10 gift book ideas

These aren’t your grandma’s stocking stuffers. This year give your loved ones some books they might actually, you know, read.

Thursday December 4 2014

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‘Tis the season to start racking your brain for holiday gift ideas! While we know not everyone goes crazy for experimental Irish novels or the latest New York–inspired fiction, we’re sure there’s a book out there for each person on your list. Whether you pick up your gift books online or at one of the city’s best bookstores, here are a few suggestions sure to please bibliophiles, comedy lovers and many more.

RECOMMENDED: The full holiday gift guide

Been there, done that? Think again, my friend.

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For the person who will never leave New York

A History of New York in 101 Objects by Sam Roberts (Simon & Schuster, $30)

Packed with photos of NYC icons, like checkered taxis, and succinct-but-informative chapters on each object, Roberts’s chronicle of our city’s past will supplant all those pretty but notoriously unreadable coffee-table books.

Buy A History of New York in 101 Objects

Liberty’s Torch: The Great Adventure to Build the Statue of Liberty by Elizabeth Mitchell (Atlantic Monthly Press, $27)

Indulge the history buffs in your life with Mitchell’s engrossing story of how a French sculptor’s vision and entrepreneurship produced a true testament to artistic resilience and one of the world’s most beloved monuments.

Buy Liberty’s Torch

For the Seamless addict

The Pollan Family Table by Corky, Lori, Dana and Tracy Pollan (Scribner, $30

The foodcentric family (brother Michael wrote the best-seller The Omnivore’s Dilemma) doles out easy-to-follow recipes for crispy quinoa veggie burgers, key lime pie and more. Just hope you get invited over for dinner.

Buy The Pollan Family Table

The Soda Fountain: Floats, Sundaes, Egg Creams & More by Gia Giasullo and Peter Freeman (Ten Speed Press, $19.99)

Even better when paired with a float from Giasullo and Freeman’s Brooklyn Farmacy, this cookbook not only collects the duo’s playful dessert recipes but also features the rich history of soda fountains, seltzer and the divisive egg cream.

Buy The Soda Fountain

For someone who already owns a small library

The David Foster Wallace Reader by David Foster Wallace (Little, Brown; $35)

A collection of editors and advisers, like Jonathan Franzen and Lorrie Moore, have created a “best hits” book of the inimitable DFW’s work, from essays to novel excerpts. At just under 1,000 pages, it’s a library unto itself.

Buy The David Foster Wallace Reader

Wave Books 2015 paperback subscription ($100)

Why give the book hoarders in your life just one book when you can give them a year’s worth? Our favorite West Coast publisher’s 2015 catalog includes new work from Matthew Rohrer, Lisa Fishman and more, for a total of nine brilliant poetry titles over the year.

Buy a Wave Books subscription

For the friend who spends every night at UCB

So, Anyway… by John Cleese (Crown, $28)

For the first time, the Monty Python cofounder, Fawlty Towers star and one of the most influential comedians since, oh, forever opens up about his life and being days away from a law career when the BBC came knocking.

Buy So, Anyway…

A Load of Hooey by Bob Odenkirk (McSweeney’s, $20)

This debut book from the Emmy Award–winning comedy writer is filled with absurdist essays, guffaw-worthy fiction and other hilarious works perfect for reading aloud after a few drinks at holiday gatherings.

Buy A Load of Hooey

For anyone and everyone

My Favorite Things by Maira Kalman (Harper Design, $35)

Artist and author Kalman presents 50 original paintings of her favorite items, scenes and experiences; when paired with her own poetic descriptions, the collection becomes an irresistibly charming ode to memory and the objects of our affections.

Buy My Favorite Things

Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience by Shaun Usher (Chronicle Books, $40)

Usher has been showcasing epistles on his website for years; now 125 of his favorites, written by the likes of Katherine Hepburn, Fidel Castro and Richard Feynman, are gathered in this incomparable compendium of human relationships and emotion.

Buy Letters of Note

Been there, done that? Think again, my friend.

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