Bedda's attempt at the DDC

It will probably take me the rest of my life to finish this but I will give it a try. I figure I'll go back a couple of months so I don't start with nothing but mostly they will be books that I will be reading from now on. There are a lot of numbers in the Dewey Decimal System and my library doesn't use it so I worry about being able to track them all down. But that's why it's called a challenge, I guess.

000 Generalities

001 Knowledge - Guidebook to Learning by Mortimer J. Adler
025 Operations of libraries, archives, information centers - Virtual Unreality by Charles Seife
028 Reading & use of other information media - What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund

100 Philosophy

128 Humankind - Brain Wars by Mario Beauregard
153 Conscious mental processes & intelligence - Mindset by Carol Dweck
170 Ethics (Moral philosophy) - Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo

200 Religion

248 Christian experience, practice, life - The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee
289 Other denominations & sects - What of the Mormons? by Gordon B. Hinckley

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology

305 Groups of people - Dignity: The Essential Role It Plays in Resolving Conflict by Donna Hicks
306 Culture & institutions - Rest in Pieces by Bess Lovejoy
320 Political science (Politics & government) - The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
335 Socialism & related systems - Utopia by Thomas More
338 Production - Chocolate: Sweet Science & Dark Secrets of the World's Favorite Treat by Kay Frydenborg
349 Law of specific jurisdictions, areas, socioeconomic regions, regional intergovernmental organizations - Every Woman Should Go To Law School by Margaret Basch
355 Military science - Bomboozled by Susan Roy
359 Sea forces & warfare - No Hero by Mark Owen
362 Social problems of & services to groups of people - Look Me In The Eye by John Elder Robison
364 Criminology - In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
370 Education - The Promise of a Pencil by Adam Braun
385 Railroad transportation - Nothing Like it in the World by Stephen E. Ambrose

400 Language

422 Etymology of standard English - I Love It When You Talk Retro by Ralph Keyes

500 Sciences

500 Natural sciences & mathematics - What If? by Randall Munroe
530 Physics - Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli
546 Inorganic chemistry - The Periodic Table: A Field Guide to the Elements by Paul Parsons
551 Geology, hydrology, meteorology - Rain: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett
591 Specific topics in natural history of animals - Giants of the Sea by Andrew Cleave
594 Mollusca & Molluscoidea - Octopus! by Katherine Harmon Courage
599 Mammalia (Mammals) - Born Free by Joy Adamson

600 Technology

600 Technology (Applied sciences) - Where's My Jetpack by Daniel H. Wilson
616 Diseases - The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
617 Surgery, regional medicine, dentistry, ophthalmology, otology, audiology - Coming to My Senses by Claire H. Blatchford
629 Other branches of engineering - Great American Jetpack by Steve Lehto
634 Orchards, fruits, forestry - Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World by Dan Koeppel
636 Animal husbandry - Oink: My Life With Minipigs by Matt Whyman
641 Food & drink - Immortal Milk by Eric LeMay
659 Advertising & public relations - Marketing the Moon by David Meerman Scott
663 Beverage technology - Proof: The Science of Booze by Adam Rogers

700 Arts

720 Architecture - Frank Lloyd Wright: A Gatefold Portfolio by Robin Langley Sommer
741 Drawing & drawings - DaVinci's Ghost by Toby Lester
745 Decorative arts - Mail-Order Mysteries by Kirk Demarais
792 Stage presentations - Bossypants by Tiny Fey
794 Indoor games of skill - A Smarter Way to Learn Pool by George Fels
799 Fishing, hunting, shooting - Last Horizons by Peter H. Capstick

