DD 176-180.999 (Tony) Give It Up!: My Year of Learning to Live Better with Less by Mary Carlomagno (179.90 CAR)

First things first, I must comment of the author's picture on the back of the book. 100% Jersey Girl- now I know- don't judge a book, much less it's author by it's cover. However, the massive amounts of shoes, chocolate, and alcohol consumed by this person- much less the severe withdraws she suffers from giving these items up for one month really helps to prove my point.
I just can't fathom needing to unwind after work with 1 beer or cocktail- much less 2-5 as she claims to have drunk on average before her January of soberity. Same goes with her need for coffee. Chocolate, I kinda understand- I doubt I could go a month without ice cream!
Still, the author is to be commended for her willingness to forgoe certain earthly pleasures for a month at a time. I feel like her in how pervasive the cell phone has become to us. TV too- but like her, I must agree in this day and age, they are both necessasy evils. I do wish I could do like her and give up cussing. I really think her effort to make a donation to a charity for each swear was a wish idea- how else could you really check yourself without something like this to keep you honest.
The weakest challenge for the author was her boycott on "multitasking". I had a hard time understanding what she was trying to accomplish with this task. It's also the weakest chapter in the book. Sadly, since this task occurs in December at the end of her 1 year strike on excess, it causes the book to end on a low note.
In finishing this reveiw, I want to speak to the author for just a moment, because she stikes me as the type of person who actually may read this on the net one day! I give you book an "A-". It was very entertaining and insightful. I do wish you had talked more about withdrawal symptoms in relation to you body, because I refuse to believe you did not have some sort of minor DT's or caffeine headaches- albeit ever so minor. Also, if you ever do a 2nd edition, please re-edit the last chapther. And if you do decide to try this again, I challenge you to go a month without the following- The Internet, Ipods, make up, and meat. I would be very interested to read a second volume on more experiments towards doing without less.
(Now back to the general public)
In closing, it is interesting that I read this book when I did, because I have decided to give up the Dewey Decimal Project for one month- not because I hate doing it!!!! Actually, I have really enjoyed it. However, I turn 30 on 11/24/07 and I being a child of the Force, I have decided as a goal to read all 113+ issues of Marvel Comics' Star Wars series. Some folks have mid-lifes, I read up on the rebal alliance (though I am more of an Imperialist). So until sometime after Thanksgiving, thanks for reading my blog, stay tuned for more, and may the force be with you!!! (Or if you are like me: Long Live the Empire!)

DD 171-175.999 (Tony) A Most Damnable Invention: Dynamite, Nitrates, and the Making of the Modern World by Stephen R. Bown (174.95 BOW)

I waited a really long time to read this book. In case you forgot, I recently had to skip another sectio of this project due to the absence of any books to be found at several libraries. So when it came time to go on to the next section, I forgot that 170 was part of 166-170.999 and not part of this section. Well, I really wanted to read this book, and I didn't want to wait either for it to come free in case by the time I got to read this book it was already checked out.

Late Victorian era to post World War II history is getting to be my favorite time period. I just read a book an awesome book about a Serial Killer at the 1893 World's Fair and I just adore Chrichton's "The Great Train Robbery"- so this really fit the bill. The books main focus in the Life of Alfred Nobel up to the nomination of Fritz Haber to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry- in the focus of Explosives! There also back history in the area of explosive warfare and the nitrate and guano trades- and those areas seem to be Bown's weak spot.

In the first day, I read 93 pages, so I was very engrossed, but the first chapter did take a little "elbow grease" to get through. But, once the author starts to narrow down his focus to Nobel and later Haber, he really thrives. So please give this book a couple of chapters- it really gets good! You might even say it's dynamite!

DD 166-170.999 (Tony) Being Good: A Short Introduction to Ethics by Simon Blackburn (170 Bla)

What's there to say about this book that would NOT get me sued for slander. I picked this book up because it looked interesting, had a really pretty cover (I tend not to judge by that, my wife DOES) And while some of the concepts were totally not my veiws and I had trouble understanding why many of the pictures were being used as examples for ethical concepts, I muddled through, trying to complete another book for my Dewey Decimal System project.
Then, I got to page 64!
On that page, the author claims that mothers (and DADs!)- though he calls them women, who suffer a miscarraige haven't a loss of a life to grieve, but a loss of what could have been. And that a miscarriage isn't a child and that it was without a soul. Well, that pissed me off!
I can be ok with the guy not believing in God or thinking Christianity is the meanest of all religions, but the miscarriage thing struck a cord. We've suffered 5- that's 5 children who are dead. period. This Blackburn guy thinks if you die- you cease to exist- BALONEY!!!!! If that's true then if he croaks tomorrow, this book, and much less this review ceases to exist. I know this stuff- do not try to go all Quantum Theory of Time on me. It won't work- you'll lose.
Anyway, after that book ,I did a sprint to finish this book. I really, should have been made at the whole Christianity basing and the Atheism. But, I just couldn't focus on that. The only thing I saw red on was his view on miscarraige. It made my blood boil, and it gave me a headache to have to read anymore of his junk (but I did).
In the end, I know this reveiw and this book, struck a nerve. And maybe impacted my braking skills, if ever he was to cross my car- NO! Stop it.
Still, I must conclude that the author- for him to feel this way, must never have had to suffer that loss with his wife/partner/lover. And for that, he should be grateful.
Plus, the fact that he lives abroad and I can't drive that far. STOP IT!
(See, I told you there was little good I could say about this book without getting myself in trouble!)

DD 161-165.999 (Tony)

Sadly, after checking numerous libraries and/or library websites which list their book catalog, We've determined that there are not any books that fit this catagory. That does not mean that never have been, will never be any, or currently books listed under these call numbers in other areas.
So, again, we must skip a section.

DD 156-160.999 (Tony) A is For Attitude by Patricia Russell-McCloud (158 RUS)

"A" is a unique concept book in which each letter of the Alphabet stands for a word that will help one to succeed in business, fame, and life itself. From the right Attitude to better Organization- if it would herlp you to better yourself it's all here.
Sadly, some things best left to fate are here too- Like Z is for Zodiac (Chapter 26). From reading it, Russell-McCloud seems to imply that the position of the stars helps you be the real you. It sounds a lot like Predestination- in which only "elected" persons will go to Heaven, so why be holy if your doomed for Hell anyway. That theory like her chapter is one be paradox and if the stars are making you who you are- well, why do we need to be organized, if the position of Venus is going to make us the next American Idol?
There's also plenty of other paradoxs, like where in Chapter B, she tells us to work weekends, holidays, and overtime in order to shoot up the corporate ladder, yet in Chapter R, S, and T, she warns of working too much. I don't care what anyone says, our nations methods of work and it's ethics are barbaric and needs to be changed Times needs to be spend more at home and not work.
Though, I have a few problems with it. I rather enjoyed the book. In fact this section of the Dewey Decimal System had many books I wanted to give a chance to. True, this book was the shortest, but it actually was the concept of an ABC type book and not length that made me really want this book. I even tried to read one letter a day, but I kept leaving the book at work or home and ended up not doing well on that goal.
Oh, well, at least I tried.