On Giving Books as Gifts
Giving books to a bibliophile can be a fraught enterprise. Ask my family! We have such particular tastes and we read so much! The book gifter runs the risk of buying something we’ve read, or buying something that is not of interest.
The latter is not as much of a danger. Many of us like to stretch and get out of our ruts. My son often seems to find books like this. But this takes knowing your reader and maybe researching what they’ve read. Fortunately apps like Goodreads make this easier. Some create Amazon wish lists. If you want to buy me a book, search my blog to see if I’ve read it. Along the way, you will learn a lot about the kinds of books I’ve read and liked.
Take heart. In every genre, there are so many good choices. Again, my son is good at this. He knows I like baseball books and try to read at least one a year. This year, he found a great book on the World Champion 1948 Indians team. As one who suffered through many years of losing seasons and dashed hopes, it was a delight to read about the year it all came together. He knows I like crime fiction, and he introduced me to the works of Giles Blunt–a real find.
So the pro tip is to do your homework. If you are going to dash out at the last minute, a gift card to your bibliophile friend’s favorite store might be a better choice. And it is always fun to go book shopping when you are spending someone else’s money. With that, I’ll leave you to your holiday shopping!
Five Articles Worth Reading
The New York Times ‘By The Book” interviews are often fascinating glimpses into author’s lives, including what they are reading. I devoured Braiding Sweetgrass and so was delighted to come across an interview with Robin Wall Kimmerer, “Robin Wall Kimmerer Is Learning From ‘Rest as Resistance’“. She made this comment about her new book, The Serviceberry, that put it on my buy list: “It’s an invitation to question the values that underpin our current exploitative relation to the living world. Why do we tolerate an economy that actively destroys what we love?”
Speaking of writers talking about the books they are reading, The Millions runs a compilation of contributions by writers and others that posted this week: A Year in Reading: 2024. This is one I always look forward to.
In “Shakespeare the Suicide?” Larry Lockridge considers the evidence that Shakespeare might have taken his own life. Suicide figures in many of works. Perhaps he decided “not to be.”
Simone Weil was a philosopher, activist, and person of deep faith whose writing and life pose demanding questions of those who read her. In “Whose Weil?,” Jack Hanson discusses the ways modern commentators try to make her more “palatable.”
Finally, Phil Christman, a professor at the University of Michigan, poses the question. “Does Teaching Literature and Writing Have a Future?” Particularly, he considers the closure of English programs and the rise of AI and raises important questions about what a university is for.
Quote of the Week
Joan Didion, born on December 5, 1934, made this trenchant observation:
“You have to pick the places you don’t walk away from.”
I think she is right. These watershed moments define who we are.
Miscellaneous Musings
While reading Quentin J. Schultze’s You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out!, in which he draws life lessons from the movie A Christmas Story, I re-watched this classic, filmed in Cleveland while we lived there. There’s a lot of wisdom in that movie and it reminded me of Christmases of my youth (and a few schoolyard bullies).
And while I’m on the subject of Cleveland, one of the great bookstores on Cleveland’s East Side is Loganberry Books. They are celebrating their thirtieth anniversary TODAY! I’m thrilled that this indie has survived and thrived by serving the bookloving community of Cleveland. Congratulations and Happy Anniversary!
This week also brought news of a new bookstore in Columbus, Clintonville Books, located in the neighborhood of the same name. If you know Columbus, you know that Clintonville is a bookstore kind of place. Can’t wait to visit! I doubt I’ll be around to celebrate their thirtieth anniversary, but I hope they enjoy a good long run in Clintonville.
Next Week’s Reviews
Here’s what I expect to be reviewing next week. I may also do a special post on my “Best of the Year” books.
Monday: Stuart Murray, The New Anabaptists
Tuesday: Stuart M. Kaminsky, Lieberman’s Day
Wednesday: Matthew Desmond, Poverty, By America
Thursday: Quentin J. Schultze, You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out!
Friday: Jason Landsel, Richard Mommsen, and Sankha Banerjee, By Fire: The Jakob Hutter Story
Well, that’s The Weekly Wrap for December 1-7, 2024!
Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.