Life After Dewey

I finished this book a little while back and I can't honestly say that it was really worth reading. Unless you're obsessed with cats or something... I mean it was pretty cute (especially around page twenty-four-ish when the author talks about Dewey's life around the library), but it isn't at all relevant to anything we will ever learn and it isn't that interesting. I did think that the author made some good writing craft choices, though. For example, the parts of the story are chunked by perspective where you'd have a long section of Dewey's point of view and then several chapters of his owner's point of view. By having larger chunks, the reader is able to make smoother transitions and get deeper into each point of view. Overall, if you REALLY like cats, you might like it, but for most people, it's not worth looking at. Except for the cover. Dewey's a pretty fluffy cat. (The cover is on the left...)

Dewey's Checking In!

Right now, I'm about half-way through the book and I've noticed that the book shows the outside facts about Dewey, but also shows the impact he has on the people around him. For instance, on page 10, the discovery of Dewey is told by the head librarian's point of view. This allows the reader to grasp how great of an emotional impact Dewey left, even if he himself did not know it. I wonder though, why the author didn't write this book like the novel, Flipped, was written, where each chapter alternates perspective. I suppose that it would be chunkier, but it's very easy to get lost in this book's format with the "chunks" being a good four or five chapters each.

Dewey Readmore Books

I recently picked up a book called, " Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World" It's essentially the biography of a cat that was adopted by a library after being found in the library's overnight return chute during one of the tiny town's coldest winters on record. I discovered that he was Melvil Dewey, the inventor of the Dewey Decimal System. At this, I stopped and thought, "OH RIGHT! That's the dude that we learned about every year we went to the school library's nonfiction section!" which prompted me to do some extra research... Instead of boring you with the monotonous droning of facts that I acquired, I will just tell you my favorite facts about Dewey the Human and Dewey the Cat. Starting with the latter, Dewey the Human was originally named "Melville Dewey", but he changed it to "Melvil" in order to get rid of unnecessary letters. In fact, he almost changed his last name to "Dui". Good thing he didn't because all of his modern day ancestors (if he has any), would probably get a good laughing at if they ever got pulled over for drinking and driving... (Get it? Because "Dui" is spelled "DUI" which is what you get arrested for when you drink and drive... Haha.) On the other hand (paw?), Dewey apparently only ate Friskies Fancy Feast. Clearly these are two very different characters here... Except maybe that the were born in the winter... but I think that's about it...

Note: Doesn't Mr. Dewey look like Harrison Ford?

Salt Sugar Fat

As I near the conclusion of this book, I feel that I must say that this has completely changed my perspective on the processed food industry. And food in general. Literally so much of our food is process that it's nearly impossible to go a single day without eating something that has been processed. My challenge is this: This weekend, don't eat any processed food whatsoever. No Oreos. No McDonald's. No soda. Just see how long you can last... I tried this and failed. Epically. As in I gave up after three hours. Uhm. Yeah. Anyway, I just wanted to share that this novel is definitely for the curious and the statistic-lovers. The author, Michael Moss, expertly mixes together a personal adventure with an argument against the processed food industry in the manner an apothecary brews a potion. It's a fluid transition and drifts seamlessly between the two views. For example, on page 12, Moss describes a guinea pig experiment with scientist Julie Mennella's daughter (I'm just going to say that it involves pudding...) and continues to move into a discussion about the role your hippocampus (some part of the mush inside your cranium) has in all this sugar business. Cool, huh? That's what makes this book so intriguing and worth reading. If this book seems even remotely interesting to you, I say, "Go for it!"

(Book Review