Making My Way Through Dewey

My life as an adult has had a few distinctive time periods.  I often forget that because we lived in the old house for so long that I felt like I did nothing for all that time, when in fact I did.  Here’s a rundown:

Late 1998: Graduated with 2^nd major, rent an apartment, start work life

Early 1999: Switch jobs, buy house

2000: Get married, switch jobs again

2000-2003: Focused on losing weight and cross stitching/crocheting.  I cross stitched something for everyone I knew.  I freaking LOVED to cross stitch, and it also went hand-in-hand with losing weight because you cannot eat and cross stitch at the same time.  It’s usually a white fabric that you’re working with, and spilling anything on something you’ve spent 40+ hours on would be disastrous.  Wonderful weight loss plan because every evening I’d cross stitch instead of eat.  I watched a lot of TV during that time because you need to do something mindless while you cross stitch.

Late 2003- early 2006: Different job within the same organization x2, got my master’s degree

Mid 2006 – fall 2007: Obsessed with my Blockbuster.com membership and reading, hubby was getting his master’s during this time while I was done, so it was a lot of mindless entertainment

Fall 2007 – mid 2009: Got pregnant, mind full of all things baby, baby comes and is a complete handful her first year.

Late 2009 – mid 2010: Moved into a new house that needed a lot of work

Now here I am with some extra time on my hands finally.  I’ve debated going back for a PhD, but I don’t love anything that much to get a PhD in it.  I’m kind of commitment phobic, as in I don’t like to lock myself into anything (such as weekly activities/classes, or even monthly activities).  I do enjoy exercise, but I like to do it solo. 

Today when I was at the library I got an epiphany.  I’d like to improve myself by gaining more knowledge.   What’s a good way to do that?  Work my way through the Dewey decimal system!   I’m not crazy enough to take anything huge on, but I think a good sampling is warranted.  Then I started thinking through the logistics, and I think I came up with a reasonable challenge to myself. 

The Dewey decimal system essentially is 1,000 numbers:  0 – 999.  The system also goes out three decimal places, so for instance there’s an entry 657.435.  The first three digits denote a specific section, and the decimal digits parse it down even further. 

The challenge is to wade my way through 100 books, with the first two digits going through every Dewey decimal combination, thus:

00_.___

01_.___

02_.___

03_.___

And so on.

Why do this?  Because it will force me to read non-fiction books that I might not ordinarily read.  I will give myself the freedom to choose any book that fits the criteria.  Also, I do not have to read them in order.  I’ll keep a master list that I will post as I finish a book and then state what I learned from that book.  If I like a topic, I can certainly read more than 1 book from each of the 100 groupings.  And there’s no time limit although I imagine it will take me through 2011 to complete the project. 

I’m excited to start!  It will be fun and educational.  I know it sounds hokey, but I'm kinda hokey.