Category: dewey decimal project
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Dewey Decimal Project: 814 MAM Writing in restaurants
I first heard of this book sometime in the late ’90s when I was, on occasion, literally writing in restaurants, sitting at Mitchell’s Diner at Clark and North with a ham and cheese omelet, a 5×8 spiral-bound notebook and a fine-point felt-tip pen. Mitchell’s is gone now, replaced by an Elly’s Pancake House which Google informs…
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Dewey Decimal Project: 808 DAG The lifespan of a fact
To initiate the 800s—literature—I picked this odd ittle book. I first encountered it in excerpts during my MFA and I was curious to read the whole thing, both D’Agata’s essay and Fingal’s fact checking of it. There was some exaggeration in the conflict between the two as it was portrayed on the page, as revealed in…
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Dewey Decimal Project: 791.092 JAY Jay’s journal of anomalies : conjurers, cheats, hustlers, hoaxsters, pranksters, jokesters, impostors, pretenders, sideshow showmen, armless calligraphers, mechanical marvels, popular entertainments
The 700s conclude with “Sports, ames & entertainment.” I had thought perhaps I might read a book about chess or even sports but then I spotted Ricky Jay’s name on the shelves. I have a vague notion that this might have been something that Jay mentioned in a Fresh Air interview, but even if I’d never heard…
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Dewey Decimal Project: 780.904 ROS The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century
I believe I heard about this book when it was first published and it was something that intrigued me. I had dabbled in listening to twentieth-century classical music in my twenties, but didn’t really start digging deeply until I began singing with the choir at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. The choir director at the time,…
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Dewey Decimal Project: 778.925 JAN How to photograph children
Picking something out of photography seemed a bit of a bore and I ended up going with this book as an option. Of course, since I’m over a year behind in these write ups, I don’t remember much of the book other than it was not notable in either positive or negative terms so I’m going…
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Dewey Decimal Project: 760 GRE The Artists of Terezin
Nestled in the 760s, “Printmaking and Prints,” I found this book which talked about the background of the artists of Terezin as well as showing their work. Terezin was a former fortress city which the Nazis took over to use as a “model ghetto.” Living conditions were as awful as in other Jewish ghettos under…
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Dewey Decimal Project: 759.054 RUB How to Read Impressionism: Ways of Looking
Growing up in Chicago, I’ve had the good fortune of easy access to what’s arguably the best collection of impressionist artwork in the work at the Art Institute (I remember visiting the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and realizing that they had fewer pieces than the Art Institute and many of the best pieces of the…
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Dewey Decimal Project: 741.59 CHU Why Comics? From Underground to Everywhere
Comics are covered in the Dewey Decimal system under “Graphic arts & decorative arts.” There was little chance that I would read anything else when I got to this part of the Dewey Decimals, but I had originally thought I’d read some collection of newspaper strips. With the wealth of options available, I ended up deciding…
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Dewey Decimal Project: 731.42 HOL Polymer Clay for the first time®
I’ve always wanted to learn to sculpt. The whole concept of creating three-dimensional art has always fascinated me. So when I got to the 730s, “Sculpture, ceramics & metalwork” I was sure this was going to be my chance to finally learn this skill. Nope. I picked up this book hoping it would be about sculpting…