What books did you get for whatever gift-giving holiday you celebrate?

Muy excellent, dude.

Chronicles: Volume One.

The first two I've read before but it doesn't matter because none of them cost the gift-giver more than $1! They're in excellent condition; the McDermott is hardcover. Yay for library sales. Also, a cookbook called Win Her With Dinner.

(Interestingly, both of them have been reviewed at Amazon.com by the prolific Robert W. Moore. I need to meet this guy.)

"Rude Kids - The Story of Viz" - Chris Donald (Enjoyable for the first half, then as the comic begins its long, slow decline the book becomes increasingly depressing, ending up with Donald basically having a breakdown)

"Motion Picture Purgatory" - Rick Trembles (Amazing cult film review book done in the form of comic strips)

"Both" - Tom Gould and Simone something or other (Collection of two issues of comic book series (first is called "First", second is called "Second"), some lovely quirky writing and cute, simple artwork)

Also the latest Guinness Book of Records. It has horrid pictures of that woman who bulges out her eyes and a 2500 year old corpse, which made me feel ill.

I also got a book on language and its history. My mother got it used somewhere online and it is encrusted with strange filth. It is still in readable condition, but I may be to disturbed to actually open it.

* Snow by Orhan Pamuk
* A collection of Philip Marlowe stories by Raymond Chandler
* White Mughals by William Dalrymple
* Rivers of Gold by Hugh Thomas
* Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles
* Jonathon Strange & Dr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

People seem to know they can't go far wrong by giving me books

Also got a lovely pair of big English to Norwegian and Norwegian to English dictionaries.

Hey, I got this book too. Because my brother's girlfriend's friend ghost wrote it (or some of it at least). And I got another book about pirates.

Fundamentally my family hasn't got the hang of asking me if there are any books I would like and then buying them for me. It's kind of annoying, given that I spend all of December fielding phone calls from members of my family asking me what they should buy each other, but then no-one rings Bloke to find out what I want. Eediots.

The Three Kings are coming to our house on Jan 6, so I live in hope.

I was pleased that I didn't get very many this year, I don't tend to keep books around that long, except poetry.

The great thing about books as presents for me is that I can read them, keep them if I like them, and donate them to my shop if I don't. That way nothing's wasted.

I'm still holding out hope for Hollinghurst and Diamond books to magically appear in my backpack.

Never Hit a Jellyfish with a Spade
Havoc in its Third Year
Mr Norrell and Jonathan Strange

All of them are chock-a-block full of spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and so on.

Happy Christmas my arse!

Bit of a busman's holiday, really. I had to spend my own money on the collected Barry MacSweeney.

I also made a trip to the Birkenhead Waterstone's in the sales and picked up Sarah Waters' Fingersmith, John Motson's football trivia book, and Jamie's Dinners (don't laugh; it was half price). I also bought a non-fiction book whose name I forget, but which in the first chapter seemed to blame Margaret Thatcher for 9/11. I was really hoping to find some books I couldn't get in America, and this was the closest I got.

I'm disappointed I didn't stick around longer: Murakami's new book was released there today, and won't be out here until the 18th. Boo.

The Penland Book of Handmade Books: Master Classes in Bookmaking Techniques, Jane LaFerla and Veronika Alice Gunter, eds.
When I opened this one, I think I may have squealed with glee. I received this from my MIL, whose husband's brother has a few samples featured. Quite fun.

Palinode, I have just finished Hollinghurst, which makes a change.

I guess that for Motson, it's not trivia.

Dave Eggers, How We Are Hungry: Stories (my first impression was, huh, I would never have picked this up on my own, and maybe I will hate it, as Eggers often annoys me, but at least it might be interesting) (I reckon my dad just remembers me talking about Eggers/McSweeney's a couple years ago)