Chad Comello

  • DDC 150-159: Paging Dr. Freud…

    A Teach Me How To Dewey production

    This Is How We Dewey:

    • 150 Psychology
    • 151 No longer used—formerly Intellect
    • 152 Perception, movement, emotions, and drives
    • 153 Mental processes and intelligence
    • 154 Subconscious and altered states
    • 155 Differential and developmental psychology
    • 156 Comparative psychology
    • 157 No longer used—formerly Emotions
    • 158 Applied psychology
    • 159 No longer used—formerly Will

    What’s that saying? Psychology is the study of a tree whereas sociology is the study of the forest? Well, consider it Arbor Day on Teach Me How To Dewey. My library had a robust 150s selection compared to the 140s, which perhaps isn’t surprising given the broad nature and scope of psychology. The human brain is a deep well of possibility, capable of so much (language, intelligent design) and yet so little (YouTube comment sections). Of course Freud and Jung and Co. pop up here, but also pop psychology and books than aren’t quite as obsessed with sex as Sigmund.

    It’s interesting to see how formerly used Dewey sections, like 157 and 159, have or have not been integrated within modern arrangements. Emotions has moved from 157 to 152, yet Will has disappeared, at least from the 150s. Perhaps a more robust study of Dewey would reveal these nuances?

    TheDew3:

    The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
    By M. Scott Peck
    Dewey: 158.1
    Random Sentence: “Life is difficult.”

    Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children
    By Michael Newton
    Dewey: 155.4567
    Random Sentence: “They ran on all fours, bowed head-down in the dust.”

    The Plenitude: Creativity, Innovation, and Making Stuff
    By Rich Gold
    Dewey: 153.35
    Random Sentence: “And before Barney it was a well-known Kahuna that only boys like dinosaurs.”

  • DDC 140-149: The sexiest of all -isms

    A Teach Me How To Dewey production

    This Is How We Dewey:

    • 140 Philosophical schools of thought
    • 141 Idealism and related systems
    • 142 Critical philosophy
    • 143 Bergsonism and intuitionism
    • 144 Humanism and related systems
    • 145 Sensationalism
    • 146 Naturalism and related systems
    • 147 Pantheism and related systems
    • 148 Liberalism, eclecticism, and traditionalism
    • 149 Other philosophical systems

    Of all the subtopics in 140-149, pantheism has the coolest name by far. Its definition and substance are certainly debatable, but having nearly all of the word panther in it makes it the coolest and sexiest of all -isms. (Admittedly not a high bar to hit.)

    For probably the first time in Dewey thus far, the number of words in this 10-spot that end in “-ism” far outnumber those that don’t. Translation: It’s about to get ideological up in her’. This is not to say that ideology is bad; it’s simply incomplete most of the time, or limited in its understanding of the world. Believing in only one -ism is impossible, but once you start collecting them your box of -isms becomes a cluttered hoard of old toys that don’t always play well with each other.

    So be smart with your -isms, everyone!

    The Dew3:

    Dancing in the Dark: Romance, Yearning, and the Search for the Sublime
    By Barbara Lazear Ascher
    Dewey: 141.6
    Random Sentence: “‘She’s not in my way, Terrence,’ says Banana Moon Cake Man.’ ”

    Hope in the Age of Anxiety
    By Anthony Scioli
    Dewey: 149.5
    Random Sentence: “Hope lets you breathe a little easier.”

    The Essential Transcendentalists
    Edited by Richard Geldard
    Dewey: 141.3
    Random Sentence: “No sun illumines me, for I dissolve all lesser lights in my own intenser and steadier light.”

