Althouse: Bookstore photograph

December 3, 2025

Bookstore photograph — notice anything?

My son Chris sends this from Austin:

74 comments:

john mosby said...: Mangione and More are together? CC, JSM; 12/3/25, 6:26 AM
Crimso said...: Longstreet; 12/3/25, 6:29 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: A biography of Gen Longstreet my great great grandfather's Corp Commander while enrolled in the Army of Northern Virginia. Marse Robert should have taken his advice on July 2nd, 1863.; 12/3/25, 6:30 AM
Michael said...: The writer, Walter Kirn, was on Michael Malice's podcast speculating that the Luigi story is a construct. We're being guided thru a Hollywood tale. Not sure I buy it, but it's an interesting take.; 12/3/25, 6:34 AM
Iman said...: I notice a 1st degree murderer and a murderer of The Historical Record (Meacham) among the four.; 12/3/25, 6:49 AM
John Holland said...: What jumps out at me: Black-and-white portraits, tinted fake-sepia to give it that 'olde-tyme' look ... as if Lincoln, McMurtry and this 'Luigi' construct were contemporaries, waiting together in the studio parlor for their turn before the camera.; 12/3/25, 6:59 AM
narciso said...: The twain bio might be interesting; 12/3/25, 7:00 AM
tim maguire said...: I notice lots of things. Anything in particualr I should focus on?; 12/3/25, 7:11 AM
Nancy said...: There's some sort of alphabetization mingling authors and titles and subjects.; 12/3/25, 7:18 AM
FormerLawClerk said...: They've elevated the hairy murderer with Lincoln.

My God liberals are sick people.; 12/3/25, 7:19 AM
rehajm said...: notice anything?

An overinflated ego…; 12/3/25, 7:21 AM
Greg said...: Luigi!; 12/3/25, 7:23 AM
Disparity of Cult said...: There's a book about John Lewis, but thankfully not one about Hank Johnson. Otherwise, the entire book shelf might tip over like Guam.; 12/3/25, 7:27 AM
Temujin said...: Luigi is misplaced on that shelf. Horribly.; 12/3/25, 7:34 AM
John Holland said...: @Heartless Aztec: I suppose we should be glad that Lee ignored Longstreet. If he had listened to Longstreet's warnings, not only would we be deprived of the Gettysburg address, but who knows, there might still be a Confederate Empire of the Americas.

Lost Causers still blame Longstreet's supposed less-than-enthusiastic performance on July 3 as having cost the South its deserved victory, rather than Lee's impossible demands. The disaster of Gettysburg, combined with the fall of Vicksburg to Grant the very next day, meant that, barring a miracle, the Confederate dream was finished.

Anyway, does anyone think I should add this Longstreet book to my Civil War biography collection?; 12/3/25, 7:41 AM
dbp said...: Lots to notice: 3 Johns, the leftists are on the left, conservatives on the right, all the covers are black and white, or B&W--adjacent. The angle of the shot for Luigi makes him less attractive and more like Lee Harvey Oswald.; 12/3/25, 7:42 AM
rhhardin said...: I didn't think there were bookstores. I'm personally relieved that I no longer have to order books from bookstores.; 12/3/25, 7:42 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Luigi is next to Typhoid Mary. Do you think villains should be shelved separately?; 12/3/25, 7:51 AM
Achilles said...: If I try to sell a book one of my characters is going to look exactly like Luigi so I can put his face on the cover.; 12/3/25, 7:55 AM
Joe Bar said...: Wow. Someone wrote a book about Mangione. And someone probably bought it.; 12/3/25, 7:56 AM
Kai Akker said...: I thought it was that the books are ordered by color of binding, with subtle contrasts between shelves.; 12/3/25, 7:56 AM
Disparity of Cult said...: Fifty Shades of Luigi; 12/3/25, 7:58 AM
Cappy said...: Needs more McMurtry.; 12/3/25, 8:06 AM
Peachy said...: The left: Blood thirsty assassins.; 12/3/25, 8:10 AM
narciso said...: Ah john richardson the son of the spy chief in saigon before the diem coup; 12/3/25, 8:11 AM
narciso said...: A native of whittier california; 12/3/25, 8:13 AM
narciso said...: But their arranging is crazy, as a fmr college librarian; 12/3/25, 8:25 AM
phuongphuong said...: LK68 đã nhanh chóng khẳng định vị thế của mình như một điểm đến hút khách hàng nhất hiện nay. Nền tảng lk68.biz mang đến trải nghiệm giải trí đa dạng, an toàn và đầy ấn tượng cho người chơi trên toàn quốc. https://lk68.biz/; 12/3/25, 8:28 AM
Gerda Sprinchorn said...: The men are all wearing shorts but you can't see them because the pictures don't do down that far?; 12/3/25, 8:33 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: @John Holland: Concur all. The book as viewed from the spine has Pete in civilian mufti so I'm guessing that this biographical tale starts with his joining the Republican Party and becoming persona non grata with all of the Lost Causers. Might be an interesting read. I was just at his small museum in North Georgia.; 12/3/25, 8:33 AM
lohwoman said...: Xerxes is lonely in his section.; 12/3/25, 8:33 AM
Gerda Sprinchorn said...: Nothing about Epstein! The coverup continues!; 12/3/25, 8:37 AM
narciso said...: Radden keefes chronicles of the troubles is more interesting and infuriating; 12/3/25, 8:39 AM
Gerda Sprinchorn said...: Note the length of the comments here. Short and pithy. These are comments from real people.

