It's actually the furthest along of all the classes. I'm now past the 30% mark for all the Dewey Decimal books.

May 22
077 Losing Pravda: Ethics and The Press in Post-Truth Russia
160 The Game of Logic by Lewis Carroll
168 An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments by Ali Almossawi
183 Socrates in 90 Minutes
421 Snails & Monkey Tails
441 French. Program 5, Talking About Yourself
490 A Handbook of Asian Scripts
709 1000 Steampunk creations by Dr. Grymm
895 What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir by Haruki Murakami hoopla
899 Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
966 Blood Diamonds by Greg Campbell

April 22
010 The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books
293 D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths
496 Jambo Means Hello: Swahili Alphabet Book by Muriel Feelings
569 Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans by Brian Fagan
739 Faberge's Eggs: The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces Toby Faber

Here is my May and second half of April books.
I read a kid's language book (Jambo) and a children's French video. The video was the only 441 (French pronunciation) item and after watching it I found that Librarything had it as another category. I would prefer to get my pronunciation from videos rather than a book as writing about how words sound is like dancing about architecture.
I wanted to dedicate May to reading about Russia due to the war, but I only finished two books about the country. Faberge's Eggs was more about the Czar and his family than about the Faberge's, mostly because there is more information about them. I picked out two books on journalism in Russia and decided on Losing Pravda as it was more current (the other was from the 80's). It was quite interesting and I learned a lot about Russian and their history of journalism. The introduction was 50 pages which is about 40 pages too many in my opinion.
With the completion of Game of Logic, Zorba the Greek, and Blood Diamonds, I have completed reading every division. The logic book was short but required plenty of concentration. There are many questions at the end to test your comprehension, but there were no answers to check if you got it correct. I loved Blood Daimonds (thank you bfertig). Zorba the Greek was good, but really sexist.
Thank you Carlym for suggesting D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths and bfertig for Cro-Magnon.

My goal was to complete reading all the divisions by the end of 2022, and to get every division down to 7 by the end of 2023. I finished the division goal 7 months early and I have 47 books to go for the other, so it's is possible too. Unfortunately, some of the sections that I need are a bit dry (law, metaphysics, logic, public administration).

10/10 Classes
99/99 divisions
301/904 sections

June 22

089 Best Loved Chinese Proverbs
176 The Porn Myth by Matt Fradd
459 My first picture dictionary. English-Romanian by Maria Watson
566 Sharks and Other Sea Monsters
630 Farm city: the education of an urban farmer by Novella Carpenter - (hilarious memoir of an urban farmer - SqueakyChu)
667 A Perfect Red by Amy Butler Greenfield lorax
750 Masterpieces of painting in the J. Paul Getty Museum
857 Basic Laws of Human Stupidity by Carlo M. Cipolla
904 The Book of Bad Things: A Sinister Guide to History's Dark Side
981 Mapmaker's Wife

I thought I would like the Chinese proverbs more than I did, but they were similar to European ones. There was only one children's English-Romanian dictionary in the entire Michigan library system so I quickly ordered it. I learned how to pronounce their words on the internet.
I've been reading pop-up books. I just think they are so fun. I was pleasantly surprised that I could use some of them in the Dewey Decimal challenge. Sharks and Other Sea Monsters is a fun pop-up book. The Book of Bad Things wasn't exactly a pop-up book but was very fun to read.
Thank you to SquakyChu for suggesting Farm City, and to Lorax for suggesting A Perfect Red. I loved both of those books.
The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity is one of the few books that I found in its category. It was short, humorous, and poignant. I highly recommend it.
I enjoyed Mapmaker's Wife. It's a great selection for Brazilian history.
I had to give up reading two books. The Geneva Convention, despite the fact that I'm glad that it exists, is terribly boring. I could not stand The Latin Mass Explained. After 40 pages I was searching for something else in that category, anything else. After looking over the books in that section, I'm going to wimp out again and get a children's book. I really don't enjoy reading religious books and am more than happy to select juvenile literature.

