For fiction, I've stopped recommending books, but in non-fiction the only book I've gifted multiple times is: Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
It's a book about the obsession of reading, written with a light, wry touch - can be read from the beginning, middle or end, and from one of the best essayists around. Other books I want to gift but never have: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Any book by Malcolm Gladwell Any essay collection by Ramachandra Gyha On Tue, Dec 6, 2016 at 8:33 PM Rajeev Chakravarthi <[email protected]> wrote: > I try not to gift books to people unless I know what they like to read. > > However, for kids' birthdays, I go with one of the following - > 1. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory > 2. The Magic Faraway Tree > 3. The Wind in the Willows > 4. Anything from the Paddington Bear series > 5. Anything from the Geronimo Stilton series (seems wildly popular with > children) > > I have noticed that parents are also grateful for Amar Chitra Katha titles > as presents - more so than the kids themselves. > > > > Regards > > Rajeev > > > On Dec 6, 2016, at 19:37, Namitha Jagadeesh <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > My "here, you MUST read this!" books: > > > > Phantoms in the brain - VS Ramachandran > > Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me - Ellen Forney > > Ocean at the end of the lane - Neil Gaiman > > The thrilling adventures of Lovelace and Babbage - Sydney Padua > > > > > > > >> On Tue, Dec 6, 2016 at 11:06 AM, Udhay Shankar N <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> > >> On Tue, Dec 6, 2016 at 3:03 PM, Thaths <[email protected]> wrote: > >> > >> How about your list, Udhay? > >>> > >> > >> I was looking for the "here, you MUST read this!" kind of book. > >> > >> An incomplete list from my perspective: > >> > >> Godel, Escher, Bach (multiple times) > >> Infinity and the Mind > >> Jonathan Livingstone Seagull (including to my then-fiancee-now-wife) > >> Kamala Subramanian's Mahabharatha > >> > >> > >> > >> -- > >> > >> ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com)) > >> > >