In the next politically charged posts note the comment lengths there. If the comments are being infested by AI talking points as I suspect, then we will see many long, multiple-paragraph posts in the political posts.

Maybe we should cut out the intermediaries, and just have the AI's argue with each other directly.; 12/3/25, 8:42 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: Addendum Luigi is badly out of place among the set of luminarie biographies presented for purchase. He biography sullies those around him.; 12/3/25, 8:45 AM
boatbuilder said...: Approximately 30 books (not counting dupes). Marie Kondo approved.; 12/3/25, 8:49 AM
narciso said...: Chernows always good lin mirandas interpretation notwithstanding; 12/3/25, 8:49 AM
Aggie said...: Not only that, it's been out for a month:

Luigi: The Making and the Meaning

It's Society, I tells ya. Not entirely unlike Walter Kirn's take.

All the other Luigi books on Amazon concern the Mario family.; 12/3/25, 8:52 AM
narciso said...: It would be interesting what they actually found about malcolm haley being such an unreliable scribe; 12/3/25, 8:53 AM
Clyde said...: An (alleged) assassin looking up at the victim of an assassination.; 12/3/25, 8:54 AM
Howard said...: You buried the Luigi; 12/3/25, 8:57 AM
Narr said...: 90% are books I'd never even consider reading.; 12/3/25, 9:20 AM
n.n said...: Mangione is the power broker who Planned a "burden" of Obamacares past.; 12/3/25, 9:25 AM
narciso said...: Chernow is good so is radden keefe richardson is definitely slumming; 12/3/25, 9:26 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: Other than the Lugi book, I found the number of Malcom X books remarkable. And that that there are several on John Lewis. I know he was McCain's hero (fake) but I don't remember him doing much of anything.; 12/3/25, 9:28 AM
narciso said...: Lewis did one noble thing but then used it to build an empire; 12/3/25, 9:30 AM
SAGOLDIE said...: The title, "Luigi," just his first name. Compare to, elsewhere on the shelf, "Malcom X," "John Lewis," "Typhoid Mary", "Longstreet," "Thomas More," etc.

This is calling out the phenomenon that is part of the story - Luigi's popularity and identity. To be sure, one wouldn't expect a biography of Lincoln's assassin to be titled "John" 'cause, after all, at least in the US "Luigi" is much less common. Still, that's how he's been "named" in the culture so it works for his biography, I guess.

Anyway, that's what I think.; 12/3/25, 9:32 AM
Freder Frederson said...: And that that there are several on John Lewis. I know he was McCain's hero (fake) but I don't remember him doing much of anything.

Well then, maybe you should read one of those books and find out what he did.

That way you wouldn't just be displaying your ignorance .; 12/3/25, 9:45 AM
Iman said...: Introducing the hybrid gerdaigna @8:37am!; 12/3/25, 9:46 AM
Rocco said...: Luigi is the Italian version of the name Ludwig in German, and related to the names Lewis in English and Louis in French (and English).; 12/3/25, 9:54 AM
FormerLawClerk said...: Hospital CEO murderers: good

But keep subsidizing insurance companies via government-coerced health insurance. Democrats used to RAIL against insurance company CEOs until they got bought off by them. Kind of like how Mafia protection rackets work.; 12/3/25, 9:55 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: Well then, maybe you should read one of those books and find out what he did.

