The 52 Book Club: 2025 / 2026 Challenge discussion

November 2025 - In The 500's Of The Dewey Decimal System

The Dewey Decimal System is a popular library classification system that organizes books by subject into ten main classes, using a numerical system. Each main category also contains further, more specific subdivisions. The 500s cover the natural sciences and mathematics, including astronomy, physics, chemistry, earth sciences and geology, fossils and prehistoric life, biology, botany, zoology, etc.

For this prompt, choose any book in the 500s of the Dewey Decimal System.



Please add your ideas to our Suggestions List

Max Parsonage has an excellent book called A Simple Introduction to Chemistry (Dewey 540) that's about 80 pages long. Most people should be able to get through that one in a day or two.

I'm choosing Written in the stars : constellations, facts and folklore
By Alison Davies!

I know I have a lot of history books, but when I checked I have several natural sciences too.

I'm going to read Around the Ocean in 80 Fish & Other Sea Life by Helen Scales


I have read the ones about birds and trees, they had those at my local library. I found out about the series after I saw the one about birds on sale. And I bought my own copies of plants and fish.



I read the one about trees for an earlier mini challenge.

I have several eligible books on my "future" list. I think I'll try The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers' Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda by Nathalia Holt.

Attempting Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry.” Heard him on Stephen Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO and he’s fascinating. I think I’ll have to go through the book more than once to truly wrap my head around it all!
Blākie

I read The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America. It was very strange. The whole book was about strange birds that the author mocked bird watchers and different birds for the entire book. Sine sections were funny, but it was a bit ridiculous. A very fast read, but the font is VERY small.
The Dewey Decimal number is 598.072.

This would definitely work for Prompt 41 of the 2026 Reading Challenge.

Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures

I’m excited to read this book. I’ve loved Rundell’s fantasy for middle-grade. I can’t wait to see what she does with non-fiction for adults.

For a very entertaining read about the life of animals, I can’t recommend this one enough:

I read Tina: The Dog Who Changed the World by Niall Harbison.