800 Literature, rhetoric & criticism

808 Rhetoric & collections of literary texts from more than two literatures- Children's Classic Poetry Collection by Nicola Baxter
812 Drama - Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence
813 Fiction - Edge of the World by Kevin J. Anderson
817 Satire & humor - Fork It Over by Alan Richman
818 American miscellaneous writings in English - Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan
822 English drama - Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
823 English fiction - When We Were Romans by Matthew Kneale
832 German drama - Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
833 German fiction - Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
839 Other Germanic literatures - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
842 French drama - Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
843 French fiction - Three Tales by Gustave Flaubert
851 Italian poetry - Inferno by Dante Alighieri
853 Italian fiction - The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano
882 Classical Greek drama - Oedipus the King by Sophocles
895 Literatures of East & Southeast Asia - Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

900 History

910 Geography & travel - The Brendan Voyage by Timothy Severin
914 Geography of & travel in Europe - Dead Mountain by Donnie Eichar
922 (921-928) This range is reserved as an optional location for biographies, which are shelved alphabetically by subject's last name - Queen of the Dark Chamber by Christiana Tsai
929 Genealogy, names, insignia - Roots by Alex Haley
930 History of ancient world to ca. 499 - Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Daniken
937 Italian Peninsula to 476 & adjacent territories to 476 - The Rise of the Roman Empire by Polybius
940 History of Europe - Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
942 England & Wales - Wars of the Roses by Charles Derek Ross
976 South central United States - Remember the Alamo! by Robert Penn Warren
985 Peru - Lost City of the Incas by Hiram Bingham
988 Guiana - Equatoria by Richard Price

Welcome!

As far as tracking down numbers goes, LT has them for most books (now that Tim has finally fixed that bug). If that doesn't work, there's OCLC's "Classify" tool at http://classify.oclc.org/classify2/ which gives a breakdown of the classifications assigned by a number of libraries.

I admire your courage in starting fresh - I started with everything in my LT catalog that I'd read.

Yeah, well, we'll see how long it lasts. It's easy to say I'm starting fresh now but when progress gets slow I might look through everything I ever read.

Wekcome to the challenge!

Welcome, welcome! It's always nice to see a fresh face in the challenge. If you're looking for book in some hard-to-find sections, just PM me. I have a lot of PDF books that have helped me fill in thin areas of the Dewey. Cheers!

Thanks. I will probably take you up in the offer at some point. Some of the sections will be hard to find. But that's what's good about having almost nothing filled in. Just about anything I read right now will fit somewhere.

>15 NielsenGW:

Would you consider adding those suggestions to the Suggestions Wiki ( http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Group:Dewey_Decimal_Challenge/suggest... ) so that others can benefit from them as well?

I've managed to fill in a few numbers.

153 - Mindset by Carol Dweck

289 - What of the Mormons? by Gordon B. Hinckley
This is a nice history of the Mormons but I went in hoping for a little more about their beliefs than I found here.

794 - A Smarter Way to Learn Pool by George Fels
I know so little about how to play pool that this didn't seem basic enough for me but once I learn how to shoot the strategy here will come in handy.

799 - Last Horizons by Peter Capstick
Some of this reads like an adventure story but if you are not a hunter this is probably not for you.

822 - Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

851 - The Inferno by Dante Alighieri
Interesting. But I don't think I'm going to run out and get his other work.

843 - Three Tales by Gustave Flaubert

985- Lost City of the Incas by Hiram Bingham

I read Mail Order Mysteries by Kirk Demarais and have officially run into my first DDC problem. I was hoping to avoid all the multiple call numbers issues for a little while. But, alas, no. I can find two common numbers for it:

745 Decorative arts
790 Recreational & performing arts

I don't really know where a book about stuff you could get from the ads in old comic books would fit. I'm thinking I should figure out which one is harder to fill and use it for that category. Is that cheating or smart?

>19 bedda:

It's entirely up to you how you want to do it. This is an odd case in that it's not a case of dueling classifications, where you can pick the most common one on OCLC Classify or from your authority of choice; both are applied simultaneously. So I'd pick the one that seems best to me - not having read it myself, I'd pick 745.

When I really am torn, I always pick the one either that I don't already have or that's more common in general - that is, I very deliberately do not pick the one that's harder to fill. I personally would feel like cherry-picking is cheating. But I certainly don't think less of anyone for choosing an alternate tack (as long as they're not selecting things that are obviously just typos or otherwise errors!)