  • DDC 130-139: Calling Questlove

    A Teach Me How To Dewey production

    The Rundown:

    • 130 Parapsychology and occultism
    • 131 Parapsychological and occult methods
    • 132 No longer used—formerly Mental derangements
    • 133 Specific topics in parapsychology and occultism
    • 134 No longer used—formerly Mesmerism and Clairvoyance
    • 135 Dreams and mysteries
    • 136 No longer used—formerly Mental characteristics
    • 137 Divinatory graphology
    • 138 Physiognomy
    • 139 Phrenology

    So many strange words in this section–where to start? I have no idea what Physiognomy (138) means and I’m not even going to look it up. I’m going to pretend that it is the study of a human’s physiological reaction to gnomes. Academic librarians, could you point me to some good physiognomy journals? Publications lacking pictures of gnomes will not be considered. We also have Phrenology, which I’m assuming is the study of The Roots. (Contrary evidence of this assertion also will not be considered.)

    Meanwhile, we’ve got a fascinating collection of topics in this ten-spot, including Mental derangements, Mesmerism, and Divinatory graphology, which is the practice of seeking knowledge of the future (divinatory) through handwriting analysis (graphology). Ummmm… OK. I should come out as a skeptic of this kind of stuff: not of the paranormal per se, because I do believe in the spiritual, but of the general wisdom of messing around with all the “dark matter” out there. I’m happy to debate and learn more about it, but don’t invite me to your seance because I’m too busy Deweying.

    On second thought, summoning the spirit of Melvil Dewey for a Q&A on this blog would be quite the scoop.

    The Dew3:

    Cosmic Karma: Understanding Your Contract With the Universe
    By Marguerite Manning
    Dewey: 133.5
    Random Sentence: “In this Pluto house, intellectual freedom is power.”

    So You Want To Be Psychic?
    By Billy Roberts
    Dewey: 133.8
    Random Sentence: “Allow the space surrounding you to become slowly flooded with vibrant light, coloured with pink.”

    You Can Read A Face Like A Book: How Reading Faces Helps You Succeed in Business and Relationships
    By Naomi Tickle
    Dewey: 138
    Random Sentence: “Individuals with large ear lobes are naturally inclined to support others in their personal growth.”

  • DDC 120-129: Deweyterminism

    A Teach Me How To Dewey production

    The Rundown:

    • 120 Epistemology, causation, and humankind
    • 121 Epistemology
    • 122 Causation
    • 123 Determinism and indeterminism
    • 124 Teleology
    • 125 No longer used—formerly Infinity
    • 126 The self
    • 127 The unconscious and the subconscious
    • 128 Humankind
    • 129 Origin and destiny of individual souls

    Can we discuss 125 for a second? “Formerly Infinity”? That 1) should be a high school garage band or Tumblr immediately, and 2) is, when you think about it for a second, an insane mind-melt. Something used to be infinite but now is not?

    I was also intrigued by teleology, which is the study of evidences of design in nature. In fact, all of these topics are terrifically vast fields of knowledge through which we can frolic and smell the books. (Though if you start poking around the subconscious, get ready to find some crazy stuff.) If you’re looking for some light beach reading, now you know where to start.

    The Dew3:

    Life is a Miracle: An Essay on Modern Superstition
    By Wendell Berry
    Dewey: 121
    Random Sentence: “If local adaptation is important, as I believe it unquestionably is, then we must undertake, in both science and art, the effort of familiarity.”

    Love: Plato, the Bible, and Freud
    By Douglas Morgan
    Dewey: 128
    Random Sentence: “Love is, among many other things, a fact.”

    The Philosopher and the Wolf: Lessons From the Wild on Love, Death, and Happiness
    By Mark Rowlands
    Dewey: 128
    Random Sentence: “The truth is, I suppose, that I’ve always been a natural misanthrope.”

  • Girl Meets Rainbow

    I was heartened by the exceedingly successful Kickstarter campaign to resurrect Reading Rainbow, which will help bring a new version of the early-literacy television program back to solvency and into classrooms to foster a love of reading in today’s children.

    But this article from Caitlin Dewey at the Washington Post gave me pause:

    “Crowdfunding is theoretically supposed to bolster charities, start-ups, independent artists, small-business owners and other projects that actually need the financial support of the masses to succeed. It’s not supposed to be co-opted by companies with profit motives and private investors of their own … which, despite Burton’s charisma, is exactly what the Rainbow reboot is.

