Libraries and Christmas Shopping

   Doing this post will give me an excuse to avoid shopping. Reading it will have the added benefit of allowing you to avoid shopping. As a bonus, I will provide you with some gift suggestions, which could be useful if you ever get around to going out. 
 

Oxford Libraries
   I have documented the decline in the number of libraries on the campus close by, along with the reduction in the quality of collections held within them. While Oxford clearly had a head start when it comes to libraries, it is unfortunate that Western stopped paying much attention to them. At least we can still read about libraries. Here is a link to, Oxford Libraries Architecture. 
  To assist you in making the purchasing decision, see this review: "Timeless Temples of the Written Word: Oxford Might Best Be Described as a City of Books," William Aslet, The Critic, Sept.6, 2025.

   "The Bodleian is the most famous of Oxford’s libraries, but it is far from being the sole subject of this book. Indeed, the Bodleian is actually a collection of 26 different library spaces. Nor are these the only libraries available to scholars at Oxford. Every one of the University’s 39 constituent colleges has its own library, added to which is the Bodleian’s formidable and increasingly popular online offering, Digital Bodleian.

   It is a reflection of the astonishing diversity of Oxford’s libraries that the 46 examples (one at Oxford Brookes) described and illustrated in this book only constitute a fraction of the total number of library spaces that are today available to students and scholars."

   The book can be ordered online, but unfortunately it won't arrive before Christmas and costs over $100.

Biscuits and the Bodleian

     Evidence of entrepreneurship is also found among the books at Oxford. The librarians partnered with Sky Wave Distilling, winner of the World's Best Gin, to host a special tour in "the stunning Divinity School, including a romp through the history of gin and tasting notes to match the gin you will be tasting." Unfortunately that tour is over, but one can still shop at Oxford. Although one can find items cheaper than the book, they also will not arrive before Christmas. Some more examples:

Digital Bodleian
   The librarians at Oxford are not Luddites. If you cannot afford the book or even the biscuits, and don't want to go out shopping, you can spend this year and even the next one reading the books and manuscripts found by clicking on the link above. You will even find photographs. Here is one of Tom Stoppard, who recently passed.

The Bonus:

  Older and cheaper options will be found in these past posts:
"More Books For Christmas" 
"Books For Christmas"  (more links are found in this one.)

More Books For Christmas

    Every few years I have suggested some books for your consideration as Christmas gifts. In 2017 I offered choices for those interested in history (see: "Christmas Shopping for Historians.") The list was more diverse in 2022 (see: "Christmas Book Shopping".) Last year ("Books for Christmas") contained some popular choices. There are other book lists from which to choose on MM and you may want to visit them since the older books might be in paperback and cheaper. 
  More recently, in two posts, I told you about books you could read because they were short. Here are a couple to read because you should. I should as well since the two listed I have not read, but will recommend anyway.
   If you are an admirer of Reagan who said, "I've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help," then you should skip the first book. Reagan also thought that, "government is not the solution to our problems. Government is the problem," and the results of the last election indicate that many agree with him. So many, in fact, that perhaps the word "ungovern" should have been the word of the year, rather than "brain rot" which was. 

   The following information is from the Princeton University Press website, which should serve as a warning if you are one of those also suspicious of elites as well as the government. 

Ungoverning: The Attack on the Administrative State and the Politics of Chaos: How a concentrated attack on political institutions threatens to disable the essential workings of government, Nancy L. Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead.

   "In this unsettling book, Russell Muirhead and Nancy Rosenblum trace how ungoverning—the deliberate effort to dismantle the capacity of government to do its work—has become a malignant part of politics. Democracy depends on a government that can govern, and that requires what’s called administration. The administrative state is made up of the vast array of departments and agencies that conduct the essential business of government, from national defense and disaster response to implementing and enforcing public policies of every kind. Ungoverning chronicles the reactionary movement that demands dismantling the administrative state. The demand is not for goals that can be met with policies or programs. When this demand is frustrated, as it must be, the result is an invitation to violence.

