A Gift of a Book

Do you give books as gifts? This questions is rhetorical. Whatever you write (or don’t write but think to yourself) in response probably won’t change my thoughts on the subject. I truly love to give books as gifts.

I gave my girlfriend a book as one of her birthday gifts. She had mentioned having a copy, but since that one is in another country, and air travel is still difficult, that copy might as well be buried in the back of a lost and found room at a major train station–no, I don’t know why I thought of it that way. As you’ll see, books conjure lots of images in my head.

When choosing a book for someone, it probably falls into three categories (when I started writing this paragraph I only thought of two. In the space of ten words, I had to totally revise my ideas.) These categories are:

1. A book you love that you want to share with everyone (Barney’s Version, Waterland, A Prayer for Owen Meany, ….)
2. A book you think is perfect for them–why you think it is “perfect” for them is a matter of conjecture, but I don’t have time to discuss that or why we are so often wrong in this area.
3. A book they expressed a desire to read or that is quite popular at the moment. ( I suppose this could be two things, but not always)

The first of these is pretty easy. We all have books we love and we want to share. Sometimes we can’t give the book, but we can recommend it hard enough that we might as well have driven the person to the bookstore, slapped the copy to their chest and taken the money from their wallets to pay for it. (see what I mean by those images). If they were smart they could just go to the library and borrow it for free–but that doesn’t do much for creating an image unless your library is one of those beautiful museum style libraries they always managed to show in films. Don’t be surprised or upset if they don’t love it as much as you do. How could they?

Is there a book you have given as gift multiple times?

The second is much harder. If you know them well, and you are well read, you may well be great at this. I am not so good at this. My oldest sister reads broadly and I cannot really discern what she would like that she hasn’t already read. My second sister would rather reread Helter Skelter than find a new book. My youngest sister has a passion for Canadian literature. Sadly, I only know of one bookstore that makes an effort to have a Canadian section. It is near my workplace, but since the start of the Pandemic, it really hasn’t been available to me. It features used books, but my youngest sister doesn’t mind. She sees it as more environmentally friendly and more cost effective. My father would like another series like Lonesome Dove. My mother is really into biographies. My girlfriend likes Harry Potter and the Horse Whisperer. Since I have already bought those, I am going to be hard pressed to come up with something next time.

As for getting books that are “hot” or “popular”–this explains why I have copies of the Satanic Verses, A Brief History of Time, and the Complete Solution to the Rubik’s Cube. They were good reads, but I haven’t heard any of them spoken of since.

As for me, these days, I have been collecting books about bicycle maintenance and the science of riding better and stronger. I have collected some DIY and woodworking books (with many more on my Amazon wishlist). I picked up a few classics from the bargain table back when the bookstore was open. I have been reading about the fascinating history of postage stamps and their place in critical historical events.

I do hope stores will open up again and maybe I can go rummaging through a used bookstore in hopes of finding something unique–like the time I came across seven Harlan Ellison novels in a used bookstore in London Ontario. After all, the hunt is the amazing part.

Is there a book or series of books you are looking for? Is there a book you found in the most unlikely of places that you would like to tell us about?

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