Mom and Dad want books for Christmas.
>mfw buying books for people who don't read
What would you get your parents for Christmas, /lit/?
some legitimately good and literary work which also achieved widespread success
like Atonement by Ian McEwan
>>7478798
>A book about rape accusation!
>Merry Christmas!
honestly, anon
Dad: (auto)biography of someone he would find interesting (see anyone considered a major positive historical figure in the west, esp. USA, and esp. moderate conservative types), or else a "leadership" type book like 7 habits
Mom: a book she can read with her 2 year old granddaughter (my brother's kid, I'm not stupid or cruel enough to have kids of my own)
>>7478787
i need more to go on.
what movies do they like?
what are their hobbies?
>>7478818
>having kids
>stupid and cruel
Gotta love the anti-natalists.
"Humanity is dumb and stupid and life is suffering. Having kids sucks. Life needs to fizzle out slowly in a miserable-yet-voluntary children-of-men-style apocalypse. We can get 100% of everyone to agree to that, right guys?
Our infrastructure will crumble for 100 years as everyone decides that getting this far was good enough. Animal life and life on other planets will go on suffering, and whatnot, but mission accomplished... right guys?
You were lying when you clicked "I'm not a robot."
>>7478787
kill your parents
>>7478798
>some legitimately good and literary work which also achieved widespread success
This seems like good advice. What other books like this? DFW's IJ for example achieved widespread success, and, say, The Road. Murakami is p good.
>>7478880
>parent tier books
Atlantis Gene by AG Riddle. it's going to be made into a blockbuster so he'll be cool cos he read it before the movie
Shogun by James Clavell is p cool
Yiddish Policeman's Union by Chabon
Little Women
stuff by Barbara Kingsolver
stuff by Alice Hoffman
>>7478887
don't give them something they won't read. the best you can do is try to up their game a little
How has nobody recommended The Corrections yet?
>>7478906
>parents don't read
>give them a doorstopper!
>it's about a fucked up family
>merry christmas!
why does /lit/ not understand how to give xmas gifts?
>>7478839
nice butthurt, breeder.
finnegans wake
>>7478817
most adults are mature enough to deal with it
they sell this shit at mall stores
>merry christmas mom and dad! I got you a book about nothing bad ever happening!
>>7478787
I'm very poor, as a result of the dumb lifestyle decisions I've made, but I have a lot of books. Every birthday and Christmas, I just take a book I can comfortably part with and that a family member could, conceivably, enjoy, and wrap it up.
Lolita
>>7479295
> bring this obtuse
Of course I think his parents can handle it but if you think a book about a rape is a good Christmas gift you are a goddam idiot. How do you survive in society?
dad: a book about the history of comic books or something. he likes books about the history of things he enjoys and doesn't read much fiction
mom: my mother only reads romance fiction trash. I don't think I've seen her read a book that wasn't by Jane Green in the last 10 years. I theorize that she reads romance fiction because she feels unfulfilled in her relationship with my stepfather.
>>7478839
>Gotta love the anti-natalists.
>"Humanity is dumb and stupid and life is suffering. Having kids sucks. Life needs to fizzle out slowly in a miserable-yet-voluntary children-of-men-style apocalypse. We can get 100% of everyone to agree to that, right guys?
>Our infrastructure will crumble for 100 years as everyone decides that getting this far was good enough. Animal life and life on other planets will go on suffering, and whatnot, but mission accomplished... right guys?
>You were lying when you clicked "I'm not a robot."
Holy shit, it's a meme, you autistic sperglord dip.although I really don't want to have to kids, for other, non-antinatalist, reasons. I just barely know how to keep myself alive, so it would be insanely cruel for me, personally, to bring a child into this world.
>>7479397
you have some weird shit about gifts man
you don't need to give christmas themed gifts for christmas, like what the fuck kind of christmas do you have? it's not like your mom is going to read the book that very day for fuck's sake
merry christmas mom and dad I got you a book of Chesterton's essays about Christmas and a drearily sentimental book about how special and wonderful family life is
also for you lil bro I know you said you wanted a call of duty game but it wasn't very christmas-y so I got you a christmas sweater instead
Underworld
I bought my mom the faber and faber collection of seamus heaney poems Opened Ground, and my dad Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West :3
I bought my sister The Time of Singing by Richard Powers because it contains both jews and black people and she's into those kinds of things.
