You shouldn’t underestimate the value of an Amazon wishlist–you’ll get what you want. I’m not one of those folks that obsessively updates or tweaks the selection of books on my wish list (out of sight, out of mind), so every Christmas I’m initally surprised by the perfect but unexpected books I receive from relatives. You read my mind, I think. No, it was the vast and glorious Amazon wishlist, with which we can thrust our desires out into the world, forming the simulacrum of an intimate conversation with others. The first thing I thought upon opening a pristine copy of Booth’s The Rhetoric of Fiction from the in-laws was Great! Then How? Then Oh yeah; cool.

Books I received for Christmas:

• The Rhetoric of Fiction, Wayne Booth
• Literary Theory: An Introduction, Terry Eagleton
• White Oleander, Janet Fitch
• Death of a Writer, Michael Collins
• The Eye of the Story: Selected Essays and Reviews, Eudora Welty

Books Mr. Ambergeek received:

• The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, Chris Anderson
• Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, Robert Scoble and Shel Israel
• Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, Brian Tracy

Books the progeny received:

• Zin Zin Zin a Violin (a Caldecott Honor Book), Lloyd Moss and Marjorie Priceman
• Snowmen at Night, Caralyn Buehner and Mark Buehner
• Go, Train, Go!, W. Rev. Awdry and Tommy Stubbs
• Casey At the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888 (a Caldecott Honor Book), Ernest L. Thayer and Christopher Bing

 Can I get a side of free time with those books?