More Volokh Conspiracy holiday gifts!
Just a brief note to add a suggestion or two to Ilya Somin's list of books by Volokh Conspiracy authors that could grace your holiday gift pile. While I'd be delighted were any of you to choose my book on Jefferson and the Internet for your holiday gifting, I'm thinking that there's nothing like a little music to calm your soul while you (or the lucky recipients of your gifts) are reading all these weighty and substantial tomes. And while your giftees will likely read a book only once, music, as the saying goes, is the gift that keeps on giving.
Might I suggest, in the modern spirit of benign nepotism, Sam Post's "Dizzy Days"—a compilation of original and classic ragtime for the piano. Yes, he's my son—but Scott Joplin and Fats Waller were somebodies' sons, too, and you'd be kicking yourself if you had ignored their fathers' suggestions that their music might be worth a listen, no? Plus, it's ragtime! Not only was ragtime the first great indigenous genre of "American" music to make an impact around the world, but also there's just something about that combination of syncopation and swing that makes it nearly impossible to resist.
Happy listening!