No matter what happens after the election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper may have a future as an author. His 2013 book on hockey, A Great Game, sold more than 50,000 copies in combined hardcover and paperback sales, according to figures obtained this week from BookNet Canada.

On that same score, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau isn’t far behind. His autobiography, Common Ground, has reportedly sold 36,795 hardcover copies since it was released last fall, and the paperback is due out next month.

Green party Leader Elizabeth May’s autobiography, Who We Are, was also published last fall and will arrive in paperback in August. So far, May has sold nearly 4,000 books in hardcover, according to BookNet — which is widely regarded as an industry standard, collecting sales numbers from about 90 per cent of the country’s English-language booksellers.

These figures show that Canadians will still read books by politicians — and that’s heartening news for New Democratic Party Leader Thomas Mulcair, whose own autobiography, Strength of Conviction, will be on the shelves in a couple of weeks. The numbers will also represent a goalpost of sorts, too, a way to gauge whether Mulcair’s recent surge in the polls can be matched against his rivals in book sales.

As a matter of fact, we are about to go into an election in which all the party leaders represented in the Commons will be brandishing recently published books — a first, most likely, in political history.

My theory is that this flurry of leaders’ books is a product of the shrinking mass media universe. When newspapers and broadcasters had lots of room — and audience — for political stories, the leader’s profile was a standard feature of media coverage.

But the idea of devoting several thousand words or more than two or three minutes to a profile of a politician is an increasingly remote possibility these days. So political leaders, or their advisers, have seized control of the “narrative,” as they like to call it, and, as a collateral bonus, get to tell the story in their own words.

Political books are also the opposite of those ads you’re seeing this summer on TV. While the ads are intended for people who aren’t tuned in to politics or the coming election, the books are for people who want to know more about the leaders vying for office this fall.

For those Canadians — the type who might want to haul a pile of non-fiction books on vacation — I’ve compiled a pre-election reading list. Full disclosure: when I proposed this column, my editor expressed some skepticism that anyone would want to read about Canadian politics while lounging dockside. You may want to regard these suggestions, then, in a spirit of optimism about citizens’ desire to be informed voters this fall.

So, beyond the books by the leaders themselves, here are more than a dozen titles that aren’t really beach reading but might make you a smarter voter when the campaign rolls around this fall:

Books by insiders or former insiders

Building the Orange Wave: The Inside Story Behind the Historic Rise of Jack Layton and the NDP by Brad Lavigne, who will be the senior campaign adviser to the NDP’s election effort, is essential reading and a useful companion to Mulcair’s forthcoming book.

Harper’s Team and Winning Power, two books by Tom Flanagan, a former mentor and campaign chief to Harper.

What’s Happened to Politics? by former NDP premier and interim Liberal leader Bob Rae, coming out next month.

Irresponsible Government by former Conservative, now independent, MP Brent Rathgeber.

Books by journalists

The Longer I’m Prime Minister by Paul Wells.

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StephenHarper, a new biography by the Globe’s John Ibbitson, will be out in September for mid-campaign reading.

Party of One by Michael Harris.

Kill the Messengers by Mark Bourrie.

Harperland by Lawrence Martin.

The Morning After by the Star’s own Chantal Hébert with Jean Lapierre. It isn’t about the current political landscape, but it’s a great read about the 1995 Quebec referendum.

And, since the Mike Duffy trial will be going on throughout the campaign — Duffy by Dan Leger.

If you’re a person who wishes politics would smarten up instead of dumb down — and you probably are if you’re taking non-fiction books such as these on vacation — add Enlightenment 2.0 by Joseph Heath to your reading list.

And of course, I’m going to put my own 2013 book, Shopping for Votes, on the list, too, especially for those who are interested in how marketing and advertising have shaped modern Canadian political campaigning. As I like to tell people, don’t worry — I don’t think shopping is bad, especially if you’re buying books, especially mine.

That said, any and all of the above books may not be leisurely summer reading, but they will make you better voters come the fall. Ignore the TV ads; read a book instead.

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