Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with gift and Books

Not Prince Michael. Prince who, though?

samsarah — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:36:44 -0800

Looking for an out of print children's book entitled Prince _________, about a dog. Help? A friend is getting married, and for her wedding gift, I'd like to buy her a set of books she remembers from her childhood. Unfortunately, I forget the most important part of the name. Things I do know:

-She read them in the mid-80's.
-There was a series of books, all about the adventures of a dog. (He was possibly a detective?)
-The word Prince was in the title. I believe it was part of the dog's name.
-I for some reason think the second part of the dog's name began with the letter M.

Suggestions for good rare or out of print book dealers also welcome. Thank you!

a great coffee table book about birds, etc?

dahliachewswell — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 10:43:20 -0800

I'm looking for a big beautiful coffee table book about birds, wetlands or nature or similar ...preferably with lots of pictures and less text. It's a gift. Any suggestions? It would also be great if it focused on the Pacific Northwest OR North America OR it could feature images from around the world... but if its focusing on a specific region it needs to be PacNor or N. America.

Thanks!

Book-Hungry Mother

Weebot — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:23:23 -0800

[Xmas Filter] I'm doing my Christmas shopping, and I'm a bit stuck on what I need to get my mother. She likes culinary-cultural history books, preferably with recipes. Suggestions? She's been really into these books for a while now, and I was hoping to get some suggestions. She's gone through Salt, Cod, and all the other Mark Kurlansky books, as well as Lizzy Collingham's Curry and David Kamp's The United States of Argula.

She has also been a fan of food memoirs like Tender at the Bone as well as travel books with a strong culinary bent. You get the idea. So, any suggestions?

What's a good gift for a first-time author?

melodykramer — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:13:47 -0800

My friend has her first novel coming out soon, and I want to get her a neat present to celebrate her major-publisher, first-time author status. Any suggestions? This book is the first of three she has coming out....and I think it's important to celebrate this milestone in a memorable way.

If you're an author, did anyone get you anything incredibly mindblowingly awesome? I've thought about a print of the cover from the artist or maybe asking some of her favorite authors to send her a note? Is that weird? I don't know.

When she found out the books were going to be published, I got her some "This Book Belongs To" insert cards and a lovely journal made from a book, but this is a step up. We're talking major bookstore release, press, the whole shebang. I want to commemorate it in some tiny way.

Thoughts?

Recommend a book for Mom that lists old movies

username68 — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 17:18:19 -0800

For a Friend: Recommend a book that will list all the movies my mother would have seen back in the 50s, 60s, and 70s if she'd had the time. My friend writes:

My mother's often said that, due to dating, socializing, working, attending school, getting married, having kids, and not having cable until 2004, she missed an awful lot of movies that she would liked to have seen. When we got a VCR in the eighties, she saw some of them: I
remember that we rented a lot of Hitchcock, for example. But to this day, whenever a TV show is running down a list of great movies or a newscaster is giving the obituary for a famous actor from a bygone era, she invariably checks off more than half the titles with "I never got to see that" or "that was during the time when I just didn't get to go to the movies." Of course I've volunteered to requisition some of those old movies through Netflix, but it's tough for her to generate a list of specific titles. She always says "There were so many," and "there were so many years where I didn't even know what was out."

For Christmas, I'd like to give her a book that would list all of the movies from her era so that she can
(a) recall the ones she's seen,
(b) identify the ones she hasn't and (c) read little about all of them.

My Amazon searches have not filled me with hope and confidence. I'd really like to get some recommendations from you guys.

[Oh, and I ask for a book rather than internet resources because my mother just won't spend that much time in front of a computer. However if you have internet based resources (or maybe just some IMDB or Netflix search tricks) you'd like to recomend, please do; I might be able to use them myself or print out selected pages to supplement the book.]

Ideally, this book will:

1. List most or all of the popular and critically well recieved
mainstream American movies released between 1950 and 1980. The book should provide a pretty accurate idea of what people were watching and talking about during those time periods. It shouldn't restrict itself to only Academy Award winners or some sort of "Best Of" list.

2. Focus on the whos, whats, whens, and wheres rather than on critical evaluation. My mother wants to know that Famous Actress slept with her co-star in Movie XYZ or that said movie made 10 million at the box office in 1970. She doesn't care whether Roger Ebert liked the movie or not.

3. Not try to list everything that played in theaters. Mom won't be interested in the grade B, exploitation, cult, or Japanese monster movies. Mom won't sift through a list of 7000
titles . Obviously there'll be some chaff, but if there's too much, the book will sit and collect dust.

4. Include enough pictures, background and gossip magazine type info, story synopses, etc. to jog her memory, especially when it comes to titles she may not have thought about in decades.

5. Be fun to peruse.

When she opens the gift, I'll let her know you guys helped. Thanks.

Mark CF, I love you, but go away :P

divabat — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:58:43 -0800

What are some good (preferably experience-based) birthday gifts for a 21-year-old Australian programming geek who thinks he's Danish? My boyfriend's (whom you all so nicely wished Happy Birthday to in code) 21st birthday is coming up in February. It's going to be a big birthday for him so I want to make it special.