>>7478787
The Bible. It's all my blasted mother reads; the swine.
>>7479450
Wtf. I never said anything about Xmas themed gifts.
OPs parents are flyover state tier who watch blockbusters and romances. A British period drama about a rape is a shitty ass Christmas gift. Why would his mom or dad bother to read this?
Got my older brother who doesn't really read Slaughterhouse-V, Catch-22, and a collector's edition ASOIAF: Game of Thrones over the past couple years for birthdays and Christmas. I can confirm he only opened GoT because he liked the show, the other two are untouched. This year I got him some Nike's.
Got my mystic, into-astrology step-mom who pretends to be an intellectual TS Eliot's Four Quartets. She gushed over them in a very general, vague way that sounded more like she was talking about chocolate cake. She's not around this year, so no comic relief for me.
Last year, I got my father Unbroken because he can't stand any stories "that don't end right" (happily) or make him think or question his feelings. He wants plain and simple moralistic distinctions and a story of a good guy underdog, preferably white American, overcoming bad guys. He also watches a ton of movies and I knew this came out last year. He didn't stop talking about how inspirational that it was for months. This year I got him a waterbottle.
Mom gets James Patterson stuff.
Got my little sister Franny and Zooey, and she loved it. Going to give her a bunch of Calvino this year (Cosmicomics/Invisible Cities/If on a Winter's Night)
Maybe she'll care about literature.
>>7478798
This is good advice. Another option that has pretty widespread appeal but still has literary merit would be the works of Italo Calvino (If on a winter's night a traveler, Invisible Cities).
Legacy of Totalitarianism in a Tundra
Every time i bring up reading they say "i haven't got time for that" and go back to watching reality shows.
Any book they see in the house (when im back for holidays) is met with "why would you be interested in that?"
feels bad man.
>>7481108
I got my father this. It cured his cancer.
The God Delusion
>>7478787
Got mama some Linn Kurlin books and a journal that has Bible verses on each page.
Bought The true Believer for my dad, but I don't know that he'd even read it. Bought The Prince for my big brother.
>>7478787
>Mom
I'd get her Lowry, Joyce, or Proust: something classy.
>Dad
Since my Dad is dyslexic, he reads only to appropriate authors' style into his songwriting, so I'd get him some poetry by Pound or Crane.
>>7479622
The "rape" isn't described in detail. There's nothing morbid about it. The novel treats the whole situation with tact and good taste.
You're talking about the same middle-aged flyover state mums that love the most morbid and disgusting "Law & Order SVU" or "Criminal Minds" episodes, who are the primary consumers of mystery novels about gruesome rapes and murders.
You really just don't know what you're talking about
>>7482084
jesus christ
I'm sorry, anon
>>7482254
so now you're just making up shit about what his mom might watch on tv
>>7478880
Mum - The Bees by Laline Paul
Dad - Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes
If they aren't big readers classics are pointless, you have to have the will to start and read not just for pleasure but for interest in style etc. I'm in my 40s and these are the 2 books i would give to people my age who weren't readers generally, both easy and interesting reads. Your mum you might also try Duncton Wood by Horwood, my mum adored it when i was little.
>>7478787
i'd gift pa with Catch-22 (maybe vonnegut's welcome to the monkey house if that's too much)
and ma with Jane Austen (if that's too dry, zazie in the metro or something)
honestly, don't like giving gender specific book advice. just give them something interesting.
>>7478787
I'm getting my parents a rice cooker and they love books.
>>7478787
Nothing.
"how to rise your kids"
but wups i guess its too late DAD.
>>7478787
>What would you get your parents for Christmas, /lit/?
cookbook for mom, book about bicycle racing for dad
>>7478787
David Sedaris. People fucking LOVE David Sedaris.
