largesse: books we got for christmas this year

"Books for Christmas!" said in a scoffing tone, is a tradition based on the reaction of a younger kid to one of C's early Christmas presents. "Books for Christmas!" You have to put some scorn into it.

Like many of you, we buy books as presents for whoever we can possibly justify doing so (i.e. we have to know for a fact that the person does not read books ever to not buy them one). We also have a habit of attempting to subtly steer taste where there's room. By example, I offer you a list of the books we bought others this year. You'll notice some titles are missing; well, that's because I meant to do this post when the books were still in the house and unwrapped but didn't get to it. You can attempt to deduce which ones are true gifts based on established preference and which are interpretations of taste:

-- Loop Group by Larry McMurtry (um, not having noted the title we originally assumed the new McMurtry was a Western and so it was intended to be for my dad who loves them, but then we saw the cover, complete with hot pink bra flying through the air -- which is maybe not so unWesternlike, but the pastels definitely would not make it in the Ole West)
-- The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard
-- and three books for one person: Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich and two of the Elizabeth MacPherson books by Sharyn McCrumb, one of which was If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him
-- A Game of Thrones (A Song of Fire and Ice # 1) by George R.R. Martin (packaged with a Marvel comics thingymadoo)
-- The Coal Tattoo by Silas House
-- two books for one person: Does She or Doesn't She? by Alisa Kwitney (note: Kwitney is a very, very fun read) and another book that had been on the NYT list at some point and had a pink cover
-- an Italian cookbook by a TV person
-- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (as retold for younger children)
-- some pop-up dragon book that was beautifully illustrated
-- and the one I forgot: Black Wind by Clive and Dirk Cussler (note: this is also the lone book we were informed "everyone is buying")

I think that's it, although we haven't shopped for any of our friends yet.

For each other, we got only a few books this year (we got dance lessons! and other stuff!). You can guess who got what:

-- Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
-- DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe
-- Bicycle: The History by David Herlihy
-- The Rarest of the Rare: Stories Behind the Treasures at the Harvard Museum of Natural History by Nancy Pick with photos by Mark Sloan (if only it'd been Rosamond Purcell, life would be perfect)

I hope you got the pages you wanted.