Recommending Books for The Marginal Virtues

I want to expand my horizons, and what better way to do so than to receive recommendations from the readers of this blog?

In the middle of every month, I'll write a post inviting people to recommend books for me to read for the following month. About a week after I've posted the invitation, I'll randomly select three books to read for the following month and write posts in which I comment upon them.

To make things easier for all, please follow these guidelines.

1. Please provide a succint description of the book you are recommending. At the very least please provide the name of the author, as it makes it easier for me to search for the book on the websites for the libraries mentioned below.

2. Please suggest books that I can borrow from either the Ottawa Public Library or the library of the University of Ottawa. It would obviously be expensive for me to buy about three new books every month. If you are able to lend me the book to read, that's even better.

3. Please recommend books written in English. Because I quote sections of books in my commentaries on them, it is easier for other readers if they can understand the original text without too much trouble. Feel free to recommend books which have been translated into English, of course.


4. Please don't recommend books which promote conspiracy theories and which purport to be non-fiction. Along the same lines, please don't recommend books the sole purpose of which is to bash the ideological opponents of its author.

5. Please don't recommend textbooks, cookbooks, 'how-to' books (including 'self-help' books) or anthologies. It is difficult to comment on, say, recipes, or directions on how to fix a sink; likewise, the organising principle of anthologies and textbooks makes it difficult to comment on their contents meaningfully.

6. Please don't recommend books with highly technical formulae or diagrams or picture books of any kind. It takes a lot of work to replicate diagrams, and some images may not be available for me to comment upon.

7. Please don't recommend what might be called 'contemporary pulp'; what I mean by this is 'books you can find on the book rack at a drugstore'.
 
 
8. Feel free to recommend books regarded as 'children's literature'.

9. Read the monthly invitation posts for further details, such as whether there will be a theme, subject to choose from, and so on.

I look forward to reading your suggestions!