Buying books for other people: a primer
In honour of the current season of gift buying and yule-ness, both the Toronto Star and The New York Times ran book-buying how-tos.
For those who just need a few suggestions on how to go about this tricky business, William Grimes at the Times provides the following tips:
“A gift book should either be no surprise or a big surprise: the one you always wanted or the one you never knew you wanted. It should either be expensive and large, or cheap and small. It should be high-minded or totally frivolous. And no matter what, it should not require sustained attention, which is impossible during the yuletide season.”
Dan Smith, the books-page editor at the Star, runs through a much stricter list of edicts:
“The well-chosen gift book, that brave gesture that marks you as deeper than the average bear, must project at least one of the following three attributes: Your gift book must display keen insight into the unfulfilled longings of the recipient, evidence that you are a thoughtful, observant soul.… Your gift book must be dandy eye candy.… Your gift book must be really stupid.”
Follow either of these guidelines, and the field of possibilities will be almost magically narrowed, making for a painless shopping task.
Related links:
Click here for the Times‘ tips
Read the Star’s buying guide here
