One of the things I love about working at Cosimo is that I’m constantly discovering wonderful (and sometimes wonderfully weird!) old books that I’ve never even heard of before, as well as getting regular reminders of great classics that I either haven’t read since school or have never read at all (and should). But even more surprising is that the more I look through books published 50, 100, 150, even 200 years ago, the more I see that the topics that fascinate readers today are, in many instances, the same ones that booklovers were gobbling up decades and centuries ago.

Every Monday, I take a look at the current New York Times best-seller lists and point out a few Cosimo Classics that connect to today’s hottest books. Cuz all true readers know that too much of a good thing is never enough.

It’s way too early to be thinking about Christmas as far as I’m concerned, but it seems that many other readers don’t feel that way: the Times hardcover fiction list this week features two sentimental holiday selections: Christmas Letters, by Debbie Macomber, at No. 13, and at No. 15, Finding Noel, by Richard Paul Evans. Washington Irving might be best remembered for a story revolving around another holiday, but his Old Christmas, first published in 1896, deserves to be a holiday tradition alongside Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in the celebrations of the winter solstice. Warmly convivial and delightfully festive, this charming and long forgotten holiday classic was inspired in part by Dickens and other celebrations of oldtime Yule. Splendid suppers and rural churches, cheerful dances and hearty spirits imbue this short novel with the magic of the season. If you’re one of those insufferable shoppers who has her Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving (the rest of us are secretly terribly jealous of you), consider this for an unusual stocking stuffer for the bookworm on your list.

Over on the Times hardcover nonfiction list, it’s much more serious business with two books about the selling of the American war in Iraq: Bob Woodward’s State of Denial is at No. 3, and The Greatest Story Ever Sold, by Frank Rich, is at No. 12. Philosopher Bertrand Russell was pondering how leaders coerce men to war back in 1916 in Why Men Fight, which grew out of the devastation of World War I. Russell explores ideas of war, pacifism, reason, impulse, and personal liberty and argues that when individuals live passionately, they will have no desire for war or killing. Eminently relevant to our modern world, Russell provides critiques of war and social institutions such as marriage and the state, and offers his thoughts on what we can do to rid our world of violence.

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