July 22
036 El porqué de las cosas
082 Quotes Every Man Should Know
102 The Socrates Express In Search of Life Lessons From Dead Philosophers by Eric Weiner
113 A Series of Fortunate Events
121 On Truth Herrick CD Hoopla
597 Tropical Fish by David Hawcock
625 Steam Locamotives a Three Dimentional Book by Moseley
751 This Is Not a Photo Opportunity: The Street Art of Banksy by Martin Bull
944 A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle

Reading a Spanish Encyclopedia really slowed me down this month, even if it was a children's book. I could usually, but not always, figure out what it was talking about, but rarely understood it all.
I loved A Series of Fortunate Events. I though the 110's would be really tough, but I enjoyed that one. I did give up on Time and Space Mysteries of the Unknown from 115. I decided to read Time and the Art of living instead. It's a classic and is in a top 1000 must read list.
I read another two pop-up books - Tropical Fish and Steam Locomotives. They were both light on information but really cool. I also read Star Wars pop-up but that didn't count in any category but is one of the best pop-up's I've seen.
Quotes Everyman Should Know was just OK. I've read many books on quotations before I just never recorded them before.
I listened to A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle, The Socrates Express, and On Truth. I've read a book by each of the authors before. I figured I would hat On Truth, but parts were quite good. I loved the other two.
On vacation I visited three libraries - I'm officially a book geek if I wasn't already. I found several books in some obscure areas that I need and will read them next month before they are due.
I've started but not completed both Spook and the Rape of Nanking that have been recommended in this area. I'm enjoying them both, but Rape of Nanking is really sad.

Aug 22
135 Dreams and Astral Travel
148 Reclaiming Common Sense
189 St. Augustine in 90 Minutes
198 Kierkegaard in 90 Minutes by Paul Strathern (Carlym (talk))
265 Water, Come Down! The Day You Were Baptized by Walter Wangerin
316 Egypt Population Trends by U.S. Department of Commerce
https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/1994/demo/ppt92-9...
319 Australia in Brief
https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/australia-in-brief.pdf
461 Los ninos alfabeticos
538 Auroras Fire in the Sky
632 Wicked Bugs
661 Baking Soda: Over 500 Fabulous, Fun, and Frugal Uses You've Probably Never Thought Of by Vicki Lansky
664 Maple Syrup Book
668 Make your own Hard Lotion
951 The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II by Iris Chang
(heart-rending invasion of Nanking - SqueakyChu)

I visited a library in a neighboring town last month and picked up a dozen short books in difficult categories that I needed to read. This month I focused on reading them before they were due. I was surprised at how much I liked the short books. They had all the information the book should contain without a lot of fluff.
I didn't enjoy Los Ninos Alfabeticos. There was a page with a paragraph using a dozen Spanish words with a picture that had all the words. I didn't know which word belonged to which object in the picture. How is someone going to figure out a language like that.
I hated Reclaiming Common Sense. I could imagine hearing My Pillow Guy reading it in my head. Apparently common sense is marriage is only between a man and a woman, and abortion is murder. I only kept reading it because it's a difficult number to find books in.
The baking soda book got really repetitive after awhile. I ended up skipping the short chapters on babies and pets because they aren't part of my life anymore.
Once again I would like to thank some of my fellow readers for their recommendations. I loved The Rape of Nanking would never have known that it occurred if not for SqueakyChu's recommendation. I would also like to thank Carlym for suggesting Kierkegaard in 90 minutes. I'll be reading several more 90 minute philosophy books to complete 180's and 190's.
Although I'm getting used to hearing some references to the same information in different books, I was still surprised when three different books mentioned 'I think therefore I am', especially when it was over the course of three days.
I came across Australia in Brief which is a very short pamphlet put out by the Australian government to give you an idea about their country. It's full of stats about the country with gorgeous photos. I kept searching and found that one of the Michigan libraries carries a four page pamphlet on the birthrate in Egypt. I was wondering how I would read some of these statistic books as they are often 1000 pages of numbers.
As I'm a numbers geek, I found that of the 100 different two digit numbers in Dewey Decimal system I was only missing X65. Earlier this year I had started reading a book explaining the Latin Mass but hated it (265). I saw that several people in this group had read a book on trilobites (565) and Orange is the New Black (365). I immediately ordered the children's book 'Water Come Down' about baptism (265), just to get it over with.

065 Organizations in Italy and adjacent islands
165 Fallacies and sources of error
265 Sacraments, other rites and acts
365 Penal and related institutions
465 Grammar of standard Spanish
565 Fossil Arthropoda
665 Technology of industrial oils, fats, waxes, gases
765 Metal engraving
865 Spanish speeches
965 Algerian

Next month I'm focusing on Nobel Prize winners.