One thing he loves about me is that I'm always doing interesting things and that I often involve him in them - I've dragged him to the Gold Coast to help me stage manage a show, and I've brought him to damn near every multicultural festival that exists in Brisbane. We spent a weekend away in Redcliffe a few months ago and it was awesome. I would like to gift him with another awesome experience-style gift, but I'm at a loss for what to get him.

Some facts about him:

* White Australian male; I'm the most exotic thing about him
* favourite motto is "You can't be young forever but you can be immature indefinitely!" (to him it means he doesn't have to be boring and serious all the time)
* Obsessed with Magic: The Gathering
* Studying IT (Web Services) in uni; currently in 1-year work experience with a performing arts company managing their Web stuff. Often programs stuff in Javascript as a hobby.
* Went to Denmark for a year on exchange and now thinks he's half-Danish. Can speak Danish reasonably fluently. He yearns for opportunities to speak with Danish people and re-experience Denmark. I think he's saving up for a trip to Denmark in a year or so.
* Likes pandas a lot and has assorted panda paraphernalia. (I tried adopting a panda from WWF for him but their web form broke.)
* Enjoys cycling a lot. Also somewhat sporty, but he often needs an excuse (like a school sports team) to play
* Introverted and shy, but quite open and friendly to people he's familiar with
* Says he misses going out drinking; hasn't been to a bar in about a year or so. Doesn't drink much however.
* Likes Indian food; sometimes is more Asian than I am
* Likes to read, especially crime thrillers; Harry Potter fan

I've looked at sites like RedBalloon but nothing there seems to fit. While he is techy, I don't want to get him an iPod or other presents of that nature because I think other relatives will cover that for him. He knows I'm coming so I can't surprise him like I did this year!

I also don't have a lot of money (otherwise I would have bought him a plane ticket) but I could try talking to his mum (whom I'm close to) to see if we can work together on something.

Thanks folks!

Does anyone know the kind of book I'm aiming for?

Ash3000 — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 12:03:52 -0800

Are there any books you think a smart, grieving preteen would find comforting or of use? More details inside. I'll try to get what the situation is with as few details as possible, unless further information is really needed.

I have a relative, who is 13 years old to my 22. We'll call him Bobby. Bobby is a smart, shy and sweet kid, who loves all sorts of standard 12-year-old-things (e.g. the red sox and the star wars prequel trilogy) and is very quietly perceptive of people around him. He's a great kid, and the oldest of three.

I was planning, for this holiday season (the end of chanukah, specifically, when I get back home from college) to give everyone a book as a gift this year - nothing too bank-breaking as I'm a starving student, but something I thought each person would genuinely enjoy and perhaps find thought-provoking, suited to their interests. Thinking of the books I might have wished someone handed me in the 10-13-year-old area, I was originally going to go with either
Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman!, Culture Jam, or Good Omens.

In the past three weeks, his grandmother, whom he is close to (and who is way too young for this) has gotten very sick, very quickly, and is likely to pass this week. All of a sudden, my suggested books seem a little lacking somehow - each is either flippant or political, a little empty under the circumstances.

I don't want to give him a book which is blatantly like, "So you're a grieving preteen, eh?" or anything transparently about a grandparent's death, etc etc. Nothing pat and tacky and thoughtless. But maybe something which, though it's not on the surface "about death," can provide some measure of comfort to a person in this situation. I guess it's more a feeling than a theme I'm thinking about. I have come up with three that seem somewhat what I'm aiming for:

Dear Mr. Henshaw, by Beverly Cleary,
Danny The Champion of the World, by Roald Dahl, and
The Little Prince, by Antoine St.-Exupery

I guess the best way to put it is a book which has both wonderfulness and melancholy, though the former ultimately triumphs; a book that as a smart pre-teen makes you both grin and cry but ultimately finish feeling like the world is an okay place. Does anyone have any thoughts on this matter, or even know what I'm trying to get at? This might just be a stupid idea, I'm in the middle of grieving myself.

"It is not love that is blind, but jealousy."

hermitosis — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 08:38:40 -0800

What's the cheapest way to order many copies of one book (used)? I want to order as many secondhand copies as possible of Lawrence Durrell's "Justine" to include in my gift packages this year.

On Amazon there are copies available from vendors for under a buck, but the shipping and handling from each vendor is over $3. While this still adds up to under $5 per copy, it galls me to spend so much on postage for each transaction when the books are so cheap-- when postage is 3x the price of the book, there has to be a better way.

Is there a way for me to order large quantities of a single used book? I'm looking for 15-20 copies, or as many in a bunch as I can find. I'd like to spend under $40 total.

Paying full-price for new books is not an option. Searching for the books in actual bookstores is a very limited option because the book is not very easy to find (and used books in NYC are often almost as expensive as new ones). All other ideas and suggestions welcome.

New Book for My Spouse

mojohand — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 10:46:49 -0800

Need help with a gift for my spouse. She likes to read memoirs (not biographies) focused on food and/or travel. She's mined this category heaviliy, so titles published this year are a plus.