December 21st, 2010 / 1:08 pm
Mean
Adam Robinson
Mean
Books for Christmas?
The kid in this video (via Harriet) feels like I do. Unless it’s htmlgiant’s Secret Santa thing, don’t ever give books for Christmas.
The wtf-est book I ever received was Kurt Warner’s bio. What gives, Pop?
Tags: Secret Santa
oh wait is that somebody you know’s kid?
i mean, um, yeah, he’s a cutie
I love getting books for Christmas. Even if I hate ’em, most bookstores will let you exchange without a receipt.
I do like this video though.
And I pity my nephew who gets at least one book for every gift-giving occasion I take part in.
There is never a bad day to sell books that are given as presents.
signed up for secret santa. created an account on that site. haven’t heard a thing since…
when can i expect instructions on who to send junk too?
i have a ton to give…
xoxo,
john
My son has those same monster pajamas.
yeah get the little rat a fucking saw for his face
Oh dear…aren’t my friends and family in for a wonderful Christmas then! (But really, do people not like getting books? Who are these strange creatures?)
That ungrateful brat needs to get spanked. Our daughter has always loved getting books as gifts. Books have been like her television because she’s rarely allowed any. She started making her own books at three.
I ordered books for everyone. I ordered Matt Bell for our daughter’s mothers, Sam D’Allesandro for my htmlgiant secret santa and Kathleen Rooney and Kyle Minor for my mom and stepdad. They will read them and like them or suck it.
watched the video, currently feeling ‘all about’ 2012.
Toys, too, obviously, books AND toys. Christmas is bullshit without toys. And I mean toys for grownups, not just kids.
‘oh how cute! our son is being ungrateful, rude, loud, and…all sorts of other cute little kid things that little kids do and should be laughed at for doing because it’s just so god damn fucking cute!’
i hope he’s just a good actor. as pops always said, ‘spare the rod, spoil the child.’
i stopped buying books for xmas when i found myself borrowing them from family members and never being asked to return them.
that’s all i ever give, no one ever reads them
Eh… I was prepared to agree with you until the “spare the rod” line… .
I agree… well, except for the spanking. But kids only end up like this from bad parenting. I wonder if I can’t get a hint, from the parents’ reactions, of just what sort of parenting resulted in this sort of attitude in this boy.
I give books to most people. At any rate, I try only to give gifts which say something that I like about the person — otherwise, there’s no real point in giving a gift except to say that you were thoughtful enough to put them on your list.
I give my nieces books every Xmas. These girls have way too many toys and books and other Stuff because their parents have more money than they know what to do with, and giving gifts seems to their father the most effective way to show his affection. So… what to give 3 girls who’ll get virtually anything they want, anyway?
So I give them books that my sister and brother-in-law aren’t likely to give them. I can’t say as much for the other two, but I swear that my oldest niece actually likes the books I give her. Last time I got her an astronomy book. Before that I think it was an ‘encyclopedic’ tome on faeries. She loves this stuff. This time I got her a cool book with page-after-page of crazy, creative stuff to try. It’s wild. I hope she likes it; I think she will.
And…. this part kills me… the author actually mentions Situationist International and Oulipo and Fluxus . . . Raymond Queneau, Georges Perec… . And urges the reader to research further… .
But… I think maybe what it all comes down to is that lots of kids don’t like books for the same reason teenagers, college kids, and adults don’t like books… they’ve only read boring ones.
If you get a kid a book… make sure they’re not just likely to learn from it, but they’re also likely to find it fun. If they don’t find it fun they’re not even gonna bother reading it.
Wasn’t there a Twilight Zone episode where a boy wore monster pajamas, day after day, night after night, until one day… .
You are really nice!
GIVING KERI SMITH TO YOUNG GIRLS IS A GREAT IDEA OWEN
J IT IS AWKWARD TO ASK FOR BOOKS BACK MAYBE YOU SHOULD NOT MAKE THEM ASK
If there are no books on the shelves in that household, if he has never seen his parents or siblings read for pleasure, than fine. If not, five across the eyes!
Eh… um… how’d you guess???
HER FAVOURITE BOOK IS “IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT A TRAVELLER”
A ZZZZZIPPPPY RELATIVE OF ZZZZZZIPP ONCE LIVED IN K.S.’S HOUSE
I have to make them want it.
[…] Mine Disaster/In Watermelon Sugar and J. Robert Lennon’s Pieces for the Left Hand for xmas. I disagree with Adam: books are the only gift I usually actually end up doing something with beyond the day it […]
Well, I try my best… . :)
Anxiety all for nothing: she loved it! Yay! And so did her mother (my sister — it was actually her impression that I was starting to feel anxious over). When I was going through the book with my niece, I told her that if she did as the book suggested and looked up stuff like Oulipo, détournement, Fluxus etc., then she’d be the smartest kid in the class (because, as I told her, even most High School students don’t know about this kind of stuff) . . . which made her smile.
Like most of the books I give as gifts, I hope this book will last for years to come, that as she matures (she’s 10 now) she’ll keep finding the book accidentally and then look up some of this stuff. Or something like that.