Your pick for 148 sounds a lot like mine (First Principles (Foy)) -- perhaps dogmatism is not the way to go...

A lot of times, I'll finish a title, and say to myself, "Well, that certainly was a book", and then very quickly look at my to-read list.

Sept 22
Theme: Nobel Prize winners (denoted *)
071 Enemy of the People Trump's War on the Press by Kalb, Marvin L. KDL MelCat
083 The Wisdom of Albert Schweitzer MelCat*
129 Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach (fun read - Fundevogel; ditto - carlym)
141 Walden by Henry David Thoreau (aulsmith)
271 The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice by Christopher Hitchens *
352 The Inaugural Address, 2009 ; Together With Abraham Lincoln's First and Second Inaugural Addresses and the Gettysburg Address and Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-reliance by Obama, Barak *
359 No Hero The Evolution on A Navy SEAL by Owen, Mark
462 The official Spanglish dictionary
469 Learn Portuguese Words by York, M.J.
539 The Particle at the End of the Universe
547 The Double Helix by James D. Watson *
608 101 Unuseless Japanese Inventions by Kenji Kawakami
740 How to draw maps and charts / Pam Beasant
807 How to Avoid Huge Ships and Other Implausibly Titled Books by Joel Rickett
861 Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Neruda, Pablo *
865 In Search of the Present by Ocavio Paz *
897 Earth Keeper
915 The Travels of Marco Polo by Marco Polo (DaynaRT)
988 Willoghbyland

I decided on a whim to make the theme Nobel prize winner and set out to find as many as I could. I was going to get a physics book by Richard Feynman but graduate physic students complained on Amazon that the book was too tough for them, and gave up without cracking it open. Neruda's poems were lost on me, and I would never have read either Albert Schweitzer or Ocavio Paz's books had it not been for this challenge. I loved Missionary Position and enjoyed Barak Obama's speeches, but I would have like them more if I watched them on YouTube. I totally forgot about Nelson Mandel's book and am disappointed with myself for not reading that book the other Nobel Prize winners. It was a coincidence that I read a book on Trump during this month.
I started reading Walden this summer but it was too wordy, and I decided to listen to the abridged version instead. It was also rather long.
I'm going to be in trouble when I run out of children's foreign dictionaries and books on how to swear in other countries. So far, that's mostly what I've read in the languages.
I was rather disappointed with the Travels of Marco Polo. It was rather boring describing the economic activities of many small cities in China and India. I was hoping for more adventure.
I loved No Hero. I've read the author's other book about the Bin Ladin raid and I picked this book because I enjoyed it. I also enjoyed Willoughbyland, although I just picked it up from the library as there weren't many books in the 980's. It was a bonus that I enjoyed it.
Thank you Fundevogel and carlym for suggesting Spook. I'm a big Mary Roach fan but shyed away from this one for years.
Near the end of the month, I noticed that I had almost read a book from every category in the month, so I checked out some really short 600 and 700 books just to make sure I hit that mark.
Next month's theme is large books. I'm raiding all the oversize shelves from the libraries in Michigan.

Oct 22 (20)
theme: Oversize books - denoted (OS)
002 the man who loved books too much
012 Excerpts From "A Bibliography of the Work of Mark Twain, Samuel Langhorne Clemens''
039 Codex Seraphinianus by Luigi Serafini (OS)
192 Hume in 90 Minutes
341 We Are All Born Free: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Pictures (OS)
393 The Living Dead (OS)
437 The Language of Thieves
582 Trees of the World (OS)
595 One Hundred Butterflies by Feinstein, Harold (OS)
670 Things Come Apart (OS)
675 The Leatherworking Starter Handbook: Beginner Friendly Guide to Leather Crafting Process, Tips an
690 A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder by Michael Pollan
711 City Squares of the World (OS)
721 Heavenly Vaults From Romanesque to Gothic in European Architecture gr (OS)
725 The Most Beautiful Opera Houses in the World Herrick Laubier, Guillaume de (OS)
748 Chagall: The Stained Glass Windows by Forestier, Sylvie (OS)
770 A Book of Books by Abelardo Morell, Abelardo Morell (OS)
778 Moment by Moment (OS)
877 Satyricon of Petronius
900 Soul of London by Ford Madox Ford

