Want to Arouse, Teach, Transport, Educate, Give Peace, Laughter, Knowledge, Escape, Inspiration to Others? Give This Gift: Books

1. STRENGTH BOOKS

You know, most everyone has read at least one book they believe saved their lives. Purchase some copies and give that book to others this Christmas. For me, one of the water-wings books in the midst of trying to row away from the sinking ship in my tea-cup lifeboat, was Avroham (Abraham Joshua) Heschel’s I Asked for Wonder. I take this book to every critical incident site, every disaster site. It helps me remain sane in the midst of hell. I give this book to any and everyone who is in la lucha, struggle. Heschel’s love of the soul in a world that does not love the soul, is so strengthening.

There are others, and I would love to know what you read as ‘vitamins for strength,’ and what books you give to others

2. HUMOR and CREATIVITY

Most everyone has at least one book that made them laugh and I have so many that I’ve read, leaning toward country humor, and quirky viewpoints. I love Anne Lamott and Natalie Goldberg’s books for this reason, They are about the creative life while trying to keep one’s hair from catching fire while also dealing with daily mundane challenges. Bird by Bird by LaMott, but also any of her other books about being a single mom raising a sweet little son whilst trying to hold on to body and soul… and write…. any of these go to anyone who wants to write, tries to write, is writing, has given up on writing. Likewise, Natalie’s books, Writing Down the Bones, and “Wild Mind.” Natalie is a Buddhist monk, if I could put it that way. A serious leader and student of ‘the path.’ Her book about her love of her Roshi is one that made me weep.

Do you have favorites in this general category of humor and/or creative life that you like to give to others too?

3. SLOWNESS IN A TIME OF MADNESS

Anything by the Buddhist Pema Chodron will be good for nerve medicine. Also, I read a good deal of exegesis on ancient writings, and for those who love to time travel back to an age when people lived on the land and relied on earth for all things; cotton to weave with, metals to make art with, pigment to paint with, et al, I give artists and people who are interested in stories, that is history, any number of books…. such as, Gilgamesh for instance, (one by Diane Wolkstein is a good read of the story of the ancient king who bricked into the wall as mortar, slaves who died at the wall he was building to aggrandize himself… Gilgamesh was a cruel king, until be met ‘the wild man’ of the forest who challenged him to a wrestling match.) The Gilgamesh saga (carved on stone tablets), not Richardson’s Clarissa, is the oldest novelistic form we yet know. I love to give any version of the saga to men who have an inkling or fuller knowing of their own ‘wrestling’ between ‘being primitive’ and being ‘civilized.’

Sometimes people say men are hard to gift. Would you tell me what books you’ve read that you love to also give to men?

4. BESTSELLERS, MIDLIST, BACKLIST, and GUILTY PLEASURE READING

I don’t differentiate between these, as some of my very twee colleagues do, pronouncing anything on the bestseller list, dreck, … and anything that has a readership of ten readers only, brilliant. That’s silly. There are books that capture many and books that capture a tribal group. Both fine. Being a contributing editor these many years to The Bloomsbury Review, I was taught by some of the best to bring books to readers, and to leave behind whatever books were not my cup of tea… rather than spend time carrying on about why I wouldn’t relate to those books. I would say that books and bookstores are, my God, like a huge smorgasbord; they’re whipped-cream cakes and fresh fruit and dense meat and curliqued frou-frou. There’s nourishment of so many kinds, as well as guilty pleasures.

I’d love to know what your guilty pleasures readings are.

One of mine is

reading about how to eat right. I have this weird lifelong thing… when I see a cookie or a certain kind of crusty bread warm from the oven, or really crispy deep dish pizza….these pieces of working class heaven, I mean, food, ….literally creep over to me, and gigolos that they are, undulate right before my very eyes, saying all kinds of seductive and promising things, like ‘one bite wont hurt you,’ ‘think of the spices in this gingerbread, yum,’ imagine how sweetly this rice pudding slides down’ and other quasi sensual things. Yikes. I don’t know how many books I need to help me– not stay on the straight and narrow– but get back up on the wagon time and again. Geez, is there such a thing as a ‘cookie gene?’ I do give books on ‘volume tasty eating’ to everyone who has cookie genetics. I also give any book that shows pictures of, for instance, how 2 pounds of apples is equal in calories to five potato chips. I hope you are laughing. I am. Even though I’m dead serious about ’spreading the info’ that can help others with this lifelong ihatebroccolievenworsethanokra mentality.

5. ALL ELSE, INCLUDING SERIOUS-SERIOUS BOOKS, ART BOOKS AND PHOTOG BOOKS, POETRY

…and books for children, pre-teens and teenagers… there are so many to choose from…

A good many people have trouble thinking up good gifts to give. Please add any other books you love and think would be good gifts for others…. others will read your recommendations and hopefully be inspired by your thoughts…

6. I would like to encourage you this Christmas to think of the books you’ve loved as a child, as an adult, and give them to others as gifts.

