Babel Nexus is a large library of connected ideas, but some parts of the collection draw readers more consistently than others. Four hexagonal reading galleries currently stand out: First Horror, Wisdom Literature, Ceramic Arts, and Wordless Novels.
Ceramic Arts began as a reader-requested addition to Babel Nexus. Wordless Novels grew from one of my own interests. These books, often connected to the history of graphic novels, tell stories through sequences of woodcuts and other images. I find their use of woodcut especially compelling. Expanding that gallery, however, requires care: several additional wordless novels I considered still present copyright concerns, and I prefer to take a conservative approach to copyright.
Rather than expanding every subject at once, I decided to strengthen three of the four galleries that readers already use most. This is a first step toward improving and expanding the content of Babel Nexus through a repeatable pattern: identify genuine reader interest, improve the quality and depth of those collections, and make it easier for visitors to find another book worth opening.
Twelve new books in three reading galleries
Ceramic Arts — four titles
- M. Louise McLaughlin — Pottery Decoration Under the Glaze (1880). Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co.
- M. Louise McLaughlin — China Painting: A Practical Manual for the Use of Amateurs in the Decoration of Hard Porcelain (1877). Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co.
- A. L. Vago — Instructions in the Art of Modeling in Clay (1880). Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., with an appendix by Benn Pitman.
- Karl Langenbeck — The Chemistry of Pottery (1895). Easton, Pennsylvania: Chemical Publishing Company.
These additions broaden the gallery's practical side. McLaughlin teaches both underglaze pottery decoration and the overglaze decoration and kiln-firing of hard porcelain. Vago introduces the art of modeling in clay, while Langenbeck explains the chemistry behind ceramic materials, glazes, colors, and firing. Together, they connect artistic practice to the technical knowledge that makes it possible.
Wisdom Literature — three titles
- Ani — The Maxims of Ani (1914 English translation). Translated by E. A. Wallis Budge in The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.; New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.
- Amenemope — The Teaching of Amen-em-apt, Son of Kanekht (1924 English translation). Translated and edited by E. A. Wallis Budge. London: Martin Hopkinson Ltd.
- Papyrus Insinger — Instructions of Papyrus Insinger (1922 scholarly edition). Transcribed and translated by P. A. A. Boeser as Transkription und Übersetzung des Papyrus Insinger. Leiden: Rijksmuseum van Oudheden.
Boeser's 1922 translation of Papyrus Insinger is in German. The linked English translation on Attalus is the modern translation by Miriam Lichtheim, and the book record makes that distinction clear.
These works deepen the gallery's Egyptian tradition of instruction: practical teachings about conduct, judgment, office, family, restraint, and living well.
First Horror — five titles
- Richard Marsh — The Beetle: A Mystery (1897). London: Skeffington & Son.
- William Hope Hodgson — The House on the Borderland (1908). London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd.
- F. Marion Crawford — The Upper Berth (1894 book edition). New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
- W. W. Jacobs — The Monkey's Paw (1902). Published in The Lady of the Barge. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company.
- Oliver Onions — The Beckoning Fair One (1911). Published in Widdershins.
These books extend the path from nineteenth-century Gothic fiction into the modern weird tale. Their horrors occupy unstable thresholds: between domestic life and invasion, skepticism and haunting, ordinary desire and supernatural consequence, the familiar house and the unknowable universe.
The books readers open most
The usage data also revealed something I did not expect. Eight individual books stand out among the most-opened works on Babel Nexus, and all eight are nonfiction. Most are scientific or technical titles that fall within STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.
- Charles Fergus Binns — The Potter's Craft (1910). New York: D. Van Nostrand Company.
- William Whewell — The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840). London: John W. Parker.
- Shen Kuo — Dream Pool Essays (Mengxi Bitan) (c. 1088). China.
- Ernst Mach — The Science of Mechanics (1893 English edition). Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company.
- Nehemiah Grew — The Anatomy of Plants (1682). London: W. Rawlins.
- H. G. Wells — World Brain (1938). London: Methuen & Co.
- Leonhard Euler — Elements of Algebra (1770; 1822 English edition). London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown.
- al-Khwarizmi — The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing (c. 830; Rosen translation, 1831). London: Oriental Translation Fund.
These titles now carry a Most Opened tag so that readers can recognize the books attracting sustained attention across the collection. Their popularity is a useful reminder that historical scientific and technical works are not merely reference material. Readers are curious about how people discovered, described, built, classified, and explained the world.
Using the collection like a librarian
I used a combination of Google Analytics and Google Search tools to identify the most-used galleries and individual titles. Because each gallery and book has its own URL, patterns of interest can be observed without guessing.
Regularly analyzing the use of materials is a standard practice in librarianship. Librarians track how often and when materials are used so they can understand the collection, improve access, and make informed choices about what to acquire or develop next. I am applying that same principle to Babel Nexus.
The purpose is not simply to chase traffic. It is to listen to what readers are already showing us, then make the strongest parts of the library deeper, clearer, and more rewarding to explore. Each carefully chosen addition creates another route into the collection—and, ideally, another book opened.