My theme this month was oversized books. I had a list of some books that I knew were oversized and I ordered them. Mostly, I just went to the downtown Grand Rapids library with a list of Dewey numbers I needed and pulled out the ones that I was missing. There were more books than I could read in one month, so I took the ones that interested me the most. I enjoyed all the oversized books, but my interest in reading about city squares was waning by the time I got to the end of that book. I didn't realize there was so much to church domes. Things Come Apart was a photo of all the pieces inside common appliances, plus a photo of those pieces thrown up in the air. It was a great way to get through a tougher number. The opera houses were gorgeous. The Living Dead was perfect for Halloween as it's photos of corpses hanging up in a Sicilian crypt. I probably should have picked something other than 100 butterflies. It was just photographs, and I find insects fascinating.
I hated Satyricon of Petronius. It a dirty Roman comedy which was completed by a forger, but because he made the fragments into a story, it's been kept that way ever since. I read a translation that is in the public domain which was really dated and cleaned up. Any book that includes the word 'forsooth' is going to be difficult to read.
The Language of Thieves was really fascinating. It's highly recommended in a difficult to read Dewey number.
The bibliography of the work of Mark Twain was great. He wrote frequently about the books he wrote and it is sprinkled liberally into this book.
I also loved the Man Who Loved Books Too Much about a rare book thief. I felt dirty walking into a rare book shop in the middle of reading it.
I only read We Are All Born Free because I didn't want to read a book on the Nierenberg trials. Ironically, they were mentioned in the Language of Thieves. Karma got me.
Codex Seraphinianus by Luigi Serafini is really cool. The artist wanted to portray the feeling he had when he looked through encyclopedias before he could read. He succeeded. Nobody has yet been able to translate it, but mathematicians figure out that he is using a number system in base 13. I've been patiently waiting to get my hands on Michigan library's only copy for a year.
A place of my own is my least favorite book by Michael Pollan, but it was still good. He writes about his experience building a shack in his backyard.
I just loved having the theme of the month oversized books. There is something magical about oversized books. Just before I returned the books to the library I weighed them. I read 45 pounds worth of books.
I also finished studying Italian in Duolingo and switched over to Latin. I only did it to help me read some of the Latin books in this challenge. I don't know Greek either.

Nov 22
347 Disorder in the American Courts
348 Wacky Laws, Weird Decisions, & Strange Statutes Lindsell-Roberts, Sheryl
412 Strange to Say: Etymology as Serious Entertainment
529 A Brief History of Timekeeping: The Science of Marking Time, from… by Chad Orzel
606 World's fairs : yesterday, today, tomorrow Roberta Fleming Roesch
696 Toilets of the World by Morna E. Gregory, Sian James
825 Irish Toasts Karen Bailey
845 Follow Your Desire Gagliardi, Victor
938 The Parthenon by Mary Beard (recommended Carylm)
978 Dodge City by Clavin, Tom

This month I focused on books that the library system only had a few copies. I want to read these books while I still can, and partially because the other books in these categories aren't nearly as interesting. I enjoyed all of them, but none were a favorite. I liked Dodge City much more than I thought I would. The history of timekeeping was really interesting. Both of the court room books were quick easy reads. I'm not into law, but I liked the humor.
Strange to Say was a fun book, but the woman who wrote it must have ADHD. It was all over the place jumping from topic to topic and dropping jokes as often as possible.
Toilets of the World was part travelogue, part humor, part anthropology, and part photography.
Thank you to Carylm for suggesting Parthenon.

Dec 22 (9)
080 Neverisms : a quotation lover's guide to things you should never do, never say, or never forget Mardy Grothe
A book of quotes and rules. It's my type of book. I especially liked the chapter of oxymorons ("Never say Never")
184 Plato in 90 Minutes
I devoured this short book while working over two days.
328 Al Franken, Giant of the Senate by Al Franken
I have listened to many of Al Franken's books and this is one of his best.
331 Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Farrow, Ronan
It was sad how several media companies buy sexual assaults victim's silence. I applaud Ronan for helping the "me too" era.
373 Official Preppy Handbook
This was the Bible when I was in college. It was interesting to see what Preppiness was all about. Used books now sell for $80.
391 Hoorah for the Bra
A fun and PG look at the bra through the decades. I picked it up because it was a pop-up book and was surprised that it fit into the Dewey Decimal challenge.
401 Mindreader Lieberman
This book took me too long to read during the Christmas break. It has mostly ideas that I have heard in other self-help books, but repackaged slightly different.
465 Madre: Perilous Journeys with a Spanish Noun. Thank you Carlym for suggesting this one. It was well written, but dragged in places.
586 Bacteria, fungi, lichens & plants by Kerry Swanson.
This book contains 3D photos and comes with red and green glasses. It was really interesting to read and cool to look at.

