Which to give …

… Books for the Holidays. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)

Given the general rate of failure and misfire, I’ve come to believe that one should simply give attractive copies of the books one loves. So here, arranged by age group, are some of my favorites (with a focus on literary and biographical/historical works). I’ve listed just one or two titles by the chosen authors, but in most cases their other books are often just as good. I’ve also avoided classics that are either over-familiar or that seemed to lack an appropriately festive or fireside feel to them. So you won’t find Ford Madox Ford’s The GoodSoldier (“This is the saddest story I have ever heard”), nor is there anything here by, say, Kafka, Faulkner, or Virginia Woolf.