I apologize to anyone who doesn't participate in the frenzy of gift-giving on or around the twenty-fifth day of December every year. I don't mean to marginalize you or ignore you, but today I'm going to post about giving and receiving books for Christmas.
Because giving and receiving books as gifts at any time of the year is fabulous, and I exhort all of you to do it as much as possible! And also because I'm still in that happy post-holiday glow and I don't want to write a post about technique or craft or any of that serious stuff! So let's just cut the crap and get to it:
What's the coolest book you gave/got for Christmas this year?
I'll start: Mighty Reader wanted Salman Rushdie's new novel Luka and the Fire of Life and so I bought it for her. I wanted the Everyman's Library edition of Samuel Beckett's Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable trilogy, so she bought it for me. Yay, modernism! She also got me a cool non-fiction book about eels because, you know, eels.
Your turn!
I gave my brother-in-law and brother-in-darkness a copy of Acts of Violence, the literary noir thriller by Ryan David Jahn. I gave my dad Kindle copies of Pericles Commission, a historical mystery by Gary Corby, and Razor Wrapped in Silk, a traditional mystery with a literary feel by RN Morris. And, of course, I gave my mother-in-law a copy of Cinders by you-know-who.
ReplyDeleteThough I gave a LOT of great books, the coolest has to be the 80 year old copy of LITTLE WOMEN that had been made into a book purse! Can't read it, but gotta love carrying that one around.
ReplyDeleteI gave my brother a copy of Jonathan Trooper's This is Where I Leave You. I love Trooper and am hoping to turn my brother on to him. Almost all of my gifts were books this year. The one I'm most excited about is John Irving's Last Night in Twisted River. I haven't read Irving in a very long time, and I'm excited to see how he's holding up.
ReplyDeleteYay! Cool post!
ReplyDeleteI received nor gave any books this year. I totally suck, but next year will be a huge book year because I'm going to start buying them throughout the year. Next on my list to by are Karen Dionne's thrillers, "Freezing Point" and "Boiling Point". :)
I think my favorite of the books I gave would be Star Wars Blast Off! for my 4 yo nephew. It's an early reader so not a whole lot of text, but I'm proud to help bring up the next generation of Star Wars fans. I gave his 1 yo brother and his parents books, too.
ReplyDeleteAs for what I got, I'm not sure which I'm most looking forward to read. Between my birthday and Christmas I got 8 books. Most YA fantasy of some sort or other.
My brother gave me Planet of the Apes. Probably the most intriguing looking of the books I gave was the one I gave to him. Cafine for the Creative Mind. I may end up 'borrowing' it from him some time.
ReplyDeleteTaryn: The original Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle? That's a cool book. I read it when I was a teen, lo these many decades ago.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite presents have usually been books. I don't know if I can pick just one. This year the two best were This is Your Brain on Music (Oliver Sacks) and Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer (Peter Turchi).
ReplyDeleteTim: I read This Is Where I Leave You this year and it was my first Tropper. Will be seeking out more of his works.
ReplyDeleteI gave my son the 2011 Guinness Book of World Records and it has been fun to watch him being totally absorbed in it. I've also learned some interesting random facts.
My husband and I don't give presents and our family is far away, so we don't get presents. It's actually great because I can buy the things I like. The books on the list this year are: Room; I Hotel; Corrections; Brooklyn, a novel; and So Much For That.
Nevets: I love mysteries, especially those "with a literary feel." I'll have to make another trip to the bookstore.
ReplyDeleteYat-Yee: I Hotel and Brooklyn are on my to-read list as well!
ReplyDeleteI received unabridged audio editions of Watership Down (16 hours long) and The Lord of the Rings (52 hours).
ReplyDeleteBOOYAH!
Someone gave me another book by one of my favorite authors, Yasunari Kawabata. I love his stuff.
ReplyDeleteI also ordered my own copy of the rat sketch version of Anna Karenina. Does that count?