Books found in the wrong category

[michaelhoward]

I've been going on an audible.com kick after learning that a number of podcasts (including skepticality) are now sponsored by them.

Ive been searching through their categories trying to find books that I've heard about (like Sagan's Demon Haunted World) or books I havent heard about.

In the process I was thrown a bit when I saw in the "Science and Technology" the following gem:
Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science
Shortly followed by:
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental health

Science and Technology? Really? They have a religion section. Why not there?

I have also had a pretty humorous experience finding the "Why people believe wierd things" book by Shermer in the New Age / Mythology section of a massive bookstore here in Sydney.

Anyone else have these sorts of Skeptical books in wrong category?
(Apologies if I have posted this in the wrong subforum, Im new here :) ).

[tesscaline]

While I haven't found any skeptical books in the wrong category, I was rather pleased when I went to Borders a while ago and happened to see a Sylvia Browne book mixed in with the scifi/fantasy books =D

[Cavemonster]

I had the strangest thing happen the other day.
I looked all over every inch of the fiction section and I couldn't find a Bible!

I keep hearing that it's the best selling book of all time, so it really shocked me that they didn't seem to carry it. It must be misfiled somewhere.

[arthwollipot]

Science and Technology? Really? They have a religion section. Why not there?Because Scientology isn't a religion in most countries?

Welcome to the forum!

[Gagglegnash]

Hi

I remember going in to a book store, once, looking for Ambrose Bierce's, "The Devil's Dictionary (http://www.amazon.com/Devils-Dictionary-by-Ambrose-Bierce/dp/B001GBDC48/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224576562&sr=8-4)."

....

It was filed under, "Magic and the Occult."

Who RUNS these places?

[biomorph]

I had the strangest thing happen the other day.
I looked all over every inch of the fiction section and I couldn't find a Bible!

I keep hearing that it's the best selling book of all time, so it really shocked me that they didn't seem to carry it. It must be misfiled somewhere.

Yup, if any sort of sense prevailed, that'd be the circular file.......ah, thats not a misfile....:D:D

[Maldon]

Last month I found a book about Atlantis (yes one of those) stored under archaeology at my local library.:mgbanghead

I complained and they actually moved it to the occult-section. :cheerleader4

[Scazon]

A local (excellent) bookshop filed a book about British Sign Language under "health issues" rather than "languages". I used to go to a pub where deaf people met up- I didn't feel "unhealthy" because I couldn't understand a word they were saying.

[Blackadder]

In the Netherlands we have some sort of system to categorize all (non fiction) books.

It's called SISO. It's an old system and has many flaws.

First I'll give you an idea of the system.

All topics are numbered, 001 to 999. 100 , 200 ,300 etc are starting points of grand themes, for example Science could start with 500 and different scientific fields could be 510, 520 etc

Lets take Economy

Social things are 300
Economy is 340-380
360 is Business economy
366 is Organization behaviour
367 is human behaviour in organizations
367.1 is business psychology

etc.

The big problem is that new things are not picked up in this sytem in a timely matter.

For example Computers were a small topic 50 years ago. They could be labeled under some far away branch in science, let say 541.3

Nowadays computers, the internet and all things related are huge themes and need a lot of categories.

Another problem is that a book can only be on one spot. where do you put a book on Horses?

Sports?
Animals?
Argriculture? (farming)

Chances cannot made easily because that means all books in every library in the country have to be labelled and shelved again with every change.

My personal objection is that they put all books on creationism on the same number as books on evolution 574.1

[krelnik]

I have also had a pretty humorous experience finding the "Why people believe wierd things" book by Shermer in the New Age / Mythology section of a massive bookstore here in Sydney.

Anyone else have these sorts of Skeptical books in wrong category?


You are correct, technically Shermers book should not be listed under New Age / Mythology.

However, consider this:

The type of person who hangs around in the New Age section of your bookstore is probably exactly the sort of person who could benefit by reading that book. It might even convince them to stop believing in whatever new age crap they are into.

So by placing it there they are actually targetting Shermer's message pretty well.

[politas]

I found a copy of What the Bleep Do We Know? filed in the science section of a particular bookshop twice.

[arthwollipot]

Last month I found a book about Atlantis (yes one of those) stored under archaeology at my local library.:mgbanghead

I complained and they actually moved it to the occult-section. :cheerleader4I think your cheerleader should switch to decaf.

[AtomicMysteryMonster]

I've found books on Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster in the nature section of the local library, along with books on UFOs in the aeronautics/space section. Oddly enough, they stock other books on the same topics in the occult section.

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

My local library has books about ghosts, Nostradamus, astrology and the collected works of Sylvia Browne in the Non-Fiction category. Honestly.

I once suggested to the wonderful Mr. Robert Lancaster that the perfect place for them would be "Adult Fiction".

He replied "I can't even say where I'd put them".

