The Dewey Decimal System is a 2011 science fiction/noir novel by Nathan Larson. It was first published by Akashic Books.
The Dewey Decimal System is a 2011 science fiction/noir novel by Nathan Larson. It was first published by Akashic Books.
In a post-apocalyptic New York City, an amnesiac veteran – nicknamed "Dewey Decimal" for his self-imposed task of reorganizing the books in the remains of the New York Public Library – is an enforcer for the city's district attorney.
PopMatters lauded Larson's characterization, and stated that Decimal's many flaws – in addition to amnesia, he also has obsessive-compulsive disorder – make him an archetypical private eye. [1]
The A.V. Club praised the novel's premise and setting, with "patches of roughhewn poetry", but overall found it to be "frustrating" and "stilted (and) self-conscious", stating that Larson had insufficient "storytelling skill to match (the novel's) voice and vision". [2]
Publishers Weekly felt that the relationships between characters "fail(ed) to engage", and that the "violence too often substitute(d) for plot coherence". [3]
Larson has said that the book's genesis was the image of a "beautifully dressed black man, asleep on the floor of the Rose Reading Room in the New York Public Library main branch", and that the character of Dewey Decimal is based partly on his cousins and grandfather (who were all veterans), and partly on a homeless man of Larson's acquaintance named "Chicago" (who "slept rough but dressed like a mod squad Desmond Dekker type"). [4]
The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), colloquially known as the Dewey Decimal System, is a proprietary library classification system which allows new books to be added to a library in their appropriate location based on subject. It was first published in the United States by Melvil Dewey in 1876. Originally described in a 44-page pamphlet, it has been expanded to multiple volumes and revised through 23 major editions, the latest printed in 2011. It is also available in an abridged version suitable for smaller libraries. OCLC, a non-profit cooperative that serves libraries, currently maintains the system and licenses online access to WebDewey, a continuously updated version for catalogers.
Melville Louis Kossuth "Melvil" Dewey was an influential American librarian and educator, inventor of the Dewey Decimal system of library classification, a founder of the Lake Placid Club, and a chief librarian at Columbia University. He was also a founding member of the American Library Association. Although Dewey's contributions to the modern library are widely recognized, his legacy is marred by allegations of sexual harassment, racism, and antisemitism.
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Publishers Weekly (PW) is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of Book Publishing and Bookselling". With 51 issues a year, the emphasis today is on book reviews.
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Amnesia is a 1994 novel by Douglas Anthony Cooper and is his debut novel. The book was published in March 1994 by Hyperion Books and is the first entry in the Izzy Darlow series.
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The Lord John series is a sequence of historical mystery novels and shorter works written by Diana Gabaldon that center on Lord John Grey, a recurring secondary character in the author's Outlander series. Secretly homosexual "in a time when that particular predilection could get one hanged," the character has been called "one of the most complex and interesting" of the hundreds of characters in Gabaldon's Outlander novels. Starting with the 1998 novella Lord John and the Hellfire Club, the Lord John spin-off series currently consists of six novellas and three novels.
Agate Publishing is an independent small press book publisher based in Evanston, Illinois. The company, incorporated in 2002 with its first book published in 2003, was founded by current president Doug Seibold. At its inception, Agate was synonymous with its Bolden imprint, which published exclusively African-American literature, an interest of Seibold's and a product of his time working as executive editor for the defunct African-American publisher Noble Press.
The British National Bibliography (BNB) was established at the British Museum in 1949 to publish a list of the books, journals and serials that are published in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. It also includes information on forthcoming titles. This is the single most comprehensive listing of UK titles. UK and Irish publishers are obliged by legal deposit to send a copy of all new publications, including serial titles, to the BNB for listing. The BNB publishes the list weekly in electronic form: the last printed weekly list appeared in December 2011.
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Witchmark is a 2018 fantasy novel by Canadian author C. L. Polk. It features a murder mystery set in a secondary world in a country called Aeland, and has been described as gaslamp fantasy. Witchmark won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 2019. It was first published by Tor Books.
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