   Muirhead and Rosenblum unpack the idea of ungoverning through many examples of the politics of destruction. They show how ungoverning disables capacities that took generations to build—including the administration of free and fair elections. They detail the challenges faced by officials who are entrusted with running the government and who now face threats and intimidation from those who would rather bring it crashing down—and replace the regular processes of governing with chaotic personal rule."

Some of the Blurbs

“Ungoverning is an essential book for our moment, starting with a title that deserves to become a touchstone in our political conversation. Brilliantly drawing together philosophical reflections on democracy’s obligations to its citizens with a lively practical sense of how government works, Muirhead and Rosenblum offer a passionate defense of the now contested work of making our society fairer, safer, and more responsive.”—E. J. Dionne Jr., author of Our Divided Political Heart: The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent.

"An illuminating — and alarming — book. . . . Muirhead and Rosenblum finished ‘Ungoverning’ before the 2024 election, but Trump’s ludicrous nominations — one already crashed in flames — serve as a sort of publicity campaign for the book’s thesis."—Ron Charles, Washington Post

“Ungoverning provides an unflinching and much-needed look at the threat posed by a new form of politics that actively seeks to undermine the core functions of government. Muirhead and Rosenblum deftly show how this alarming and uniquely nihilistic political philosophy helps define Trumpism and threatens democracy.”—Corey Brettschneider, author of The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It.

    Once again, if you are a libertarian-leaning, Reagan-lover, you will not like this choice either. The Road to Freedom will also not be liked by those who like,The Road to Serfdom.
   What follows is from the publisher:

   "We are a nation born from the conviction that people must be free. But since the middle of the last century, that idea has been co-opted. Forces on the political Right have justified exploitation by cloaking it in the rhetoric of freedom, leading to pharmaceutical companies freely overcharging for medication, a Big Tech free from oversight, politicians free to incite rebellion, corporations free to pollute, and more. How did we get here? Whose freedom are we—and should we—be thinking about?

   In The Road to Freedom, Nobel prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz dissects America’s current economic system and the political ideology that created it, laying bare their twinned failure. “Free” and unfettered markets have only succeeded in delivering a series of crises: the financial crisis, the opioid crisis, and the crisis of inequality. While a small portion of the population has amassed considerable wealth, wages for most people have stagnated. Free and unfettered markets have exploited consumers, workers, and the environment alike. Such failures have fed populist movements that believe being free means abandoning any obligations citizens have to one another. As they grow in strength, these movements now pose a real threat to true economic and political freedom."

Blurb-like Comments

"Stiglitz is a rare combination of virtuoso economist, witty polemicist and public intellectual."

New Statesman

"Along with Krugman and Thomas Piketty, Stiglitz forms a triumvirate of leading economic critics of global capitalism, 21st-century-style."

Andrew Anthony, Guardian

"An insanely great economist."

Paul Krugman, The New York Times

"A towering genius of economics."

Independent

"A seer of almost Keynesian proportions"

Newsweek

The Road to Freedom ... seeks to reclaim the concept of freedom for liberals and progressives [and] calls for the creation of a “progressive capitalism'' that would look nothing like the neoliberal variant

John Cassidy, The New Yorker

Post Script:
   If you think you might be inclined to be a "Stiglitzian" read the review of three of his books in, "Why the Rich Are So Much Richer,"by James Surowiecki, in the New York Review of Books, Sept. 24, 2015

   The Great Divide: Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them, by Joseph E. Stiglitz

Norton, 428 pp., $28.95

Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity by Joseph E. Stiglitz

Creating a Learning Society: A New Approach to Growth, Development, and Social Progress by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Bruce C. Greenwald

Columbia University Press, 660 pp., $34.95; $24.95 (paper)

   "In the years since the financial crisis, Stiglitz has been among the loudest and most influential public intellectuals decrying the costs of inequality, and making the case for how we can use government policy to deal with it. In his 2012 book, The Price of Inequality, and in a series of articles and Op-Eds for Project Syndicate, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times, which have now been collected in The Great Divide, Stiglitz has made the case that the rise in inequality in the US, far from being the natural outcome of market forces, has been profoundly shaped by “our policies and our politics,” with disastrous effects on society and the economy as a whole. In a recent report for the Roosevelt Institute called Rewriting the Rules, Stiglitz has laid out a detailed list of reforms that he argues will make it possible to create “an economy that works for everyone.”....