[borealys]

The Chapters/Indigo chain, I've noticed, has an annoying tendency to put the psychology books far, far away from any other science books, in with the "lifestyle" books (around here, anyway). Of course, the psychology section is a bit of a mish-mash. The goofy self-help books obviously don't belong in science, but to relegate brilliant minds like Oliver Sacks to the back corner (or worse, the basement) with the likes of Kevin Trudeau while anti-evolution screeds get to sit in the science section is just not fair.

Also, it's a pain in my butt when I go in with only enough money to buy one science book, and I have to run from one end of the store to the other when trying to make up my mind...

[borealys]

Hi

I remember going in to a book store, once, looking for Ambrose Bierce's, "The Devil's Dictionary (http://www.amazon.com/Devils-Dictionary-by-Ambrose-Bierce/dp/B001GBDC48/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224576562&sr=8-4)."

....


It was filed under, "Magic and the Occult."

Who RUNS these places?

*spittake*

I think we have a winner.

[Madalch]

Not a misfile, but semi-literate bookstore employees.

I asked for books on heraldry in two separate stores in Calgary.

Clerk 1: Harold Ree? Is that the author's name?
Clerk 2: Check the New Age section- that's a kind of sorcery, isn't it?

[Iconoclast08]

The Chapters/Indigo chain, I've noticed, has an annoying tendency to put the psychology books far, far away from any other science books, in with the "lifestyle" books (around here, anyway). Of course, the psychology section is a bit of a mish-mash. The goofy self-help books obviously don't belong in science, but to relegate brilliant minds like Oliver Sacks to the back corner (or worse, the basement) with the likes of Kevin Trudeau while anti-evolution screeds get to sit in the science section is just not fair.

Also, it's a pain in my butt when I go in with only enough money to buy one science book, and I have to run from one end of the store to the other when trying to make up my mind...

In most bookstores I visit, the psychology section is almost always situated very close to the "Self-Help" and/or "New Age" sections. Tee-hee! A local Barnes and Noble even has it bumping up against the Mythology section, which I also think rather funny. Regardless of where they put it, though, it's downright appalling :mad: to see Dr. Phil and Sylvia Browne books mixed in the same section with Steven Pinker, Eric Kandel, Noam Chomsky, John Bowlby, and Oliver Sacks. Give me a BREAK, people!

[FramerDave]

At a local Border's I found a copy of "Of Pandas and People" in the science/biology section. I reshelved it in science fiction/fantasy.

[Cavemonster]

This thread reminds me of The Ministry of Reshelving

From Boing Boing

This weekend, prankster/gamer/performance artist Jane McGonigal and The Ministry of Reshelving launched an effort to put copies of Orwell's 1984 in its "appropriate" section of book stores. From the rule set:

1. Select a local bookstore to carry out your reshelving activities.

2. Download and print "This book has been relocated by the Ministry of Reshelving bookmarks and "All copies of 1984 have been relocated" notecards to take with you to the bookstore. Or make your own. We recommend bringing a notecard and 5-10 bookmarks to each store.

3. Go to the bookstore and locate its copies of George Orwell's 1984. Unless the Ministry of Reshelving has already visited this bookstore, it is probably currently incorrectly classified as "Fiction" or "Literature."

4. Discreetly move all copies of 1984 to a more suitable section, such as "Current Events", "Politics", "History", "True Crime", or "New Non-Fiction."

5. Insert a Ministry of Reshelving bookmark into each copy of any book you have moved. Leave a notecard in the empty space the books once occupied.

6. If you spot other incorrectly classified books, feel free to relocate them.

7. Please report all reshelving efforts to the Ministry. Email your store name, location, # of 1984 copies reshelved, and any other reshelving activities conducted, to reshelving @ avantgame.com. Photos of your mission can be uploaded to Flickr, tagged as "reshelving", and submitted to the Ministry of Reshelving group.

It might be fun to try this with certain volumes of fiction that tend to wind up outside the fiction section.

[Nankay]

I worked in a small bookstore for many years. An employee, (who was eventually fired) shelved the following..a small sampling:

Book on Atlantis under "Exploration"
Book on Catholicism in the "magic and occult" section (ok, debate allowed)
Book on Columbus in "boating"


By the way, I visited this store recently and there was a nice display of The God Delusion. however, someone had put the display book face down and backwards and stacked some other books in front of it.

[X]

I find it interesting that the local bookstores put "The God Delusion" in both the religion section and science section.
Yes, that means it's in two places in one store.
A nifty way of avoiding confusion on where a book should go.


Additionally, one of the stores has religion and science down one aisle. On opposite sides. As such you must turn your back on religion to look at sciences, and turn your back on science to look at religion in that store. An interesting juxtaposition.

[rjh01]

I just wonder if you are committing any crime by moving books around a bookshop? I would think that you would eventually be seen and told to leave permanently at least.

Better idea is to make and leave bookmarks in books showing how stupid the books are.

[tyr_13]

At work people often put books they like in front of books they don't like, such as Ann 'Republicans call me pretty and smart' what's-her-face in front of Obama's books, or the Bibles (why we sell so many versions I'll never know, well, that's not true, we have them because members ask for them) in front of evolution books.

It is one of the most childish things on Earth.