    But if you’re donating to Reading Rainbow because of the grandiose charity rhetoric Burton’s employing on Kickstarter, you might want to look elsewhere — maybe the nonprofit Children’s Literacy Initiative or the Washington, D.C.-based First Book, both of which get high grades from Charity Navigator. They might not have LeVar [Burton]’s nostalgia appeal, but there’s no doubt who those charities serve.”

    Rainbow was cancelled in 2009 and had been existing as an app since then, so though its name already has a pedigree I think it still deserved a chance to ask its fans for money like any other cause, charitable or otherwise.

    In this light, let’s also consider the impending arrival of Girl Meets World, the sort-of sequel to that ’90s TGIF mainstay (and personal TV favorite) Boy Meets World. The title character is the daughter of Cory and Topanga, adorkable teen sweethearts and stars of BMW. When word of the show’s development hit the internet in late 2012, I’ll admit I got excited. Boy Meets World was a seminal show in my adolescence. I saw in Cory and Topanga’s relationship a healthy model for friendship and romance: Cory was silly and Topanga was rational, but both were strong, self-sufficient people who loved the other despite their foibles and occasional conflicts. And the people around them were just as well-rounded: Shawn broody yet loyal, Feeny upright yet playful, Eric clownish yet sincere.

    Like Reading Rainbow, the BMW brand—much-loved yet dated—has received new life thanks to the groundswell support of its fans. Though this new show will be its own story with a new protagonist and surrounding cast, but with Cory and Topanga back in the mix, and the original BMW producer at the helm, it might as well be considered a continuation of the story. But for whom?

    It’s common, I know, for entertainment meant for kids to have something their parents can enjoy too. Whether it’s Sesame Street or the latest Pixar movie, the best filmmakers and producers find a way to appeal to many age groups. And perhaps that is why Girl Meets World is being made: to give Millennials with young kids something they already have an attachment to that they will (theoretically) be able to enjoy watching with their kids. But the Disney Channel audience of Girl Meets World either hasn’t seen the original series or hasn’t even heard of it. They will have as much emotional investment in the characters as they would for any new show they encounter. So why do we need Girl Meets World?

    It’s not as if kids today lack any source of entertainment whatsoever; what BMW was to me and my Millennial ilk, they have today (I’m guessing here) in the variety of television shows, movies, apps, and YA novels being made specifically for them right now. Don’t they deserve to have their own Boy Meets World, a show or thing they discovered in their youth and will feel special kinship toward into adulthood? Boy Meets World was my generation’s thing; shouldn’t they have their own that didn’t descend from their parents’ cultural experience and sensibility?

    Perhaps I’m just being possessive. Who am I to cling to a TV show that many, many others cherish as much as I do. I suppose this gets at another question relating to pop culture and our interaction with it: Do we own the culture we embrace or are we mere stewards of it? In our produce/reuse/recycle media culture, do we lose the right to claim something as our own? I don’t think so. Once a work of art is created and sent out into the world, it is the artist’s no longer. It becomes a public entity of which we can all buy shares and claim partial if ardent ownership, but we can never own it outright. My Green Bay Packers stock is tangible evidence of my intangible ownership and love of the team, but it’s not real stock. There will always be more Packers fans, and Boy Meets World fans, and Reading Rainbow students, no matter the form those things take.

    So here’s to hoping that everybody wins: that Girl Meets World and the new iteration of Reading Rainbow will enchant young viewers and delight older ones, and that we’ll finally find out what happened to Mr. Turner.

  • DDC 110-119: Let’s get metaphysical

    A Teach Me How To Dewey production

    The Rundown:

    • 110 Metaphysics
    • 111 Ontology
    • 112 No longer used—formerly Methodology
    • 113 Cosmology (Philosophy of nature)
    • 114 Space
    • 115 Time
    • 116 Change
    • 117 Structure
    • 118 Force and energy
    • 119 Number and quantity

    Time to get college-dorm-at-2am up in here. I mean, just look at the subtopics in this 10-spot: change, space, time (though unfortunately nothing on the space-time continuum), energy… Each of these concepts are their own unfathomable galaxies within the blown-mind universe. Sometimes it seems these kinds of heady topics can only be discussed after a few pints at the pub. Does anyone outside of academia actually sit down and read books about this stuff? For a non-STEM person like me, books like The Infinite Book below are great because they are meant to make the dense quandaries of high-level science more accessible for English majors like me. But perhaps I need to challenge myself.