   After all, the policies that Stiglitz is calling for are, in their essence, not much different from the policies that shaped the US in the postwar era: high marginal tax rates on the rich and meaningful investment in public infrastructure, education, and technology. Yet there’s a reason people have never stopped pushing for those policies: they worked. And as Stiglitz writes, “Just because you’ve heard it before doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try it again.”

Books for Christmas

 

Who Is Colleen Hoover?

   Apparently she is a very popular writer of fiction. Her name appears often on the lists provided. Most of the lists below relate to books that are the most borrowed from libraries. If you are looking for a popular book and, like me, did not know who Ms. Hoover is, this list could be useful for shopping purposes. Like the "New York Times Best Sellers List", the measure used is quantity, not necessarily quality. 

Top 10 Canadian Fiction

1. It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover

2. The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

3. The Maid by Nita Prose

4. The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

5. The Boys from Biloxi by John Grisham

6. It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

7. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

8. Sparring Partners by John Grisham

9. Long Shadows by David Baldacci

10. Desert Star by Michael Connelly

Top 10 Canadian Non-Fiction

1. Spare by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex

2. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

3. The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama

4. The Myth of Normal by Gabor Maté; Daniel Maté

5. Ducks by Kate Beaton

6. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry

7. Atomic Habits by James Clear

8. Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley

9. Freezing Order by Bill Browder

10. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Top Circulating E- Books - U.S.

Fiction: “Verity,” by Colleen Hoover.

Nonfiction: “Spare,” by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.

Romance: “Verity,” by Colleen Hoover.

Mystery & Thriller: “Verity,” by Colleen Hoover.

Science Fiction & Fantasy: “Fourth Wing,” by Rebecca Yarros.

Historical Fiction: “Cloud Cuckoo Land,” by Anthony Doerr.

Biography & Memoir: “Spare,” by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.

History: “Spare,” by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.

Most borrowed magazine: The New Yorker.

Most Popular Books - New York Public Library

“Lessons in Chemistry,” by Bonnie Garmus. “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,” by Gabrielle Zevin. “Spare,” by Prince Harry. “Book Lovers,” by Emily Henry. “Verity,” by Colleen Hoover. “Yellowface,” by R.F. Kuang. “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,” by James McBride. “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,” by Taylor Jenkins Reid. “It Ends with Us,” by Colleen Hoover. “Daisy Jones & the Six,” by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Most Popular Children's Books - NYPL

1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Big Shot,” by Jeff Kinney.
2. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley’s Journal,” by Jeff Kinney.
3. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw,” by Jeff Kinney.
4. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days,” by Jeff Kinney.
5. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball,” by Jeff Kinney.
6. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Deep End,” by Jeff Kinney.
7. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down,” by Jeff Kinney.
8. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway,” by Jeff Kinney.
9. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth,” by Jeff Kinney.
10. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever,” by Jeff Kinney.

History Books - Sticker Shock

A few years ago I did a post, "Christmas Shopping For Historians" and in it you will still find some useful suggestions and links. You might want to stay away from academic works, for a couple of reasons, one being price. Here are some examples:

W. E. Vaughan, Ireland Under the Union, I: 1801–1870, $480.00
N. G. L. Hammond and F. W. Walbank, A History of Macedonia, v. 3,
$440.00
W. Bernard Carlson, Technology in World History, $400.00
Edward M. Spiers and Jeremy A. Crang, A Military History of Scotland,
$250.00
Stuart Carroll, Blood and Violence in Early Modern France, $213.00

The "Awards and Prizes" page of the American Historical Association provides links to history book prize winners in a variety of categories, for example: "The Albert J. Beveridge Award in American History for a distinguished book on the history of the United States, Latin America, or Canada, from 1492 to the present." 

The Bonus:
   This listing from last year could be useful and the books cheaper: "Christmas Book Shopping."

   If you are more interested in Nature than History see: "Nature Writing (2) - British Version," or "Nature Writing."