The Holiday Gift Guide
Something for everyone (and maybe for you!)
It may sound sappy, but you’ve already given me the best gift I could ask for: Your support for Book Glory, which means more than you could possibly imagine. I am so passionate about books, and being able to share that passion with the world is a dream come true…and that is entirely thanks to you.
But now it’s time to buy gifts for other people. I’ve carefully curated a list of ten books that are currently in print, with one exception that’s easy to find used (I provide a link to a ready-made search to make things even easier). They are all remarkable, distinctive, and a joy to revisit. Enjoy!
For the lover of contemporary comics and graphic novels:
Building Stories, by Chris Ware
Ware is a detail-obsessed genius, with a draftsman’s eye for form. Building Stories is his magnum opus: Fourteen different exquisitely printed objects — a newspaper, a little Golden Book, a small graphic novel, on and on — all in a box together. You can read them in any order you want, slowly building the story of the protagonist and the people around her.
For the flashy and eccentric gourmet:
Les Diners de Gala, by Salvador Dalí
Part cookbook, part artwork, 100% Dalí craziness. Lavishly illustrated and complete with 136 recipes, it’s endlessly fascinating. (Though I have to admit I’ve never cooked anything from it.) Taschen’s reprint of the 1973 original is, like most of their books, very high quality. Bonus: If the recipient loves it, you can get them Dalí’s companion guide to wine.
For the person who sees beauty in what others see as ordinary:
The Principles of Uncertainty, by Maira Kalman
Although it is a collection of Maira Kalman’s columns for the New York Times, it reads as a coherent whole. A talented painter whose heart is overflowing with love for the world, Kalman’s takes us with her on a tour of her passions: Hats, cakes, elderly couples walking down the street. Her philosophical musings are touching and profound. (Okay, two gift recommendations: Kalman also illustrated Strunk and White’s Elements of Style, and it’s amazing. Bundle them together!)
For the lover of mystery, fantasy…and reference books:
Codex Seraphinianus, by Luigi Serafini
It’s impossible to describe this book, but I’ll do my best. If Jorge Luis Borges had written an actual encyclopedia, and he were an artist, this would be the result. There are illustrated entries on everything from molecules to military history — but the world documented in the Codex is completely invented. So is the script, for that matter: Hundreds of pages covered in symbols that are regular but indecipherable. What?! Who does that? Serafini’s surrealist art alone is worth the price of admission. Truly one-of-a-kind.
For the poetry lover:
The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson’s Envelope Poems
Later in life, Emily Dickinson would often write on flattened envelopes. The form of the envelopes is essential to the poems she produced, and The Gorgeous Nothings allows to see them exactly as they were produced, in Dickinson’s own spidery script. Typed transcripts are provided (which honor the shape of the originals), and the experience is like being allowed into a museum archive. “This edition…is a work of art,” writes Susan Howe in the preface. I couldn’t agree more.
For the person who reads books for the pictures:
Three Wordless Novels, by Lynd Ward
Lynd Ward was an early pioneer of the graphic novel, and his woodcut art is stunning and powerful. These three wordless “novels” tell their stories using a single woodcut image on each page. His themes are often social and political — Madman’s Drum is about the slave trade, and Wild Pilgrimage examines the brutality of factory work. Without his work, we wouldn’t have modern comics or graphic novels, and nearly a century later they are deservedly considered classics.
For the lover of fairy tales:
East of the Sun, West of the Moon, illustrated by Kay Nielsen
In my opinion, the illustrations for Kay Nielsen’s East of the Sun, West of the Moon are among the greatest in the history of book illlustration. The Danish artist was at the peak of his powers, and produced a series of intricate, delicate masterpieces that perfectly capture the magic of these Norse tales. Later I’ll do a post on the original edition(s), but this Taschen reprint is an excellent option for experiencing his work, especially if you want to share it with children.
For the homebody who wonders about how things were, and will be:
I choose a picture from the book, rather than the cover, because there’s really no other way to communicate the innovative approach McGuire takes. The action, if you want to call it that, begins in the room of a house. But instead of traveling in space, McGuire takes us time-traveling. The same space in 1915. In 1970. In 1835. In the distant future. In 10,000 BCE. Some pages, like the one above, depict multiple time periods, others depict just one year. There’s no way you can read it without having your own space transformed.
For the musicians and lovers of vintage records:
Okay, I admit it: I grew up on Beck, and I think he’s a phenomenal musician. (Beck with The Flaming Lips was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.) But Song Reader proves he’s also an artistic visionary. Instead of releasing an album, Beck takes us back to the days before recordings, when releasing an album meant…releasing sheet music! When this came out, if you wanted to hear his new songs you had to play and sing them yourself. Now there’s a bunch of covers on YouTube by amateurs and professionals, but that doesn’t matter. Each separate piece of sheet music is lovingly designed, the songs themselves are really great, and the whole thing is a spectacularly successful experiment.
For the child at heart who thinks books are best when they have moving parts:
The Dwindling Party, by Edward Gorey
Without Edward Gorey there would be no Tim Burton. No Wednesday TV series. No goth. Without a doubt, Gorey is one of the most important and influential artists of the 20th century, and if you stick with me on this journey through the wonder of books, you will learn a LOT more about him. Like everything he does, this pop-up book is an absolute delight. The pop-ups themselves are innovating feats of paper-engineering, and Gorey’s whimsically macabre illustrations will make you want to flip through it again and again. Although it’s out of print, clicking on the title will take you to a custom search on ABEbooks.com where you can buy it from a bookseller.
If you have any questions about these recommendations, or if you end up buying one, tell me in the comments! And of course, there will be future gift guides, so if there’s something you want me to cover, please let me know.
Thank you so much for your support, and I’ll see you for more Book Glory soon!