I decided to make the theme of 2022 'The Year of Reading'. I never expected to read 150 books, which is three times my record, but I actually did it. Yay me. On top of that, I also read about 50 pop-up books.
Was it worth it? I'm still not sure. I read a variety of topics, and the Dewey Decimal challenge really stretched my already varied assortment. In 2021 my average rating on Goodreads was 3.7 out of 10, but this year it was only 3.3. I'm sure that my push to read religious books during Lent helped lower my numbers. I also think I read many books that I wouldn't have otherwise touched - I read about a dozen children's foreign language books which I never would have considered - other than in languages that I've studied. Some of the books I read really surprised me in a good way. I loved 'A Series of Fortunate Events' but I just read it because I needed to read something, anything, in the 110's.
There were a few books I hated, but powered through just because I had already invested some time into it, and I figured I would either hate another book in the section or would not be able to find another similar one. The one that comes to mind is 'Reclaiming Common Sense' which I despised, but had a chapter that I agreed with. On the other hand, there was a book on time that I hated so much that I gave up on it despite having less than 100 pages left.
I really enjoyed making themes of each month. I especially loved the oversized month where I read 20 books. I also enjoyed Nobel Prize month as I got though some books that I was dreading reading.
Will I continue this challenge? I just got back from a trip to a library in another county with 8 more books to read in some hard to find categories. I'll definitely be reading them, although some of the philosophy books will be challenging.
The fear of missing out is really huge. While I am investing my time in reading Dewey decimal numbers, some books that I would normally be reading is piling up. I'm behind two David Sidirus books, and would love to read more Sarah Vowel. We will see how long I continue on this challenge. I definitely won't be checking off another 150 books of my list in 2023.

January 2023
Theme: Books from Holland MI library
067 Russian and Soviet Painting 1900-1930 (actually 759)
117 Euthyphro by Plato
130 Debunked! ESP, Telekinesis, and Other Pseudoscience by Charpak, Georges
321 How to be a dictator : an irreverent guide
628 What the Eyes don't See Hanna-Attisha, Mona
714 How to Build Ponds and Waterfalls and Much More by Ried, Jeffrey
859 For Two Thousand Years
967 Black Hawk Down (abridged)

The Russian and Soviet Paintings 1900-1930 is the closest I could find to a book on Russian organizations, at least for one that is written in English. It's a tough category, so I don't feel too bad for stretching. I was surprised at how similar the paintings were to the types that were in vogue in Europe at the same time.
Euthyphro was a short dialogue that I finished in an afternoon. I will take a short philosophy book any time in this challenge.
I wish I had realized that Debunked was written by a Nobel prize winner when I was reading them a few months ago. It was good, but the author loved stringing together long sentences that the translator often, but not always, shortened.
I loved How to Be a Dictator. It's a tongue in cheek instruction guide for would be dictators. It's full of interesting historical anecdotes, and descriptions of deplorable acts by these egotistical rulers.
I started listening to What The Eyes Don't See because Holland Library had it in the 628 group. However, all the other libraries have it in the 627 Dewey decimal number. I really enjoyed it and decided to just keep it as a 628 as I need that number. The Flint water crisis was big news in Michigan, and I loved hearing about it from one of the doctors that uncovered it. Dr. Mona was the right person at the right time doing the right thing.
How to Build Ponds was a short but interesting guide to building a backyard pond. I don't have a big enough yard for one, so I was happy to read a very sort book on hte subject.
For Two Thousand Years is a well written classic on surviving in Romania as a Jew. There is not a lot of action, but there are a ton of ideas presented in a meandering story.
Black Hawk Down was an exciting true story of a double helicopter crash during the Somali Civil war.

