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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Book Gift Help!

13:01 / 19.12.03

Ok i'm shopping for a younger brother of 20 with the aim of reducing the normal from his life...in past years i've gotten him PK dick books, a Kafka collection, History of the USoA, etc...but this year i'm stumped. I stumbled through the bookstore yesterday picking up fav novels of mine, but i want to get him soemthing more encompassing, since its a gift he'll own, something more reference in nature...i came precariously close to picking up "no logo" and "culture of make believe" but i want to get the PERFECT BOOK that will be important to his development, while being more substancial that just a single novel. Also i've already bought for this this year The Universe by Asimov and Hyperspace by kaku (and don't want to buy him another science book!)
thanks!
mikeh

Tryphena Absent

13:11 / 19.12.03

My perfect book to buy anyone would probably be Herculine by Foucault but it's woefully out of print and thus I can't even find a copy myself (I prefer new paperbacks, you get to crack the spine, mmmmm).

What kind of thing does your brother like to read and what are you looking to buy- cultural theory, philosophy, something that leans towards the mainstream? You can haze No Logo all you want but it's not a bad book for a beginner to read and I do like the chapter on Reclaim the Streets.

14:05 / 19.12.03

Eats, shoots and leaves.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

08:09 / 20.12.03

If he's in to the sort of music that gets played on Kerrang! these days Greil Marcus' 'Lipstick Traces' might be an idea, though he would have to be the sort of person that, once he picks up a book doesn't put it down, because the first chapter isn't that good.

Or volume one of The Invisibles?

Michael Moore might be a bit more accessible than No Logo to start, though I think both encourage a 'we're all doomed so let's just sit here and consume before the end arrives' attitude.