Hey /lit/ new to this board, don't really chan anymore but thought you guys may be able to offer some opinions.
This Xmas I've decided to get only books as presents for my family etc. I have a few ideas currently but i'll do my best to describe the person and their tastes and see if you can match a suggestion to them. The book inside brackets is my current choice.
Mum (N/A)
Both of my parents are quite outdoors people, my mum likes dance and spirituality. Her and my dad are currently performing maintenance on our boat.
Dad (Das Kapital)
My dad is more classical intelligence, great at maths and problem solving, socially a bit odd (so am I, who am i kidding) but a great guy. Loves sailing. We live in NZ and my father and I have long had discussion over the division of wealth and the class inequality. He argues pro-socialist(ish) reform and I'm a filthy capitalist pig. I thought Das Kapital may give him a competitve edge against me. I haven't read it but heard it was far better than the manifesto
Brother (Ready Player One)
last book I read, loved it. Thought I might get him it as he's spending New Years with my parents on the boat and the book is great at illustrating fantasy. He's interested in environmental sciences and most likely pursuing it at university next year.
Gf's mum (N/A)
Lives in australia. Haven't met her yet. Meeting next week (wish me luck)
Gf's dad
Not her real dad but may as well be, has been there for her whole life. He's a chill guy who works in a morgue. Likes healthy lifestyles and my gf's education.
Cousin (The Intelligent Investor)
Male, 14yr. Recently told me his favourite class was business studies and that he wanted to start his own business someday. If Buffet read it at 19, a 5 year head start must mean something.
Cousin (N/A)
Male, 16yr. Loves downhill and biking in general. Most likely a prospect for #1 downhill title in coming years. Has been biking since age 4 and competitively since 6. Machine.
Cousin (N/A)
Female, 16. She's a strong kid. Estranged dad and her mum is a bit crazy. I'm going to look after her through her teen years a lot. She's going through that too-cool teen girl phase right now but I would like a book that would draw her interests towards math or physics while not boring her to death.
>>7445467
>She's going through that too-cool teen girl phase right now but I would like a book that would draw her interests towards math or physics while not boring her to death.
get her a pop-sci book like death by black hole or something by brian greene. don't get her feynman because it just makes physicists look like autists.
>>7445472
thanks, what do you think about my current choices?
>>7445472
get her a brief history of time
>>7445467
Brother (Ready Player One)
>Please don't make him a pleb, get him something entry level but interesting and not to do with boats. Dostoevsky, Pynchon, Tom McCarthy.
Dad (Das Kapital)
>Das Kapital is good if he hasn't read it, otherwise get him Wittgenstein's Philosophical investigations.
Mum
>Get her Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, or a George Elliot.
Gf's dad
>Get something intelligent, fun, but not to do with death. Wittgenstein's--Philosophical Investigations is fun.
Cousin (N/A)
>Male, 16yr. Leave him be. (Philosophical Investigations)
>>7445467
One word: The Recognitions.
>>7445496
get infinite jest for your brother
Industrial Society and it's future for your dad
the second sex for your cousin (the girl)
Nick Lands treatise on the dark enlightenment for your gf's mum
Lacans collected essays on freud for her dad
finally, the works of DH lawrence for the lads
It would be helpful if you gave reasons for your choices so I can make educated decisions.
You'll be trying your luck ordering online this late and good luck with a physical store that serves all your needs.
The Peregrine by J.A. Baker could be a good one for your mum, a man's intimate connection with the birds he watches, unsentimental and honest in it's depiction of the coldness of a predatory creature, but absolutely beautifully written.
If your female cousin is 16 it's probably a bit too late to guide her through her teens tbqh, but if you want her to engage with sciences best thing might be something poppy and fun like A Short History of Nearly Everything. If you want to give up on your hope that giving her a single book will change her outlook if she's heading off the rails and you just want to look cool get her Death in Brunswick by Boyd Oxlade.
I don't mind a bit of sailing too but I don't know of much good sailing lit, do you have any recs?
>Dad (Das Kapital)
Capital is ~2500 pages of extremely dense writing. If you do want to read it then it'll probably be worth the trouble, but it's the kind of decision you should make yourself rather than having it sprung on you as a "gift". Here you go, dad: some light bedside reading.
