The woke nudging of Waterstones

Who is even buying the books Waterstones thinks the British public want to read?

Earlier this week I wrote about a transgender guide I bought in Waterstones. My local store put it out prominently - so that you would think to buy it, which I did, finding it absolutely terrible (more here).

However, this was not the only horror story from the day I visited. In short, I thought I’d share a bit of the woke nudging that goes on in Waterstones.

I’m definitely not the first to point out that Waterstones makes it very clear - with a few exemptions - which books you should be reading, all of which sound like they’ve been curated by a climate justice correspondent at The Guardian with a BA in Fanny Studies.

But I thought I’d take some photos just to emphasise how ghastly some of the nudging is. Even the fairly innocuous area of photography can’t escape the Wokies:

Decolonising the Camera: Photography in Racial Time by Mark Sealy

“This book examines how Western photographic practice has been used as a tool for creating Eurocentric and violent visual regimes, and demands that we recognise and disrupt the ingrained racist ideologies that have tainted photography since its inception in 1839.” More

Capitalism and the Camera by Kevin Coleman

“Drawn together in productive disagreement, the essays in this collection explore the relationship of photography to resource extraction and capital accumulation, from 1492 to the postcolonial; the camera's potential to make visible critical understandings of capitalist production and society, especially economies of class and desire; and propose ways that the camera and the image can be used to build cultural and political counterpublics from which a democratic struggle against capitalism might emerge.” More

Even her Royal Wokeness, Emma Watson, is in a prominent position - as if to say “oh hello, you; got your pronoun badge yet?”

Then there’s DON’T BE A TERRIBLE PERSON literature - because, otherwise, how would you know?

How to Argue with a Racist by Adam Rutherford

The recommendation says it has “all you need to refute hateful claims about racial superiority”, as if hearing such claims is a standard occurrence in someone’s life.

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

Hmm, not really to be honest..!

“Protests against racial injustice and white supremacy have galvanized millions around the world. The stakes for transformative conversations about race could not be higher. Still, the task ahead seems daunting, and it's hard to know where to start. How do you tell your boss her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law hang up on you when you had questions about police reform? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend?” - More

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad

Forget Marley and Me. In Me and White Supremacy, readers are shown “how to dismantle the privilege within themselves so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of colour, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.” More.

Moving on to climate change…

365 Ways to Save the Planet by Georgina Wilson-Powell

“What if sustainability didn't have to be so complicated? 365 Ways to Save the Planet cuts through the noise and explains exactly how to live a "greener" lifestyle day by day.” - More

You’d think these 365 tips would be enough to change the world, but there’s EVEN MORE:

The Physics of Climate Change by Lawrence M. Krauss

“The news is full of hotly debated and divergent claims about the impacts and risks of climate change. Lawrence Krauss, one of the world's most respected physicists and science popularizers, cuts through the confusion by succinctly presenting the underlying science of climate change.” - More

Or…

SOS: What you can do to reduce climate change by Seth Wynes

“INews Climate Change researcher, Seth Wynes, sets out in the simplest terms how you can make a real and positive impact. Make changes at home, at work, to how you shop, eat, live - start by finding one thing your family can change with this book and do it today. What you do matters - and the science proves it.” - More.

And don’t forget Greta!

“We still have time to change the world. From the world's leading climate activist, this is the essential book for making it happen.” - More

Or George!

“While his diagnosis of the problems in front of us is clear-sighted and reasonable, he also develops solutions to challenge the politics of fear. How do we stand up to the powerful when they seem to have all the weapons? What can we do to prepare our children for an uncertain future? Controversial, clear but always rigorously argued, How Did We Get into this Mess? makes a persuasive case for change in our everyday lives, our politics and economics, the ways we treat each other and the natural world.” More

Then, if you wanted even more cheering up, why not dig into some Covid literature? (How did this even become a genre? Weren’t one/two years of lockdown enough?!)

Ms Lockdown has her own volume:

Preventable: How a Pandemic Changed the World and How to Stop the Next One

and how about a bit of Bill Gates?

Who is even buying these books?!

Genuinely curious.

In better (literary) news, I have been reading Bad Therapy by Abigail Shrier, which is fascinating.

I wonder if it will be on display the next time I visit Waterstones…