October 7th, 2008, 3 Comments »
I’m reading and cautiously enjoying Everything is Miscellaneous, David Weinberger’s newish book. It’s not the most gripping read, but it’s skillfully written, well-researched and occasionally insightful.
In a section on information gatekeepers, I was amused to read how, in 2003, the owners of the Dewey Decimal system sued New York’s Library Hotel for labeling their floors and rooms after topics from Dewey:
The hotel opened three years ago at Madison Avenue and 41st Street. From its imitation card catalog in the lobby to its stately second-floor reading room, it is designed as a siren for book lovers. Each floor is devoted to one of the 10 main categories of knowledge in the Dewey system: Social Sciences, Languages, Math and Science, Technology, the Arts, Literature, History and Geography, General Knowledge, Philosophy and Religion.
Hotel guests can request a specific floor or themed room, furnished with the corresponding books. History buffs might consider the ninth floor, with Biography (900.006) or Asian History (900.004). A technology aficionado might give Computers (600.005) a try.
As it turns out, the OCLC and the hotel settled out of court. You can see a complete list of their room and floor names on Wikipedia.
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June 4th, 2008, 4 Comments »
I assume there are two or three basic types of readers. I haven’t done any research into this, but there’s probably the serial reader, who only reads one book at a time. And then there’s the parallel reader, who may have any number of books on the go simultaneously.
I’m the latter case, and things are particularly muddy at the moment. I write this blog post as much for me as anyone, to clarify in my head which books I’m currently working on:
- The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins - Well written, but rather dense and dogmatic. Dawkins is currently on the bench, cooling off.
- Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger - Just started this one. This feels like one of those “I know this stuff, but it’s an entertaining read and nice to have one’s assumptions confirmed” books.
- On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan - There are few novelists that I admire more than McEwan. He’s such a fine stylist. I just started this one as well, because I didn’t want to haul Weinberger’s hard cover book to Vancouver and back.
- The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin - This is the current audiobook I’m ‘reading’. I really enjoyed Martin’s recent autobiography, which I also consumed in audio. Martin reads both books on audio, and he is by far the finest reader of one’s own works that I’ve heard.
- How to Live Off-grid by Nick Rosen - Somebody sent me this book. I probably won’t read it cover to cover, because I don’t actually want to live off the grid, but I’ve dipped into it a couple of times and it has some charming anecdotes about alternative ways to live.
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