100 Books on the Booklist

I've finally made it to 100 books on the reading list, which was one of my goals. Having a critical mass of books on the reading list makes it easier to decide which book I want to read in a given category.

An astute reader who carefully studies my list will probably quickly notice a number of duplicates. For right now, I'm allowing a few duplicates in each category I haven't read. Once I reach that category, I'll pick one of the choices, and discard the others. So my list of 100 titles is really a bit shorter, once you eliminate the 10 or so duplicates.

The problem from here on out will be finding entries in the more obscure categories. Already, I can name my favorite categories based on population:

• 973. Technically "US History", but pretty much anything related to the US goes here. Barack Obama's book is here, as is a book on Revolutionary War privateers. A surprising number of political books are categorized here.
• 320 and 324. All of the political screeds that aren't found in 973 are found in one of these two categories.
  
• 612. I've very interested in how the human body works. Unfortunately, every book on the topic, from memory to balance to emotion to memory falls here.

As always, suggestions are welcomed and appreciated.

On suggestions

My thanks to everyone who has posted a book to the suggestions list!

All suggestions that are submitted are stored for my approval first before they show up on the suggestion list. That's in case some wise guy starts posting a few too many suggestions in the 306.77 category. Rest assured, I get all of your suggestions.

I'm planning to update the suggestion list to provide columns to give a little feedback on if a book was accepted or rejected, and why. The most common reasons I would reject a book are:

1. Already read it, so I can't use it.
2. Already read something in that category. One book per category, remember?
   
3. I already have too many picks in that category on the book list. I don't mind having a couple choices in each category, but once I have a couple good choices I will be very reluctant to accept more.
   
4. Not to be rude, but it sounds boring. This challenge is going to be hard enough as it is. I'm have to focus on fascinating books that can keep my interest.
5. It's too long. That's a horrible reason to not read a book, but I have to have some limits. If my list fills up with 900 page volumes, this is going to take two decades, not one.
6. My local library doesn't have it. This shouldn't happen very often, as the library is connected to a large network of bigger libraries. But if it's particularly rare or oddball, then it might happen. I'll probably leave it on the suggestion list until I can find a copy myself.

If I decide to use a book, I'll add it to the book list.

I currently have about 30 books on the book list. My goal now is to expand the list to 100 books, with coverage across all categories. This will make it easier to analyze new suggestions, and decide if they should be added to the reading list.

Suggestions

It's occurred to me that there are a number of dark corners of the library that I know nothing about. Take 866 -- Spanish letters. I have no idea what kinds of books I'm going to find there. Famous letters, maybe? Are they all in Spanish, or can I find an English translation?

Or 960 -- History of Africa. Africa is a big place, and that is a huge topic. Sure, I can just grab the first likely looking book off the shelf in that section, but I'd rather read a really good book on the topic. Besides, I know myself. As this contest goes on, I'm probably going to be grabbing books based on thickness.

To avoid having to read too many random grabs, I'm asking for suggestions. If you know of a good non-fiction book, particularly an esoteric and interesting book in an odd category, let me know! It'd be nice if you could include the call number and the other info, but don't worry about it if you don't know it.

Suggestions can be posted as comments to this post, or you can use the Suggestions form located in the links section.