    Or I’ll just read another novel.

    The Dew3:

    The Phenomenon of Man
    By Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
    Dewey: 113
    Random Sentence: “The paradox of man resolves itself by passing beyond measure.”

    The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless
    By John D. Barrow
    Dewey: 111.6
    Random Sentence: “Pythagoras believed infinity was the destroyer in the Universe, the malevolent annihilator of worlds.”

    Grammars of Creation
    By George Steiner
    Dewey: 116
    Random Sentence: “It can be cancelled and reduced to trackless silence.”

  • DDC 100-109: Don’t know much philosophy

    A Teach Me How To Dewey production

    The Rundown:

    • 100 Philosophy and psychology
    • 101 Theory of philosophy
    • 102 Miscellany of philosophy
    • 103 Dictionaries and encyclopedias of philosophy
    • 104 No longer used—formerly Essays
    • 105 Serial publications of philosophy
    • 106 Organizations and management of philosophy
    • 107 Education, research, and related topics of philosophy
    • 108 Kinds of persons in philosophy
    • 109 Historical treatment of philosophy

    Ahhhhhh… Sam Cooke. Melodically justifying ignorance since 1960. But those of us who don’t know much about philosophy are in luck: Dewey’s got us covered. Having conquered the first 100 Dewey points, we now enter the mind-melting glass case of cognition dedicated to Philosophy and Psychology. This first 10-spot focuses on philosophy, its theories and important historical figures. If you’re like me, you’re now having flashbacks to that Philosophy 101 course you took freshman year that was very stimulating but also made your brain hurt after every session and where you learned how to extend two pages’ worth of substantive arguments into 10 pages of grade-A high-falutin’ BS. (Or was that just me?)

    Anyway, I really am fascinated by philosophy, even if I’m not cut out to study it hardcore. (I’m also noticing that it’s a super annoying word to type, at least for hunt-and-pecker like me. For the last time, hands, it’s not philospohy!) A lot of the books in my library were dedicated to making philosophy accessible to laypeople, which is good because it’s often not. Still, it is everywhere, even when it’s not evident. Just ask the Philosoraptor.

    The Dew3:

    Plato and A Platypus Walk Into A Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes
    By Thomas Cathcart
    Dewey: 102 CAT
    Random Sentence: “Curiously, Camus looked a lot like Humphrey Bogart.”

    The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D’oh! of Homer
    Edited by William Irwin et al.
    Dewey: 100 SIM
    Random Sentence: “Can Nietzche’s rejection of traditional morality justify Bart’s bad behavior?”

    Astonish Yourself! 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life
    By Roger Pol-Droit
    Dewey: 100 DRO
    Random Sentence: “Do not step out of that shower jet’s narrow circle.”

  • DDC 090-099: Kell yeah!

    A Teach Me How To Dewey production

    The Rundown:

    • 090 Manuscripts & rare books
    • 091 Manuscripts
    • 092 Block books
    • 093 Incunabula
    • 094 Printed books
    • 095 Books notable for bindings
    • 096 Books notable for illustrations
    • 097 Books notable for ownership or origin
    • 098 Prohibited works, forgeries & hoaxes
    • 099 Books notable for format

    We made it to the end of our first 100 of Dewey! #WeDeweyedIt! And if it wasn’t totally evident by now that the Dewey Decimal Classification is about books, allow it to remind you one more time with this 10-spot dedicated to the things of books themselves: manuscripts, incunabula, and the kind of rare books only super-booksellers dare deal with. My closest encounter with this material happened in a Preservation & Conservation class in library school, wherein we learned about the history of paper, bookbinding, and conservation techniques, and also got to make a few books from scratch (one of which I won in a lottery at the end of the course – still a life highlight). To cap the course we had to write a research paper on any topic course-related; I chose to write a brief history of incunabula (early books) and titled the paper Dream of the 1490s: Gutenberg and the Birth of the Printed Book, a title fans of Portlandia and books will be able to appreciate.

