Let’s DEWEY this! – Proust and the Squid

Reading, right? It’s crazy!! The psychic delivery of entire worlds from one head to another, via squiggly little marks? Ri-donk-ulous. Since most of you visiting this blog are writers, and thus readers as well, I decided to make this month’s nonfiction book about something we all relate to.

Ironically, I listened to this on audiobook instead of reading it, because sometimes I like to break the rules. Excuse me while I don some cool sunglasses and jump into a moving helicopter.

… I’m back. Anyway, I’ll be citing the following tidbits with time-markers instead of pages. Alright, let’s read about reading!

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Let’s DEWEY this! – The Man Who Couldn’t Stop

Several months ago I broached the topic of OCD with a nonfiction read about hoarding. Because OCD is such a personal subject to me, I decided to devote this month’s nonfiction more fully to the illness with a read of David Adam’s “The Man Who Couldn’t Stop: OCD and the True Story of a Life Lost in Thought.”

For the average, non-ill person, it’s normal to obsess now and then. It’s normal to have a senseless fear (clown in the closet?), a sudden and unsettling urge that does not fit with who we are (swerve into traffic, perhaps?) or a good-luck practice not founded on reality (certainly no one believes that knocking on wood actually works, but… just in case.) It’s normal to be picky about your books lining up straight or to lose sleep one night as a worry goes round and round in your head like a circling predator. This is not OCD.

Let’s DEWEY This! – the 700s

This month’s section for my Dewey Decimal Discovery project is all about my greatest love… The world’s most heaven-sent pursuit… The core of my life’s endeavors– Nay! My life itself… ! (You’ll understand why I’m being so ~theatrical~ in a minute…)

…… The arts!

(The 700s also include sports, but as any American school budget can attest, arts and sports are at WAR and I will not dignify those sweaty ball-throwers with an inclusion.)

((Kidding! I’m not opposed to athletics, I’m just being dramatic [pun!] because a good ol’ fashioned butting-of-heads makes for livelier blogging.))

(((Or should I say PUTTING-of-heads! Get it? Golf? Golf’s a sport? Kind of?)))

((((Okay enough parentheses.))))

Let’s DEWEY This! – the 100’s

Last month, I introduced a fun little venture I’m doing called the Dewey Decimal Discovery project. If you missed that post, here’s what it is: I’ll be reading one nonfiction book per month from each of the Dewey Decimal categories. At the end of each month I’ll talk about all the great new info I’ve stuffed into my…

… What’s that called again? My headmush. No, my skulljunk. My greyspaghetti. Dang it, what’s that word?? RIGHT, my brain.

Speaking of brains! February was section 100, which includes one of my most beloved topics: psychology. This topic is my jam. Choosing just one was tough, but I decided on “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain” by David Eagleman, Dewey Decimal #153. It’s about all the behind-the-scenes machinations our minds go through without our awareness.

Here are the things I found most interesting in this book:

In case of zombies, learn karate

“So is this a loony bin or something?”

Kryss (short for Crystal but DON’T EVER CALL HER THAT) is milling around my hospital bed in an oversized sweatshirt and strategically ripped jeans, a skull-and-crossbones clip holding her bangs. She’s here under duress with orders from the principal to deliver my assignments. Her bored eyes stare at me from above the pink, stretched, pregnant-belly flesh of a bubble gum bubble.

“Nah, just a regular hospital,” I reply.

The bubble pops. Smack smack. Her low, monotone drawl: “Um… But there’s like… posters of brains all over the place.”