What, if any, memorable or special book have you ever gotten as a present? Birthday or otherwise. What made it so notable? The person who gave it? The book itself? The “gift aura?”
I am probably more likely to give books as presents than to get them—though I do get some from my parents at Christmas, they are straight off an Amazon wish list so not very thoughtful. Of course, I have gotten a few memorable ones. Despite the love of books shared by me and the consumption partner, I am pretty sure he has only given me one over the years: a Library of America edition of four James Baldwin novels. Thus far I’ve only read Another Country. Whereas I have made a lot of good finds for him—old editions of Moby-Dick, fun illustrated old editions of The Book of Mormon and The Travels of Marco Polo, a very cool old set of the complete works of Francis Parkman.
Probably the most fun book presents I’ve gotten in a while were from last year’s LibraryThing-organized Secret Santa. I was introduced (finally) to Dorothy Sayers and Raymond Chandler (I would have made my way there eventually, I swear, but I’m glad I got pushed along).
What I think would really make good book presents are the set of colored fairy books now being published by the Folio Society. But that may have to be a present to myself.
A Secret Santa featuring only books? That sounds awesome!
I am more of a book giver than receiver too. I’m surrounded by non-readers!!
I rarely receive books as gifts and when I have its usually been off a wishlist or something non-fiction like a cookbook — my first thought is, why don’t people buy them for me more, it seems so obvious — but then again I don’t want to feel pressure to read something that reflects someone else’s tastes more than my own. I think its a common problem with book gifts — its an invitation to read something a friend has enjoyed… though I might trust you to pick out some fiction that reflects both of our tastes, I sure as hell don’t trust my siblings, etc for that job.
I know. You’ll note of course that everything I give Ll falls into the “book as object” category rather than “book as reading material.” Especially considering at least half of it is stuff he’s already read. And getting a book from a significant other is too often an invitation to spend the whole reading wondering what the secret message you are supposed to be getting from it is. (After a certain amount of time this wears off, of course.)
In other cases I’m more likely to buy something either jokey of coffee-table-y. Like your mafia one.
I would think that books chosen from a wish list would be quite thoughtful–at least they’re what you wanted. Happy Booking Through Thursday. I’m giving away a couple of books. See my sidebar if you’re interested.
http://bookcritiques.blogspot.com/
Oh my goodness, I’ve been lusting after the Rainbow Fairy series! They’re beautiful :)
Like you, I’m much more likely to give, than to receive, a book. Not because people don’t know how much I love books, but because I tend to get what I want for myself … I get a lot of gift cards.
[...] I prefer to give books-as-objects (as I’ve mentioned before), for a few [...]