    With the exception of the lacuna of despair that was the 040s, this section (in my library at least) has had the slimmest of pickings. The highlight would probably be the legendary Book of Kells (about which a delightful movie was made). Anyone else find something cool in the 090s?

    The Dew2:

    The Book of Kells
    By Bernard Meehan
    Dewey: 096.1 MEE
    Random Sentence: “According to Pliny, the chief characteristic of the panther was that its sweet breath attracted and stunned other animals.”

    Literary Hoaxes: An Eye-Opening History of Famous Frauds
    By Melissa Katsoulis
    Dewey: 098.3 KAT
    Random Sentence: “Abraham Lincoln is famous for many things, but being a great and passionate lover is not one of them.”

  • DDC 080-089: Paging Carrot Top

    A Teach Me How To Dewey production

    The Rundown:

    • 080 General collections
    • 081 Collections in American English
    • 082 Collections in English
    • 083 Collections in other Germanic languages
    • 084 Collections in French, Occitan & Catalan
    • 085 Collections in Italian, Romanian & related languages
    • 086 Collections in Spanish & Portuguese
    • 087 Collections in Slavic languages
    • 088 Collections in Scandinavian languages
    • 089 Collections in other languages

    In case you don’t remember (or have tried to forget) (a) payphones, (b) the “comedian” Carrot Top, or (3) the AT&T “Collect” commercials featuring Carrot Top and payphones, let me enlighten you. (Warning: this video might give you unwanted flashbacks to Carrot Top and the early 2000s.) For some tragicomedic reason that’s the first thing I thought of when coming upon this section of Dewey, dedicated to “collections” in all their vague, aggregated glory. But true to their nature, this collection of collections brings together a diverse array of topics into one accessible place. Most of these books I’d still consider bathroom reading rather than weighty nightstand material, though I guess that will depend on how things are going in the bathroom.

    The Dew3:

    My Bad: The Apology Anthology
    Edited By Paul Slanksy
    Dewey: 081 MY
    Random Sentence: “I did take some lives and I’m very sorry for that.” -David Berkowitz

    ‘Found’: The Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items From Around the World
    By Davy Rothbart
    Dewey: 081 FOU
    Random Sentence: “DID YOU JUST SEE THE BACKSTREET BOYS?”

    Best-Loved Chinese Proverbs
    By Theodora Lau
    Dewey: 089.951 LAU
    Random Sentence: “Don’t try to scoop the moon from the bottom of the sea.”

  • DDC 070-079: Carryin’ the banner

    A Teach Me How To Dewey production

    The Rundown:

    • 070 Journalism, and newspapers
    • 071 Newspapers in North America
    • 072 Newspapers in British Isles; in England
    • 073 Newspapers in central Europe; in Germany
    • 074 Newspapers in France & Monaco
    • 075 Newspapers in Italy & adjacent islands
    • 076 Newspapers in Iberian Peninsula & adjacent islands
    • 077 Newspapers in eastern Europe; in Russia
    • 078 Newspapers in Scandinavia
    • 079 Newspapers in other geographic areas

    Extra! Extra! Get your papes heeya, Jack Kelly. We continue along the general theme of writing, books, and cultural institutions with The Newspaper in all its storied, soon-to-be-antiquated glory. While I was disappointed not to find a comprehensive history of that classic 1992 Disney musical/bad-accent-party Newsies, I found a lot of books on journalism or by journalists, along with (diving back into meta-ness) a lot on writing and publishing and the challenges therein, which actually seem to be good resources for aspiring authors. Once again, the books in my library were limited almost exclusively to two digits (070 and 071); apparently Scandinavian newspapers don’t fit within the the collection purview of a Midwestern public library.

