Susan and I started our own tradition of exchanging presents on New Year's Eve, thus eschewing Those Other Holidays (at least between ourselves) and taking advantage of post-Xmas sales. Woo-hoo! So here's the books and DVDs I got and gave this year. First, what I gave:
To my nephew Brian:
The Knowledge Book: Everything You Need to Know to Get by in the 21st Century by National Geographic: a sort of illustrated world encyclopedia for the MTV generation. I was given a copy and enjoyed it well enough to buy another.
To my niece Lauren, who loves dance:
The Red Shoes: Moira Shearer in Michael Powell's amazing technicolor adaptation of a Hans Christian Anderson story. The preparations for the ballet is of the most exciting sequences I've ever watched.
Shall We Dance: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
Singing in the Rain: Gene Kelley, Donald O'Connor
To son Ryan:
Viruses, Plagues, and History: Past, Present and Future by Michael Oldstone: looks like an updated version of the thoroughly entertaining Rats, Lice, and History, with more science to please the scientist.
To Susan:
Creature ABC by Andrew Zuckerman: gorgeous animal photos, almost no content. I want to get his Bird book as well. (He's really great -- go visit his website now.)
The Key Muscles of Yoga and The Key Poses of Yoga by Ray Long: beautifully made books, with illustrations that color-code the stretched and contracted muscles in each pose. This is like a more pleasant version of the Body Worlds exhibition.
The Little Book of Hindu Deities by Sanjay Patel: beautiful cartoon illustrations and stories, from a Pixar animator. (Reminds me of Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues -- a lot! -- but she says she'd only learned of his work later.) Check out his work at his website, especially his doodles. He has a version of the Ramayana called Ramayana: Divine Loophole coming out soon.
Hindu Altars: A Pop-up Gallery of Traditional Art and Wisdom: we also have a tradition (and now a filled shelf) of buying pop-up books.
What I got:
The Explainers: The Complete Village Voice Strips (1956-66) by Jules Feiffer: gosh, I love this. I realize now that as a kid I was as influenced by my mom's Feiffer books (Sick, Sick, Sick and Passionella) as by Mad magazine. Plus, he illustrated The Phantom Tollbooth, my favorite book as a kid, so I was pretty immersed in his view of the world from a young age.
Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl: I never read it; Susan used to read it to her first-graders. (I loved the movie.)
The Discworld Graphic Novels: The Colour of Magic & The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett et al.: apparently, I've been slow to dive into Pratchett's huge pile of Discworld books, so I get this strong hint I should start.
Monty Python's Flying Circus: The Complete 16-Ton Megaset: amazingly, the still have the ability to make me laugh, though not as much as when I first saw them. As John Cleese says in one of the extra features, there's no way anyone can see them fresh anymore, and forty years after they first aired what once seemed absurd and chaotic seems almost quaint.
