I just loved taking the time and care to pick a book as a fitting gift mostly for birthday or Christmas presents for the kids about over the years who could really use a practical book. It's not something I've done for over a decade so not many spring to mind.
For someone I considered daughter like for her senior school year I took time to get my hands on a "Pears' Cyclopaedia" for her birthday.
My neighbour who had lupus but continued to smoke heavily, no sarcasm intended, with sincerity I got her dark but funny "The Book of Bunny Suicides" by Andy Riley. She photocopied the image of the bunny smoking as many as it could and hung in up.
Spike Milligans war diaries - i love how he captures the banter and laughs amongst everyman soldiers in WW2, and how you can see the seeds of the goon show and monty python developing in WW2. He also balances it well with the sadness of war
Photobox: 250 Images You Need To See, Thames&Hudson
It’s a good book for visual people — designers, photographers, artists, or just someone who is looking for inspiration.
"Proto" - Laura Spinney. Proto-Indoeuropean. https://www.powells.com/book/proto-how-one-ancient-language-...
before that
"The Horse the Wheel & Language". David Anthony. Proto-Indoeuropeans. https://www.powells.com/book/horse-the-wheel-language-how-br...
I just loved taking the time and care to pick a book as a fitting gift mostly for birthday or Christmas presents for the kids about over the years who could really use a practical book. It's not something I've done for over a decade so not many spring to mind.
For someone I considered daughter like for her senior school year I took time to get my hands on a "Pears' Cyclopaedia" for her birthday.
My neighbour who had lupus but continued to smoke heavily, no sarcasm intended, with sincerity I got her dark but funny "The Book of Bunny Suicides" by Andy Riley. She photocopied the image of the bunny smoking as many as it could and hung in up.
Spike Milligans war diaries - i love how he captures the banter and laughs amongst everyman soldiers in WW2, and how you can see the seeds of the goon show and monty python developing in WW2. He also balances it well with the sadness of war
Ha, didn't realise there were so many. Read "Hitler, My Part in his Downfall" and one or two others when they came out. Seems I need to catch up.
The later ones cover his breakdown and the early days of the goons
I hadnt read them for years and Al Murray was talking about them on his ww2 podcast and i reread them
I remember reading his cameo in life of brian was due to him happening to be in the dessert researching the later books
Top 5 books I've offered (and still offer):
1. Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (translated by Gia-Fu Feng)
2. The Analects by Confucius (translated by Annping Chin)
3. This Is Water by David Foster Wallace
4. 3 years of Mini Stories - 36 short stories to read quickly, and think slowly — written by me.
5. As Causas do Atraso Português by Nuno Palma
Photobox: 250 Images You Need To See, Thames&Hudson It’s a good book for visual people — designers, photographers, artists, or just someone who is looking for inspiration.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12243611
A bunch of William Gibsons.
Philip K. Dick's Ubik, A Scanner Darkly, and Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
Clifford D. Simak's City.
Classics.
Conquest of Mind
A Business and its Beliefs
On Tyranny
Martin Eden was the best
The Four Agreements
The Chip War
The Power of Now
Atomic Habits