Rules of Bibliographical Sociology’s Method

Abstract

I should, of course, carry on with the kind of case studies of “uncultured books” which occupy the previous seven chapters. Various areas of contemporary Indian print circulations could repay close attention and analysis. An enticing array of leadership guidebooks, sex manuals, biographies of VIPs (“spiritual” or down-to-earth), astrology readers, almanacs, religious tracts, political pamphlets, children’s story collections, language learning guidebooks and so on come to mind (and overwhelm it). A whole chapter could be devoted to the curious Learn English through Meditation (Panicker 2011) alone, which I found in the Delhi Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) bookshop in 2014 — but that will have to wait. I have barely gestured towards digital book circulations, which deserve voluminous unpacking despite their currently limited reach in India. I am constrained by my publishing contract for this book, wherein adept bibliographers have stipulated a reasonable word limit. So a brief reckoning with what I have explored so far is expedient by way of finishing this book. “In my end is my beginning” (and vice versa) seems an apt Eliotian sentiment here and takes me in conclusion back to those introductory reflections on bibliographical sociology.