The Digital Press Best Sellers

I’ve been meaning to write something about The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota over the last five years, and for whatever reason, I’ve not found the right moment to do it. As the dust settles on another semester, now feels like as good as time as any to look back at The Digital Press over the last half-decade.

The best way to do this, to my mind, is simply highlight our top ten best sellers (by download). All these books have thousands of downloads despite their sometimes local or academic subjects. 

1. Dakota Databook. 2019. This collaboration with Prairie Public Radio has become both a best seller and is the most downloaded book over the last 5 years. If you haven’t grabbed a copy and you’re a fan of North Dakotiana, now is as good as time as any.

2. Failing Gloriously and Other Essays. 2019. By Shawn Graham. This award-winning book is not only succeeding gloriously, but is also the second most downloaded title over the past five years. Stay tuned for more from Shawn Graham in the fall!

3. The Beast: Making a Living on a Dying Planet. 2018. Expanded Digital Edition. Written by Nicole Burton and Hugh Goldring and edited by Patrick McCurdy. This is another collaboration. This time we partnered with Ad Astra Comix to produce an expanded digital edition of The Beast, a petroculture themed graphic novel. It’s the third most downloaded title over the last 5 years.

4. Backstories: The Kitchen Table Talk Cookbook. 2021. Edited by Cynthia C. Prescott and Maureen S. Thompson. A cookbook with a social and historical message was our fourth most downloaded book over the last five years and a great way to share kitchen table talk with the next generation.

5. Protesting on Bended Knee: Race, Dissent, and Patriotism in 21st Century America. 2018. Edited by Eric Burin. This book has been a juggernaut for The Digital Press and we’re excited to see it continue to garner downloads over the last five years.

6. The Bakken Goes Boom: Oil and the Changing Geographies of Western North Dakota. 2016. Edited by Kyle Conway and William Caraher. This book was one of the first books published by The Digital Press and marked out our interest in petroculture. It has continued to attract downloads every year. 

7. Archaeologies of Roads. 2023. Edited by Tuna Kalaycı. This book came out in 2023, but has surged almost immediately into the top ten downloads over the past five years. It’s an academic look at what archaeology can tell us about roads. 

8. A Physician’s Journey: The Memoir of Robert A. Kyle, M.D. 2023. By Robert A. Kyle. I have to admit that this book’s popularity blindsided me. It’s an expansive memoir of an important (and evidently popular) physician and researcher. 

9. Israel, Palestine, and the Trolley Problem: On the Futility of the Search for the Moral High Ground. 2024. By Jack Russell Weinstein. Another recent title that has surprised my by its performance. If you’re interested in philosophy and the Middle East, this might be the title for you.

10. One Hundred Voices, Harrisburg’s Historic African American Community, 1850-1920. 2020. Edited by Calobe Jackson, Jr., Katie Wingert McArdle, David Pettegrew and with a foreword by Lenwood Sloan. This book is a very special volume done in collaboration with the Commonwealth Monument Project. You can get a better sense of the ideas behind this book here.