    As a writer myself, I struggle with how much writing about writing I should read. On the one hand it’s helpful to learn how other seemingly successful writers struggle through the quotidian difficulties of the writing life. On the other hand, it’s easy to get bogged down in reading about writing and not actually get your own writing done. It’s the same thing with the modern trends of “lifehacking” and productivity: so many new apps and web tools make promises of increased productivity and streamlined life, but when I focus so much on the tools themselves I get fixated on the tool instead of the product it’s supposed to help create.

    Or maybe I’m overthinking it.

    The Dew3:

    What Kind of Loser Indie Publishers? And How Can I Be One, Too?
    By Pamela Fagan
    Dewey: 070.593 HUT
    Random Sentence: “Did you just throw up a little in your mouth?”

    Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer’s Life
    By Michael Greenberg
    Dewey: 070.92 GRE
    Random Sentence: “Purged of empathy, I joined in the protective cynicism of the courthouse employees.”

    Red Blood & Black Ink: Journalism in the Old West
    By David Dary
    Dewey: 071 DAR
    Random Sentence: “That’s just the way with juries – they think it no more wrong to shoot an editor than a Jack-rabbit.”

  • At the shore on a Monday

    A poem

    At the shore on a Monday
    seagulls with orange beaks,
    fighting against the wind,
    whip up and down the line,
    a boustrophedon parade—
    the waves shoving their way to shore.
    Jimmy Eat World’s “Futures” beckons them
    to me,
    scoring the ever-forward push of all creation.

    It is all connected.
    It is all connected now.

    Whatever reigns over this moment,
    I am a witness.

    Up in the distance a plane careens toward the horizon,
    itself pushing against the wind
    to find its place in the future.
    It cuts past the clouds
    like the waves that topple rocks
    flanking the coast.

    Men and women who smoke cigarettes walk
    to the shore, their exhaust
    billowing and dissipating
    into the rushing wind;
    planes in the air, smoke in the air.

    There will always be exhaust,
    until there will not be.
    Until then:
    the horizon,
    the remedy,
    the birds.

  • DDC 060-069: Museum’s Rules

    A Teach Me How To Dewey production

    The Rundown:

    • 060 General organizations & museology
    • 061 Organizations in North America
    • 062 Organizations in British Isles; in England
    • 063 Organizations in central Europe; in Germany
    • 064 Organizations in France & Monaco
    • 065 Organizations in Italy & adjacent islands
    • 066 Organizations in Iberian Peninsula & adjacent islands
    • 067 Organizations in eastern Europe; in Russia
    • 068 Organizations in other geographic areas
    • 069 Museum science

    It’s becoming evident that the first 100 of Dewey is tailored for folks who already love the library and its humanities brethren. Like the “first fruits” of library science, the best stuff (at least according to people like me who geek out about books, libraries, museums, and other districts of Nerddom) comes first, before every other discipline, as an intellectual offering to St. Dewey.

    Museums aren’t the only subject of the 060s, but they are the most interesting since books about Iberian organizations apparently don’t circ well. (There were a lot of books on the so-called Robert’s Rules, a reference authority for parliamentary and meeting procedures, but forgive me for not raving about the riveting world of legislative order.)

    Does your library have any other interesting books in the 060s? I’ve already admitted by bias toward museums and the like, but is there anything here for non-history geeks? If not, take heart that once we get out of the 100s we won’t find hardcore history until Dewey’s end. Until then:

    The Dew3:

    The Stranger and the Statesman: James Smithson, John Quincy Adams, and the Making of America’s Greatest Museum, The Smithsonian
    By Nina Burleigh
    Dewey: 069.09753 BUR
    Random Sentence: “Perhaps Adams’s preference for looking at the skies was motivated by his hopelessness at what he witnessed on the earth.”

    Cabinets of Curiosities
    By Peter Mauriès
    Dewey: 069 MAU
    Random Sentence: “From the monsters of folklore and mythology to the freaks of real life was no very long step.”

    The Secret Museum
    By Molly Oldfield
    Dewey: 069.5 OLD
    Random Sentence: “It might seem a bit of a weird thing for him to have done, that is, if you’ve read his novels but don’t know much about butterfly mating.”