My latest titles:

028 - What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund

128 - Brain Wars by Mario Beauregard
An interesting investigation into the power of the mind.

306 - Rest in Pieces by Bess Lovejoy

370 - The Promise of a Pencil by Adam Braun

385- Nothing Like it in the World by Stephen Ambrose

741- DaVinci's Ghost by Toby Lester

745- Mail-Order Mysteries by Kirk Demarais
Who hasn't wondered what those x-ray specs actually do?

832 - Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

839 - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

937 - The Rise of the Roman Empire by Polybius
I think that this is for people who have a more scholarly interest than I do.

My latest titles:

170 - Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo
I have to admit that I didn't understand the point of some of his stories.

355 - Bomboozled by Susan Roy

599 - Born Free by Joy Adamson

616 - The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Oliver Sacks
It is a little scary what your own mind can do to you.

634 - Banana: The Fate of the Fruit the Changed the World by Dan Koeppel
This was more interesting than I expected and left me oddly worried about the future of bananas.

636 - Oink: My Life With Minipigs by Matt Whyman
I once owned a pig, so I can relate to some of the stuff here. Plus I like stories about animals so this was a fun book.

659 - Marketing the Moon by David Meerman Scott

792 - Bossypants by Tina Fey

853 - The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano

940 - Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
This is a wonderful story about horrible things.

The newest titles for my list:

305 - Dignity by Donna Hicks

338 - Chocolate: Sweet Science & Dark Secrets of the World's Favorite Treat by Kay Frydenborg
This made me worry about the future of chocolate. I don't want to hear that all the cocao trees are dying! That's horrible news.

422 - I Love It When You Talk Retro by Ralph Keyes
It was interesting to see the origins of some phrases. Although there were a bunch of phrases I had never heard before in here too.

500 - What If? by Randall Munroe
Actual real science. The answers are interesting but the questions people come up with are even more interesting.

591 - Giants of the Sea by Andrew Cleave

594 - Octopus! by Katherine Harmon Courage
More about eating octopus than I thought there would.

641 - Immortal Milk by Eric LeMay
Learned some things about cheese but mostly it just made me think that I have never had really good cheese because it isn't available in the United States.

895 - Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

>641

mostly it just made me think that I have never had really good cheese because it isn't available in the United States.

Nonsense. There is excellent cheese available in the US. Try your local farmers' market, or a dedicated cheesemonger if there's one in your area, or barring that a good gourmet store; you just won't find the good stuff at Safeway and the like.

Some of these look really good! I'm reading What If? on Oyster. I need to find Octopus! and Immortal Milk, even though I think I have those categories covered.

So, it's been a while since I've updated my list. Unfortunately that's because I haven't had much to add lately.

Here are the few I've managed to accomplish.

025 - Virtual Unreality by Charles Seife
359 - No Hero by Mark Owen
364 - In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
833 - Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
930 - Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Daniken
942 - Wars of the Roses by Charles Derek Ross

320 - The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
349 - Every Woman Should Go to Law School by Margaret Basch
362 - Look Me In The Eye by John Elder Robison
530 - Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli
551- Rain: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett
600 - Where's My Jetpack by Daniel H. Wilson
617 - Coming to My Senses by Claire H. Blatchford
629 - Great American Jetpack by Steve Lehto
663 - Proof: The Science of Booze by Adam Rogers
818- Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan
914 - Dead Mountain by Donnie Eichar
922 - Queen of the Dark Chamber by Christiana Tsai
976 - Remember the Alamo! by Robert Penn Warren
988 - Equatoria by Richard Price

001 - Guidebook to Learning by Mortimer J. Adler
335 - Utopia by Thomas More
808 - Children's Classic Poetry Collection by Nicola Baxter
842 - Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
882 - Oedipus the King by Sophocles
929 - Roots by Alex Haley