Holiday Post 2009: The Readers' Edition

We continue our 2009 series of holiday posts here at The Itinerant Librarian. I love books. As a librarian, I work with books. I think books make great gifts, so if you have a reader in your life, and you need some ideas of what to get him or her, here are some reading lists and pieces of advice for readers.

Advice and tips on books

• Liz B at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy offers her advice on "Giving Books at Holidays."
• For guys of all ages, The Art of Manliness suggests that reading a book can make you a better man.
  

The Newspaper (and other news sources) Lists

The major newspapers, and other news outlets, have been putting out their holiday reading lists throughout the month of December (sometimes earlier). These are pretty basic, generic kinds of lists (in my estimation), but people find them convenient. I can't speak much for these books, since my reading tends towards the more unconventional, but if I see anything, I will comment. Here then is a sampling:

• The New York Times has 100 Notable Books of 2009. That's a lot of books, heavy on literary fiction. I find some items in the nonfiction area to be more interesting.
  
• The Los Angeles Times: Fiction, Nonfiction, Mystery, and Science Fiction suggestions.
• The Chicago Tribune: fiction and nonfiction.
  
• The Boston Globe: fiction and nonfiction.
  
• The Guardian (UK) goes with a list of 50 books that defined the decade according to them. Even though the decade is not technically done until 2010, but who's checking. From the list, I have read: Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, which I do recommend (here is my booknote on it); Persepolis, which I also recommend (part one is better than part two); and Freakonomics, . I tried to read The Da Vinci Code, but I found it atrocious, confirming my reasons why I never read hyped stuff. I am not even linking to that piece of tripe. If you want to read it, I am sure you can find it, or I will help you find it, if you must.
• The Telegraph (UK) has a list of books of the year too.
• The Financial Times also has a list of books of the year. I am including this one because it has features in politics, science, sports, and history that may be missing in other lists. From this list, I read Timothy Ryback's Hitler's Private Library. If you like books about books and reading, you will probably like this one.
  
• The New Statesman also has lists of best books of the year: Part One and Part Two.
  
• The Economist gives you "Books of the Year." This list is broken down by categories, and the nonfiction selections do appear, again in my humble estimation, to be more substantial.
• I have friends who regularly listen to and support NPR (National Public Radio), so I can't leave them out. NPR has "Big and Beautiful: Best Gift Books of 2009" and "The 10 Best Cookbooks of 2009."
• And what do librarians recommend? Well, the ones at RUSQ (Reference and User Services Quarterly) have put together their 2009 List of Notable Books.
  

Cool Books That I Have Read or Want to Read

This section is for books that I have been noting and clipping in my feed readers that I find interesting and actually want to read. Also for those that I have read already that I would recommend to my three readers. If you want another way to look at it, a lot of this stuff is not on the fancy lists above, but it's good.

• Kelly Fineman at Guys Lit Wire suggests Manga Claus. Jesse, also at Guys Lit Wire, presents "Light and Dark: A Study In Strongmen and Spiders" with a couple of nice graphic novel suggestions. Kristopher discusses "The Return of Conan" about various incarnations of the character. Personally, I have read some of the Black Horse graphic novels in the Conan series, and I highly recommend them.
  
• This sounds interesting, from the professional perspective. Library Juice presents Rebel Literacy: Cuba's National Literacy Campaign and Critical Global Citizenship.
  
• Penelope at Blogging for a Good Book reviews Dave Cullen's Columbine.
• The Art of Manliness offers a list of "50 Best Books for Boys and Young Men." It combines some classics with some new selections. This may give you some ideas for the boys (of all ages) in your life. From this list, I have read Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, parts of The Chronicles of Narnia, Jack London's The Call of the Wild, Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (twice), Calvin and Hobbes books by Bill Watterson, Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (twice), Art Spiegelman's Maus (they suggest the complete edition. I did read both, but in separate volumes), S.E. Hinton's That Was Then, This is Now, and The Boy Scout Handbook (though not the first edition. I read whatever the edition was back in my days as a scout). I want to read Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book.
• This just sounds neat, but I am not sure, so we'll see: Read Me: A Century of American Book Advertisements.
• Stephen Abrams suggests 1959.

Miscellaneous

• Here is a list of suggestions for your non-reading friends. Yes, hard to imagine you would have friends who choose not to read, but it happens. So here are "10 Awesome Books to Give Your Nonreading Friends" from Flavorwire.
• NPR offers a list of Top Picks from Indie Booksellers. I like independent bookstores, I really do, but this kind of list for me seems more pretentious than anything else (heavy on the literary and "edgy" fiction, and I don't mean "edgy" in a good way). In other words, books that did not hit the radar, so to speak. But someone out there may find it of interest.

Stay tuned. At or near the end of this year, I will be posting my annual reading list, so you can get an idea of what I actually read.