Thanks troll. Any other advice? I guess you haven't read it either.; 12/3/25, 10:22 AM
wildswan said...: Biographies whose subjects start with the letters L_M. The whites are represented by biographers who present their subjects as brutal, stupid, crafty and /or mistaken. Except possibly Mangione, the backshooter. The blacks are pure heroes. Pretty conventional in terms of the current left. You can see how impossible it is for readers accustomed to this ultra-processed diet to understand someone really different - a religious person, a conservative, a Union soldier, a prolifer, a Trump voter. The books the Dems read don't formulate difference as anything but evilness.; 12/3/25, 10:25 AM
chuck said...: What I noticed was the shelving. Looks like a small, boutique, bookstore, it made me wonder where it was located. The books shown are a mix of biographies, mostly about figures in the civil rights movement, and some look used. Was it a used book store?; 12/3/25, 10:57 AM
Ralph L said...: How did someone write a whole, fairly thick book about Mangione before a trial?
Poor Typhoid Mary wasn't shelved based on her surname like the others, including Luigi.; 12/3/25, 11:01 AM
chuck said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/3/25, 11:02 AM
chuck said...: Half Price Books?; 12/3/25, 11:04 AM
Ralph L said...: Grok says Mary's surname was Mallon, so her books aren't far off. I hadn't realized she was blamed for cases over 15 years.; 12/3/25, 11:04 AM
hombre said...: “Afterlife?”; 12/3/25, 11:18 AM
IamDevo said...: All I noticed was akind of crazy quilt attempt at alphabetizing l's through m's, regardless of whether the letters were contained in the title or the author's name.; 12/3/25, 11:35 AM
Leora said...: Shouldn't Malcolm X be in the X's instead of the M's? Xerxes comment appreciated.; 12/3/25, 11:49 AM
Ralph L said...: regardless of whether the letters were contained in the title or the author's name.
Except for Malcolm and Mary, it's based on the biography subject's surname.; 12/3/25, 11:52 AM
Rabel said...: Typhoid Mary by Anthony Bourdain?; 12/3/25, 12:10 PM
Lazarus said...: 1) Nicely alphabetized.
2) Of course, Larry McMurtry would feature prominently in a Texas bookstore.
3) I notice now that there is a book about Luigi Mangione, but at first view I thought that was Lenny Bruce, somehow misplaced among the m's.; 12/3/25, 12:31 PM
Lazarus said...: Are the black and white John Lewis books like the red pill and the blue pill? Will we see Lewis and the world differently depending on which one we read?; 12/3/25, 12:40 PM
boatbuilder said...: How did someone write a whole, fairly thick book about Mangione before a trial?
Probably had AI working on it before Luigi got out of Manhattan.; 12/3/25, 12:44 PM
Rocco said...: Leora said...
“Shouldn't Malcolm X be in the X's instead of the M's? Xerxes comment appreciated.”

L for Malcolm Little.; 12/3/25, 12:52 PM
Assistant Village Idiot said...: Predominantly male. If this were a fiction collection it might be predominantly female.; 12/3/25, 1:07 PM
FullMoon said...: "rhhardin said...
I didn't think there were bookstores. I'm personally relieved that I no longer have to order books from bookstores."

Amazon started by selling books online. Seems to have expanded somewhat.; 12/3/25, 1:21 PM
Biff said...: A disproportionate number of assassinations, executions, and cancer deaths. Also, a book about the Mitford sisters, which is another category of crazy. Good looking family, but crazy in that special tawdry English aristocratic way.; 12/3/25, 1:49 PM
gadfly said...: The books on the top row appear to be heroes of Black America, except Alexis Gumbs is a famous black lesbian familiar only to that community.

But my black heroes idea doesn't fit a book about aircraft collisions with birds. The lady called the "feather detective" is white.; 12/3/25, 3:10 PM
The Godfather said...: "The twain bio might be interesting". It is. But it's A THOUSAND PAGES long! From time to time I set it aside and read a volume or two of the Encyclopedia Britannica.; 12/3/25, 4:24 PM
Narr said...: Chernow does nothing by halves.

Some people love it.; 12/3/25, 6:30 PM
SAGOLDIE said...: Okay Althouse! Your turn. What did YOU notice?; 12/4/25, 8:49 AM