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Idle Banter How is it that esos libros and estos libros both mean "those books"

Ese means this or these (close to the speaker), and este means that or those (close to the listener). These are the demonstratives. There is another that we don't have an equivalent to in English, aquel. Aquel refers to objects that are not close to either the listener or the speaker.

este (this one - masculine) estos (these ones - masculine) esta (this one - feminine) estas (these ones - feminine)

ese (that one - masculine) esos (those ones - masculine) esa (that one - feminine) esas (those ones - feminine)

aquel (that one over there - masc.) aquellos (those ones over there - masc.) aquella (that one over there - fem.) aquellas (those ones over there - fem.)

see this link for more information: http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/demonstratives.htm

Actually you use este, estos, esta, estas are used to refer to that which is close to the speaker, and ese, esos esa, esas, to that which is far from the speaker, so Jennifer is right.

Esos libros y estos libros are not both translated into those books, but rather esos libros would be those books, and estos libros would be these books depending on the context as explained above. If the phrase was aquellos libros, you would say those books over there.