(I give tons of poetry books esp by Wm. Stafford, Sherman Alexie, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Ana Castillo (My Father Was A Toltec) and most any wild-unheard of poet who has crafted a complete unleashing of heart and soul publicly.) Write in an inscription that tells the giftee why you loved this book, or how it took you, or what you hope for them.

Books, no matter what else is innovated in the e-world, are an invention/ gift to us and gift for us to give to others… that has never and likely will never be topped;

Books are mighty time-machines; transporters which can often survive dog bites, drowning in tub, windstorm and being thrown against a wall. And loved. Cherished. The venerable book is portable, flippable-fast between pages, writable-inable, teacher, friend, aggravater, calming agent, magic carpet. Especially that last… magic carpet.

So, your recs on books to give as gifts?
1. Books of Strength
2. Books of Humor/ and or Creativity
3. Books of /for Thinking, Depth, Sanity
3.a. Books for Males in your life
4. Books, Guilty Pleasures
5. Bestsellers, Backlist, Midlist
6. Poetry books
7. Books you loved as a child
9. Books you love as an adult

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Here for you too is a letter from Roy Blount, the humorist, author, and performer on NPR, who is current president of Authors Guild board in New York City ( disclosure: I’ve been a board member with Authors Guild these many years.) Roy too says, the best gift you can give, is books. And says it in his own wicky-wacky, endearing way.

From Roy Blount, author…

I’ve been talking to booksellers lately who report that times are hard. And local booksellers aren’t known for vast reserves of capital, so a serious dip in sales can be devastating. Booksellers don’t lose enough money, however, to receive congressional attention. A government bailout isn’t in the cards.

We don’t want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods. So let’s mount a book-buying splurge. Get your friends together, go to your local bookstore and have a book-buying party. Buy the rest of your Christmas presents, but that’s just for starters. Clear out the mysteries, wrap up the histories, beam up the science fiction! Round up the westerns, go crazy for self-help, say yes to the university press books! Get a load of those coffee-table books, fatten up on slim volumes of verse, and take a chance on romance!

There will be birthdays in the next twelve months; books keep well; they’re easy to wrap: buy those books now. Buy replacements for any books looking raggedy on your shelves. Stockpile children’s books as gifts for friends who look like they may eventually give birth. Hold off on the flat-screen TV and the GPS (they’ll be cheaper after Christmas) and buy many, many books. Then tell the grateful booksellers, who by this time will be hanging onto your legs begging you to stay and live with their cat in the stockroom: “Got to move on, folks. Got some books to write now. You see…we’re the Authors Guild.”

Enjoy the holidays.

Roy Blount Jr.
President
Authors Guild

________
CODA
here too is a list of those authors who are on Authors Guild Board for years now, working hard for authors to get a fair shake from big corporate… any of their books are funny, poignant, meaningful, engaging, excellent.

Board of Directors
President: Roy Blount Jr.
Vice Presidents: Judy Blume
Treasurer: Peter Petre
Secretary: Pat Cummings
Barbara Taylor Bradford
Susan Cheever
Susan Choi
Mary Higgins Clark
James Duffy
Jennifer Egan
Clarissa Pinkola Estès
James Gleick
Oscar Hijuelos
Daniel Hoffman
Nicholas Lemann
David Levering Lewis
John R. Macarthur
Stephen Manes
Michele Mitchell
Victor S. Navasky
Douglas Preston
Roxana Robinson
Jean Strouse
Peg Tyre
Rachel Vail
Sarah Vowell
Nicholas Weinstock
Shay Youngblood
Ex Officio Members Of The Council
Roger Angell • Robert A.Caro • Anne Edwards • Erica Jong • Robert K. Massie • Herbert Mitgang • Sidney Offit • Mary Pope Osborne • Letty Cottin Pogrebin • Nick Taylor • Scott Turow
Recently deceased board member: Michael Crichton

AG goes to bat for the authors, and this has become increasingly intense in the last 15 years since the eating up of formerly independent houses (substantial fish) by behemoth Moby Dicks… as well as misappropriations of authors’ works from various directions. AG is the largest legal arm for writers in the US, also, the kindest in helping writers who fall on hard times or are seriously ill, for AG has a ‘helping authors’ fund as well. They are also stalwarts supporters of reading, small press publishers (the yeomen of putting out good books), and writing programs. Recently, we instituted a campaign to educate college professors about various rights and contract terms they ought hold to when publishing in University presses. Before that, U. presses tended to say ‘everything that’s yours is mine.’ Authors Guild is run by Paul Aiken, Executive Director, and General Counsel, Jan F. Constantine, both of whom merit the ‘fierce and stalwart defenders of authors’ award.