I also read a Remarkable Diaries about historical figures diaries. There are a few I've read a few of the diaries mentioned and there are some that I am planning on reading for this challenge. It was a guilty pleasure that felt long overdue.

February 2023

350 Lie Machines: How to Save Democracy from Troll Armies, Deceitful Robots, Junk News Operations, and Political Operatives
408 The Last Speakers by Harrison, K. David
487 The Riddle of the Labyrinth
501 The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True By Dawkins, Richard
681 Fountain pens History and Design Dragoni, Giorgio
965 The Nomad: The Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt

These are the pre-Lent books I've read this month. I'm slowing down.
The Lie Machine was fascinating, but his ideas on how to save democracy seemed pie in the sky optimistic. He showed how Brexit was influenced by some pretty clever programming.
I enjoyed the Last Speakers about a linguist trying to record some of the last surviving languages. He spent an entire day trying to learn to count to 1 in one language. They have a different word for one depending on what you are counting, and there didn't seem to be any rhyme nor reason.
The Riddle of the Labyrinth was interesting, but I heard most of the story in the Lost Languages that I read last year.
I was expecting more from the Magic of Reality, but it is mostly a refresher on the science you learned in high School. There are a few things that I found fascinating, like the story of Noah is in the Epic of Gilgamesh but with different characters. I suppose I would have known that when I get around to reading the epic.
The Fountain Pen book is a bit more than I was hoping to learn about pens. I'm only halfway through it, but didn't think I should add it to the Lent list.
I enjoyed Nomad. I think the diaries were heavily edited, and censored, but I still enjoyed learning about this independent woman who traveled in Africa often alone.

Lent 2023

201 A Short History of Myth, Karen Armstrong
203 Abandoned Sacred Places by Joffe, Lawrence
207 Lily: the Girl Who Could See
213 Not Very Intelligent Design
233 The Age of AI by Thacker, Jason
235 I'm a Saint in the Making
239 Letters from a Skeptic by Boyd, Gregory
240 Only Nine Chairs: A Tall Tale for Passover
253 Ministry in an Oral Culture By Sample, Tex
255 An Illustrated History of the Knights Templar
260 A Comfortable Pew by Pierre Berton
278 My story: from jungle killer to Christian missionary, as told to Ethel Emily Wallis Tariri, Shapra chief
281 Orthodox Christianity: A Very Short Introduction by A. Edward Siecienski
975 Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

For the second year in a row I devoted the season of Lent to reading the Dewey Decimal 200's. I tried to pick shorter, scientific, and historical books when I could. I also read three children's books - Lily, Only 9 Chairs, and I'm a Saint in the Making.
Several of the books started out really interesting but I lost interest in them after awhile - A short History of Myth, Orthodox Christianity, Ministry in an Oral Culture, and My Story.
I love Berton, but his book was rather academic but he had several good points. I was disappointed that The Letters from a Skeptic were only 10% skeptic. The Christian arguments were not convincing at all and rather long winded. Abandoned Sacred Places is a beautiful coffee table book. The Age of AI was mostly about computers and those parts were quite interesting.
I really enjoyed 'Not Very Intelligent Design'. The author argues that the human body could not have been designed as there are so many flaws. Each part is discussed and rated out of 10. It's hilarious.
My library has no 200's on CD that I needed, so I listened to 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' in my car. It's been on my to be read book list for a few decades and I'm happy that this project helped me finally get around to reading it. I love it and can't recommend it enough.

All the books that I read this month are recommended for the Dewey Decimal atheist.

I only have 23 more books to go in the religion section.

April 23
483 Say it in Greek : Greek-English dictionary for kids.
820 Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
884 The Poems of Sappho: An Interpretative Rendition into English
964 More Ketchup Than Salsa
969 Female Caligula: Ranavalona, Madagascar's Mad Queen

This is only half of April, from Easter on, so that is why this list is shorter than the last few months.
The Greek dictionaries for 483 are all ancient Greek, and are all quite wordy. I decided to cheat and read another children's Greek dictionary for this number.
I'm in the middle of reading Reading Lolita in Tehran. It's mostly about how the revolution in Iran affected the life of the author as she taught in a university. It's read by one of the slowest readers I've ever encountered, and she stretched it out to 16 CD's.
I listened to a recording of the Poems of Sappho, which was quite short as most of her poems didn't survive the Roman Catholic church's book burning. Some of these poems were sung, which is how they were originally intended. I enjoyed them. Look them up on Librivox.
More Ketchup that Salsa is about two couples that leave England to start a pub in Morrocco. It's more about the Brits than anything to do with Morrocco. Nevertheless, it's a fun story.
Female Caligula is a historical account of one of the meanest women ever to reign. Queen Ranavalona ruled Madagascar cruelly for three decades, but managed to keep the British and the French off of the island. There weren't too many books in this category, and this one sounded like it would be interesting. It was. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either.

