Constellations
The books around Dogs on Duty: Soldiers' Best Friends on the Battlefield and Beyond
Every book here sits next to Dogs on Duty: Soldiers' Best Friends on the Battlefield and Beyond for a reason, and the reason is written on the line between them. Click a book and the books next to it appear beside it, without the map moving. The list below has every reason in words, and a way to make any of these the book in the middle.
How to read it
One book in the middle, its neighbours around it, and a line for every reason they are neighbours. The order around the ring is the ranking: the closest neighbour is at the top, and the rest follow clockwise outward.
- a line drawn on a claim about what the books are — a shared subject, or the same author
- a line drawn on how they sit in the catalogue — the same genre, a similar reading measure — which is weaker evidence and is drawn dashed
- the book you started from
- a book with a solid border has neighbours of its own: click it and they appear beside it, while the ring stays exactly where it is
Every line here rests on the same subject, Military. That is enough to say these 8 books belong next to Dogs on Duty: Soldiers' Best Friends on the Battlefield and Beyond, and not enough to say how they differ: the catalogue has nothing finer to separate them with. What is doing the ordering below that is how hard each book reads. A fuller subject on the books around this one is the change that would sharpen this map most — and every other map they appear on.
Every line, with its evidence
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Remember Little Bighorn: Indians, Soldiers, and Scouts Tell Their Stories 2006 · 1170L
The same subject (Military and Wars), the same narrower subject (Military (Various)), the same catalogue tag (Nonfiction) and the same genre (Nonfiction). Also within 20L of its reading measure.
same subject · Militarysame subject · Warsboth filed under · Nonfictionsame narrower subject · Military (Various)same genre · Nonfictionreading measure · 20L apart
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Truce: The Day the Soldiers Stopped Fighting 2009 · 1160L
The same subject (Military and Wars), the same narrower subject (Military (Various)), the same catalogue tag (Nonfiction) and the same genre (Nonfiction). Also within 30L of its reading measure.
same subject · Militarysame subject · Warsboth filed under · Nonfictionsame narrower subject · Military (Various)same genre · Nonfictionreading measure · 30L apart
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Washington at Valley Forge 2008 · 1210L
The same subject (Military and Wars), the same narrower subject (Military (Various)) and the same catalogue tag (Nonfiction). Also within 20L of its reading measure.
same subject · Militarysame subject · Warsboth filed under · Nonfictionsame narrower subject · Military (Various)reading measure · 20L apart
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Lafayette and the American Revolution 2010 · 1160L
The same subject (Military and Wars), the same narrower subject (Military (Various)) and the same catalogue tag (Nonfiction). Also within 30L of its reading measure.
same subject · Militarysame subject · Warsboth filed under · Nonfictionsame narrower subject · Military (Various)reading measure · 30L apart
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Soldier Dog 2013 · 870L
The same subject (Military and Animals), the same narrower subject (Military (Various) and Dogs).
same subject · Militarysame subject · Animalssame narrower subject · Military (Various)same narrower subject · Dogs
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An Innocent Soldier 2005 · 640L
The same subject (Military and Wars), the same narrower subject (Military (Various)).
same subject · Militarysame subject · Warssame narrower subject · Military (Various)
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Soldier Bear 2011 · 780L
The same subject (Military and Animals), the same narrower subject (Military (Various)).
same subject · Militarysame subject · Animalssame narrower subject · Military (Various)
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When I Was a Soldier 2005 · 880L
The same subject (Military), the same narrower subject (Military (Various)) and the same catalogue tag (Soldier and Nonfiction).
same subject · Militaryboth filed under · Soldierboth filed under · Nonfictionsame narrower subject · Military (Various)
What the map is not showing
Coverage. 3,013 of the 3,815 books in the catalogue carry a curated subject tag, which is the strongest thing one book can share with another. Where a book has none, the map falls back to genre and reading measure — real reasons, drawn on the weaker line, but a beginning rather than a recommendation. The number above is also the work still to be done: a subject on the rest of the catalogue is the single change that would improve every map on this site at once.
Years and sizes. Two books published in the same decade are not more alike for it, and neither are two books of the same size. When they are neighbours here it is because of what they are, not when they were printed or how thick they are — which is why the ring around a book from 1937 can hold one from 1863 and one from 2003, and the list is better for it. The year is printed on a book's line because it is worth knowing, not because it draws anything.
Lists. Awards and recommended-reading lists are not used here at all. Every book on a list shares something with every other book on it, and that something is the list — which is what Treasury is for. Counting lists puts Holes next to The Hobbit.
One layer. This map shows what two books share. It cannot yet show what a book did for a reader — that a journey, or a funny voice, or being believed by somebody, is what made a book matter — because that is not written down anywhere in the catalogue. It comes from readers, and it is the next thing to build.
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