During my recent lack of posting, I have been picking away at reading a book from each section of the Dewey Decimal System. And I’ve done it! I was hoping to read a physical copy of each, but a few ended up being audiobooks, and I’ve enjoyed those as well. A complete list of what I’ve read can be found below. A few of the selections were accidental, most were intentional. I enjoyed the vast majority of them.
The best book from this group was Quiet by Susan Cain. Her explora
tion of the facets of people’s behavior and psychology was insightful, and gave me an excuse to want to read quietly on my lunch break rather than socialize. (Turns out that I’m an introvert! That’s how I recharge my batteries.) I also loved Jon Ronson’s book The Psychopath Test. It was hilarious, informative, and 
terrifying at the same time. Of the biographies, Townie may have been my favorite. It is the memoir of the author Andre Dubus III growing up in the Merrimack Valley on the wrong side of the tracks with his complicated family, and how he became the man who he is today. I was fortunate enough to see him speak at a library conference this fall, and now I look forward to reading even more of his work.
It is tricky to decide which book was the least enjoyable. I liked all of them, and I certainly liked learning so much new information. The writing of The Warmth of Other Suns annoyed me with its repetition, but the history was fascinating. Margaret Atwood’s Power Politics was difficult for me, since I rarely read poetry and have lost a natural appreciation for it. The book I just finished (This Love is Not for Cowards by Robert Andrew Powell) took me a very long time to read, but is an interesting investigation of soccer and violence in Juarez, Mexico.
- 000s: General Knowledge
- Unpacking My Library — Leah Price (028.9)
- 100s: Philosophy & Psychology
- Quiet — Susan Cain (155.232)
- 200s: Religion
- The Tenth Parallel — Eliza Griswold (297.283)
- 300s: Social Sciences
- The Big Roads — Earl Swift (338.122)
- The Warmth of Other Suns — Isabel Wilkerson (304.80973)
- The Girls from Ames — Jeffrey Zaslow (305.4092)
- Nickel and Dimed — Barbara Ehrenreich (305.569)
- Dreams from My Father — Barack Obama (305.896) *Still reading
- House of Stone — Anthony Shadid (306.0956)
- 400s: Language
- Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies — June Casagrande (428.02)
- 500s: Science
- The Tiger — John Vaillant (599.756)
- 600s: Technology
- Getting Things Done — David Allen (646.7)
- The Psychopath Test — Jon Ronson (616.8582)
- 700s: Arts and Recreation
- English Majors — Garrison Keillor (791.447)
- This Love is Not for Cowards — Robert Andrew Powell (796.334)
- 800s: Literature
- Power Politics — Margaret Atwood (811)
- Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? — Edward Albee (818)
- 900s: History and Geography
- Unfamiliar Fishes — Sarah Vowell (996.9)
- Biography
- Catherine the Great — Robert Massie (BIOG)
- Townie — Andre Dubus III (BIOG)
- In the Garden of Beasts — Erik Larson (BIOG)
- MWF Seeking BFF — Rachel Bertsche (BIOG)
- Wild — Cheryl Strayed (BIOG)
Did you read any good non-fiction this year?
My Goodreads widget stopped updating on December 31st, so it said I never made my goal. Now it’s only showing the 2013 widget.
Turns out I blew past my goal, because I hadn’t added a date read to about 25 books. Whoops. 
Let’s see. I read Blog, Inc. about starting a blog. That was enjoyable. The Little Book of Talent about how to develop talent. That was useful. Though someone had written all through it in pencil.
Don’t do that to library books!!
I read The American Pickers Guide to Picking because I like the show. It read quite like watching an episode of the show. I also read Imagine and really enjoyed it, but it was later recalled because the author made up Bob Dylan quotes.
The one nonfiction book I gave 5 stars to in 2012 was The WisCon Chronicles Volume 6, but that’s a niche audience. Science fiction and fantasy and feminism.
If you do this again, you really need to read Mary Roach!
I agree with Julie! I don’t read a lot of non-fiction, but I’ve read all Mary Roach’s books and really enjoyed them. You’ll definitely learn something new when reading her stuff, and probably have quite a few chuckles while you’re at it!