May 23
020 I Was a Stripper Librarian: From Cardigans to G-strings by Cooper, Kristy.
052 The Intelligencer by Swift, Johnathan
074 Charlie hebdo : 1992-2011.
161 Fact Fiction and Forecast
190 Twentieth Century European Philosophy (World of Philosophy)
430 My Very First Little German Book
472 Cave Canem by Lorna Robinson
482 A practical list of Greek word roots with Greek and English derivatives
757 Reclining Nude by Lidia Guibert
776 Fractal 3D Magic
783 Voice Lessons To Go's -Vocalize!
878 Treatises on Friendship and Old Age by Marcus Tullius Cicero
881 Works and Days, The Theogony, and The Shield of Heracles

This may be an impressive list of books to read in one month, but they were mostly short books and half of them were audiobooks.
The stripper book was a guilty pleasure of a librarian student that started to strip to pay off student loans.
I only read two chapters of the Intelligencer, which would be the equivalant to reading two whole magazines. It was a tough read as of the archaic writing style. Many of the other issues that I skipped were about people whose relevance is lost to history.
Charlie Habdo was the covers of the magazine of the first 1000 issues. It really pushed my French to the limit. I could pick out about half the words, but the meaning was lost on me.
I thought the sentences in My First German Book were too long and complex to use to teach a language to children. This book is on the internet.
I was equally lost in the 20th century pholosophy book. The 100's are a tough class for me. Fact Fiction and Forecast is a classic, but the author likes to use big words. I followed much of what he said while reading it but not all of it.
Cave Canem and the Greek book were both very short and interesting. I read the Greek book one night when I could not fall back asleep, and surprisingly, it did not put me to sleep. Thank you carlym for suggesting Cave Canem.
The reclining nude and the fractal book both had very few pages to read. I completed each of them an evening.
I was thinking I was doing really well when I sang back the notes while listening to the Voice Lessons to Go. I was humbled once she started the longer stretches and chords.
I enjoyed the last two short books. I always wanted to read Cicero, but never got around to it.

June 2023
027 The Library Book by Susan Orlean
181 Analects of Confucius (great--like reading poetry; carlym)
190 20th Century European Philosophy
471 The living alphabet by Warren Chappell
731 Art of the Carousel by Dinger, Charlotte
772 The Daguerreotype in America by Newhall
993 Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All: A New Zealand

I really enjoyed listening to the Library Book about the fire at the Los Angles public library.
Analects of Confucius was interesting. I thought that Confucius occasionally came across as aragant. Thank you Carlym for this suggestion.
I listened to 20th Century European Philosophy in the background while I worked. Nothing really stuck.
The living alphabet is a really short book on the origin of different letters. It was almost too short.
I loved the Art of the Carousel by Dinger, Charlotte. I picked up three different books on carousels and this one seemed like the best one. It's by a lady that has been collecting wooden carousel horses her whole life and is an authroity on them. There is a chapter on each of the major manufactures with their history and gorgeous photos.
I was not looking forward to reading a book on daguerreotype as most of the books are old and scarce. However, the Daguerreotype in America by Newhall is one of those books that surprised me with how interesting it was. This detailed early photography and had a large section with really old photos.
Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All is a book that mixes the author's memoirs with the history of New Zealand. It was quite interesting to hear about the Maurie tribe. The author travels to New Zealand as a teen and eventually marries a member of the Maoris tribe. This book was featured in Librarything when users were first getting their new suggestions and the list was not complete. It was with other books with funny titles such as 'Bombproof Your Horse', 'Pooh Gets Stuck', and 'Nuclear War: What's in it for You'.

