From 'How Parliament Works' to John le Carre: MPs most borrowed books

Every Wednesday, Alex Johnson delves into a unique collection of titles

Commons knowledge: the mission of the lower house library is to ‘contribute to a well-informed democracy’ (Tomás Robertson/Commons Library)

Each year, the House of Commons Library puts together a list of its most borrowed books by MPs and their staff.

The most recent one, in descending order of the number of withdrawals, is topped (as it has been most years since 2008) by the useful self-help guide How Parliament Works.

How Parliament Works by Robert Rogers and Rhodri Walters
Why the Tories Won: The Inside Story of the 2015 Election by Tim Ross
Speaking Out: Lessons in Life and Politics by Ed Balls
Coalition: The Inside Story of the Conservative-Liberal Democrats Coalition Government by David Laws
The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee
Parliament Ltd: A Journey to the Dark Heart of British Politics by Martin Williams
Can the Welfare State Survive? by Andrew Gamble
Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty
This is London by Ben Judah
Politics: Between the Extremes by Nick Clegg
Joseph Chamberlain: A Most Radical Imperialist by Travis L Crosby
How to be a Parliamentary Researcher by Robert Dale
How to be a Government Whip by Helen Jones
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson
Them and Us: Changing Britain – Why We Need a Fair Society by Will Hutton
Student Power! The Radical Days of the English Universities by Esmee Sinead Hanna
The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett
The Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of Mass Unemployment by Martin Ford
Parliament: The Biography. Vol 1: Ancestral Voices by Chris Bryant