  • DDC 050-059: Killer serials

    A Teach Me How To Dewey production

    The Rundown:

    • 050 General serials & their Indexes
    • 051 Serials in American English
    • 052 Serials in English
    • 053 Serials in other Germanic languages
    • 054 Serials in French, Occitan & Catalan
    • 055 Serials in Italian, Romanian & related languages
    • 056 Serials in Spanish & Portuguese
    • 057 Serials in Slavic languages
    • 058 Serials in Scandinavian languages
    • 059 Serials in other languages

    Journalism, the saying goes, is the first draft of history. It takes the first stab at what’s going on the in the world, with the assumption that future historians will take that draft and make corrections, additions, and judgements with the benefit of distance. With this in mind, bringing all those “first drafts” together into one publication (like the examples below do) creates a different and unique dynamic, where an overarching story emerges out of a series of first drafts–a whole that becomes greater than the sum of its parts. It’s fun to walk through the whole history of something and see how certain events were experienced at the time compared to how they are interpreted today.

    The Dew3:

    Paper Dreams: Writers and Editors on the American Literary Magazine
    Edited by Travis Kurowski
    Dewey: 051 PAP
    Random Sentence: “In those days, in Iowa City, twenty-five dollars bought a hell of a lot of beer.”

    Time: The Illustrated History of the World’s Most Influential Magazine
    Edited by Norberto Angeletti
    Dewey: 051.09 ANG
    Random Sentence: “This was a fascinating, maddening, challenging, and ultimately expanding experience.”

    The Classic Era of American Pulp Magazines
    By Peter Haining
    Dewey: 051.09 HAI
    Random Sentence: “It was pretty young girls that evildoers invariably had it in for.”

  • DDC 040-049: The Abyss

    A Teach Me How To Dewey production

    The Rundown:

    Darkness. Emptiness. Eternally nothing.

    This is the first and only unassigned ten-spot in all of Dewey. It used to be the home of Biographies, but most libraries separate biographies into their own section, leaving this vacant lot to the weeds. Of course, on the shelves the 030s and 050s will flow together seamlessly, but in our minds and hearts we all know and carry on the memory of the ancient denizens of the 040s.

    RIP

  • DDC 030-039: Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the 030s

    A Teach Me How To Dewey production

    The Rundown:

    • 030 General encyclopedia works
    • 031 Encyclopedias in American English
    • 032 Encyclopedias in English
    • 033 Encyclopedias in German
    • 034 Encyclopedias in French, Occitan & Catalan
    • 035 Encyclopedias in Italian, Romanian & related languages
    • 036 Encyclopedias in Spanish & Portuguese
    • 037 Encyclopedias in Slavic languages
    • 038 Encyclopedias in Scandinavian languages
    • 039 Encyclopedias in other languages

    You want facts? They got your facts right here. Perhaps this section should be renamed “Bathroom Reading” as there are encyclopedias and fact books galore, including the perennial favorite Guinness Book of World Records and multivolume and multicolored World Book. Once the behemoths of research, this type of printed books seems to be either dead or dying as a primary resource for in-depth study. I feel like a dinosaur for remembering having the set at home and actually using it for school assignments. Despite their diminished status, I’ve come to see them as a great place for serendipity to reign. Open up to a random page and you’ll find something interesting or informative or even delightful.

    Just imagine how differently Breaking Bad would have ended if Walter White had stocked his bathroom with encyclopedias instead of a personalized book of poetry. I’m not saying encyclopedias are better than poetry, but I guess I kind of am. Perhaps I’ll change my tune (or my verse?) when I get to the 800s.

    The Dew3:

    The Best of the Old Farmer’s Almanac: The First 200 Years
    Edited by Judson Hale
    Dewey: 031.02 BES
    Random Sentence: “It’s one thing to be an expert gardener but quite another to win blue ribbons for your efforts at the county fair.”

    Mental_floss Presents: Be Amazing
    Edited by Maggie Koerth
    Dewey: 031.02 KOE
    Random Sentence: “The good news: Teleportation is possible.”