Why not get him Eagleton's "Why Marx Was Right" or some other suchleftist dribblethat's at the very least readable and actually relevant to a 21st century society in which "the means of production" is not the be all and end all of socialist/communist thought? It would also certainly help him more than Capital in his debates with you.
>Cousin (N/A), Female, 16
Freakonomics comes to mind for someone with no serious interest in either literature or hard sciences/maths/economics. It's entertaining while being relatively rigorous. Pretty much the champion "pop" economics book.
>>7445467
Never get people books
God just don't do it
People A) are unlikely to read them and B) don't really get excited about them
Personally when I'm given a book I feel obligated to read it and so it ends up sitting on my shelf untouched (it makes me feel like shit too)
If you're really going to do it be careful
Also don't be afraid of giving comics
People are way more likely to read a comic because pretty pictures and because there's less of a culture around it compared to books
>>7445502
What is wrong with ready player one?
>>7445467
>He's a chill guy who works in a morgue.
Are you 100% sure he's not dead?
>>7445661
chill not chilled
>>7445538
my dad reads a lot of bernard moitessier
>>7445649
Tell me, why do you think Ready Player One is a good book?
>>7445656
All of it seems rather silly to me.
>brother
I don't know what "Ready Player One" is but if you loved it and you think he'd like it then that's worth more than any advice from anonymous internet strangers. It's a personal gift as well, rather than "the internet told me this was good so here you go." Trying to "unpleb" your brother by giving him shit from the /lit/ starter kit that in which he has no real interest seems to me to be rather on the aspirational side.
>mum
Not sure why Dostoevsky, Tolstoy or Eliot would be good recommendations for someone who likes "dance and spirituality". I'm having a hard time coming up with a book that would satisfy both of those, but maybe John Harwood's "The Seance", which deals with Victorian paranormality/occult stuff.
>Gf's dad
No clue desu since you didn't describe him too much. Healthy lifestyle isn't so much to go on. Maybe some outdoorsy book? Jack London? "Touching the Void"? I would really steer clear of giving Wittgenstein to someone you aren't totally sure would appreciate it.
>Cousin (male 16)
I don't know anything about biking, uphill or downhill, so I'm afraid I can't really help you there.
All in all, I think this poster is more concerned with persuading you that he's very clever than he is with giving you worthwhile advice.
>>7445675
My dad barely reads, and when he does it's probably some popular detective shit which is written in 2 weeks.
:(
>>7445649
There's nothing wrong with ready player one. The general consensus about /lit/ is "Hurr durr some guy jacking off about 80's stuff". It's partially correct in that earnest cline, a child of the 80's, did write it in a "love note to the dawn of gaming" kind of way but also many of the references are specific to that era and those who lived their early years within it. On the flip side, the majority of lit users weren't born until after 1990. In that, when they talk about retro gaming, the embodiment of the mall at the arcade and (ephemera?) feel that came along with them was for past is prime and in decline. The reason that side note is important is because those who weren't alive in that era don't have the same connection to the subject matter. Therefore, their opinions are rightfully skewed in a negative light and the subject matter of RPO is dismissed. It can also be claimed that the millenials are just haters and they're talking shit about a party they arrived too late to attend. I, being a child of the 80's as well, (76 to be exact) caught all the references and enjoyed the book for what it was. The miniature homages to Neuromancer, and THX 1138 were a nice treat. Is it my favorite book? No, but it's a fun read before returning to more meaningful and deeper prose and works. True moderation in all things is a sign of maturity. If you think the person you're gifting it to would enjoy and/or understand what I've suggested then by all means get a copy.
>>7445715
Was asleep. Thanks for that.
>>7445721
>>7445707
I'm doing a bit of work in augmented and virtual reality areas at the moment and a friend I work with suggested I read the book. I thought it was awesome, I haven't been so gripped by a book all year (to be fair it was the only fiction I've read all year). My work is focused on the future of such devices so it's cool to read related sci-fi. I guess I find it a good book because I'm interested in VR quite a bit and it helped me visualise a few possible features I hadn't considered.
Get them all Moby-Dick