July 2023
103 The Philosophical Dictionary by Voltaire
431 If I Can, You Can Decipher Germanic Records
518 Bad Choices How Algorithms Can Help You Think Smarter and Live Happier
634 Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World by Dan Koeppel
637 The Telling Room A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese
797 The Boys in the Boat

The Philosophical Dictonary was one of those books that I was avoiding as I didn't think that I woul like it. However, it was full of Voltaire's classic wit and was a fun read.
If I Can, You Can Decipher Germanic Records. I found a library that lent out this book. Most of the libraries in Michigan only let you peruse this rare book in their reference library. It has translations of German, Latin, Danish (which controled Germany for awhile) words that you would find in church records - occupations, diseases, and similar geneological terms. It was actually interesting.
Bad Choices was a quick read on how to use logic in unusual life situations - like sorting items. I'm a computer programmer so there wasn't much I hadn't come across before.
The Banana was an interesting book about the history and future of our favorite fruit. I recommend it for this challenge.
I picked up the Telling Room as it takes place in Ann Arbor (only part of it) and I was on vacation there. The book stretched out way too long.
The Boys in the Boat was a gripping tale of a group of Freshmen at Washington State University and their quest for the gold metal in boating in German in 1936.

I'm officially past the half-way mark, and I've also completed at least three books in each of the divisions (exept 920's where there are only two).

August 2023

204 The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
345 Innocent Man Grisham
470 Latin Stuff & Nonsense / Michelle Lovric & Lea Chambers
559 Among Giants: A Lifetimes with Whales by Nicklin, Charles "Flip"
802 Infographic Guide to Literature
892 Gilgamesh by Mitchel Stephen (translation of Epic of Gilgamesh)
955 Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (Carlym) (Seconded - Ella_Jill)

I finally got around to reading the Power of Now. It's been on my bucket list for years. I was underwhelmed.
I enjoyed Innocent Man and feel bad for all those people that are wrongly convicted on weak evidence.
I started listening to a really heavy Latin book but decided to switch when I found this short lighthearted book in the same section.
Among the Giants was a fun book to read from a man who loved taking nature photos, mostly of whales.
Infographics was a quirky book that displayed many aspects of books in graphic format. It was fun and quick to read.
Gilgamesh by Stephan is based on already translated versions of the clay book unearthed in Mesopotamia. It's probably the oldest book, and to everyone's suprise contains a version of the arc story, but with someone other than Noah.
I enjoyed Persepolis so much that I read the sequel in the same month. I've seen the movie, but the book has extra details. Thank you for suggesting it Carlym and Ella_Jill.

I'm officially over half way done (51.05%). I'm also going to temporarily put this goal aside. I have other books to read, and I have to concentrate on other things right now. I've enjoyed this goal, and I can't believe I've read nearly 300 books in 2 years. Especially when I remember one year I only read 12 books. Although I read many books I didn't care for, I really enjoyed exploring books that I would never have read otherwise. I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed the history and art books as much as I did. I learned way too many swear words in just about every foreign language.
I added the number of books in each section to my spreadsheet. The categories I've read contain 82% of all the books.

526 Measure of all Things

I listened to this book while driving and I started listening to this book while I worked. I've finally figured out how to listen to audiobooks downloaded from Hoopla in my car. I'm no longer limited to my library's increasingly shrinking collection of books on CD's.
I've been expanding my reading trying to catch up with several books that I wanted to read these last two years.

10/10 Classes
99/99 Divisions
460/904 Sections

October 23
594 The Soul of an Octopus
638 The Beekeeper's Lament

I listened to both of these books while running errands. They were both excellent. I started two other books on my vacation but I didn't finish either of them as they weren't that good. I've been pretty lazy with reading this month.

Apr 24
382 A Splendid Exchange: How trade shaped the world by Nick Robins
801 How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom

Nov
187 Travels with Epicurus by Daniel Klein
623 Mr. Gatling's Terrible Marvel: The Gun That Changed Everything and

I listened to half of A Splendid Exchange on the way to see the total eclipse in Ohio. I enjoyed the long book, but it is still a little too early after COVID to hear how the plague affected trade.

I'm most of the way through How to Read and Why. I doubt I'll read half the books he discusses and none of the poetry. I'm not sure this was a good choice for me.

My app kept messing up and often skipped around the book while listening to Travels with Epicurus. I'm not sure I ended up listening to the entire book. I didn't finish the book on the machine gun.

I've been catching up with reading some of my favorite authors lately. It feels like meeting up with old friends. I've missed them these last two years.