    The New York Times Presents Smarter By Sunday: 52 Weekends of Essential Knowledge for the Curious Mind
    Dewey: 031.02 NEW
    Random Sentence: “The particles that produce the weak force are called W and Z.”

  • DDC 020-029: Meta-Dewey

    A Teach Me How To Dewey production

    The Rundown:

    • 020 Library & information sciences
    • 021 Library relationships
    • 022 Administration of physical plant
    • 023 Personnel management
    • 024 No longer used—formerly Regulations for readers
    • 025 Library operations
    • 026 Libraries for specific subjects
    • 027 General libraries
    • 028 Reading & use of other information media
    • 029 No longer used—formerly Literary methods

    We’re getting meta up in here. I suppose it’s fitting that the section on libraries should be towards the beginning. Imagine how much this section has changed from Melvil Dewey’s time until now. I wonder how blown his mind would be by the Internet and online catalogs. It’s something we modern users take for granted. I’m old enough to remember using card catalogs, but kids these days (*shakes fist at sky*) don’t have a clue. Whether that’s good or not is debatable, I suppose, but so long as they’re using the library I’d call that a victory.

    Speaking of victory, this section is the first thus far that has books I’ve already read, two of which are below. Yeah reading!

    The Dew3:

    Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian
    by Avi Steinberg
    Dewey: 027.665 STE
    Random Sentence: “For these reasons, the library has always been run by a strongman.”

    The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction
    by Alan Jacobs
    Dewey: 028.8 JAC
    Random Sentence: “Fortuity happens, but serendipity can be cultivated.”

    My Ideal Bookshelf
    edited by Thessaly La Force
    Dewey: 028.9 MY
    Random Sentence: “I picked all of these books because I think you should always judge a book by its cover–or its spine, in this case.” -Oliver Jeffers

  • DDC 010-019: Books, man…

    A Teach Me How To Dewey production

    The Rundown:

    • 010 Bibliography
    • 011 Bibliographies
    • 012 Bibliographies of individuals
    • 013 [Unassigned]
    • 014 Bibliographies of anonymous & pseudonymous works
    • 015 Bibliographies of works from specific places
    • 016 Bibliographies of works on specific subjects
    • 017 General subject catalogs
    • 018 Catalogs arranged by author, date, etc.
    • 019 Dictionary catalogs

    Ohhhhh yeaaahhhh… Pure, unadulterated book crack. This is where things start to get good. Book lovers don’t have to go far to get their fix in Dewey. Bibliographies of all stripes serenade perusers of the stacks like the Sirens in The Odyssey, each its own rabbit hole of bookish delight. Be careful not to linger for too long here, though, as there’s so much more to see. (Although, if you’re already overwhelmed by the panoply of book choices before you, then perhaps a curated bibliography is a good place to start your reading adventures.)

    The Dew3:

    Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason
    by Nancy Pearl
    Dewey: 011.73 PEA
    Random Sentence: “Ah, the lure of the open road, or the open water, or simply the great unknown.”

    A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books
    by Alex Beam
    Dewey: 011.73 BEA
    Random Sentence: “Make no mistake: This was no charitable act of cultural enrichment.”

    Bizarre Books: A Compendium of Classic Oddities
    by Russell Ash
    Dewey: 016.082 ASH
    Random Featured Book: Romance of the Gas Industry by Oscar Norman

  • Today In Nerdery

    In my continuing work at the Frances Willard House Museum and Archives, I’ve started working with the Willard correspondence, which begins in the mid-1860s and continues through the turn of the century. Because of this, and because of Frances’ high stature as a public figure during that time, there are a few letters I’ve happened upon from some well-known people that gave me that special feeling historians, archivists, and other history lovers feel when they encounter a gem from the past.

    Today I came upon letters from another central women’s suffrage figure (Susan B. Anthony), three former First Ladies (Frances Cleveland, Lucy Hayes, and Sarah Polk), Lincoln’s secretary John Nicolay, and a famous author (Louisa May Alcott). And I haven’t even entered the 1890s yet.

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