December 3rd, 2009 / 5:33 pm
Random

Holiday Lists

Do people still make Christmas lists? Or Hanukkah lists or something other? Most years I am asked by family to procure one so they have some idea beyond candy or whatever. Usually the lists are mostly books and clothes. This year I asked for

The Lost Origins of the Essay edited by John D’Agata
The Drug of Art by Ivan Blatny
Three Novellas by Thomas Bernhard
a by Andy Warhol
The Mandarin by Aaron Kunin
Cinema 1 by Gilles Deleuze
The Late Work of Margaret Kroftis by Mark Gluth

and I think a pair of shoes.

What books are on your freakin’ Xmas list, or your whatever-holiday-you-like list, or if you don’t mess with that mess, what would be if you did?

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102 Comments

  1. davidpeak

      cinema 1 and 2 will change the way you watch movies forever.

  2. davidpeak

      cinema 1 and 2 will change the way you watch movies forever.

  3. Tobias

      David Mazzucchelli, Asterios Polyp
      Paul Auster, Invisible
      …and a couple of novels by Vladimir Nabokov.

      Tangentially related: any plans for a second annual HTML Giant secret Santa program this year?

  4. Tobias

      David Mazzucchelli, Asterios Polyp
      Paul Auster, Invisible
      …and a couple of novels by Vladimir Nabokov.

      Tangentially related: any plans for a second annual HTML Giant secret Santa program this year?

  5. Blake Butler

      we want to run the secret santa but need a helmsman to do the dirty work of pairing and sending addresses to conspirators. ryan is busy, and i don’t think i can handle it. but if we dig someone up, it will be on. volunteers?

  6. Blake Butler

      we want to run the secret santa but need a helmsman to do the dirty work of pairing and sending addresses to conspirators. ryan is busy, and i don’t think i can handle it. but if we dig someone up, it will be on. volunteers?

  7. davidpeak

      the essential numbers by gordon massman
      sculpting in time by andrei tarkovsky
      71 fragments of a chronology of chance dir. by michael haneke
      frisk, try, guide and period by dennis cooper
      in the devil’s territory by kyle minor

  8. davidpeak

      the essential numbers by gordon massman
      sculpting in time by andrei tarkovsky
      71 fragments of a chronology of chance dir. by michael haneke
      frisk, try, guide and period by dennis cooper
      in the devil’s territory by kyle minor

  9. Tim Jones-Yelvington

      do you already have ‘closer’ ?

  10. Tim Jones-Yelvington

      do you already have ‘closer’ ?

  11. davidpeak

      finished it last night. one of the best books i have ever read.

  12. davidpeak

      finished it last night. one of the best books i have ever read.

  13. sasha fletcher

      Marcel Dzama – Even the Ghost of the Past
      Marcel Dzama – The Course of Human History Personified
      Roland Barthes – Mythologies
      Lydia Davis – The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis
      Norman Lock – Trio
      Norman Lock – The King of Sweden
      Macgregor Card – Duties of an English Foreign Secretary
      Brandon Downing – Lake Antiquity

  14. sasha fletcher

      Marcel Dzama – Even the Ghost of the Past
      Marcel Dzama – The Course of Human History Personified
      Roland Barthes – Mythologies
      Lydia Davis – The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis
      Norman Lock – Trio
      Norman Lock – The King of Sweden
      Macgregor Card – Duties of an English Foreign Secretary
      Brandon Downing – Lake Antiquity

  15. Jason Spidle

      My parents are not as kind as your parents. Thus I will receive something from the NYT Bestseller list. Hopefully at least they will choose The Book of Basketball. For those of us with inconsiderate parents who nevertheless purchase gifts for the children they don’t really care about, that’s the best we can ask for… a 700-page Bill Simmons book.

  16. Jason Spidle

      My parents are not as kind as your parents. Thus I will receive something from the NYT Bestseller list. Hopefully at least they will choose The Book of Basketball. For those of us with inconsiderate parents who nevertheless purchase gifts for the children they don’t really care about, that’s the best we can ask for… a 700-page Bill Simmons book.

  17. Tim Jones-Yelvington

      it changes you. scar tissue.

  18. Tim Jones-Yelvington

      it changes you. scar tissue.

  19. Amber

      I’ve given up and started asking for giftcards, since every year it’s the same routine.

      “Uh, thanks, Mom, this vacuum cleaner is great, but, um, remember how I asked for like, all those books Like that new collected Yeats and Kafka’s The Trial and (insert history book here)?”

      “Oh, you don’t want those. We looked at (insert history book here) at Barnes & Noble and we didn’t think it looked like something you would want.”

      “Oh, ok, then.”

      My parents actually read a ton, but you have to understand–they’re not reading anything that can’t be found on a front table, you know?

  20. Amber

      I’ve given up and started asking for giftcards, since every year it’s the same routine.

      “Uh, thanks, Mom, this vacuum cleaner is great, but, um, remember how I asked for like, all those books Like that new collected Yeats and Kafka’s The Trial and (insert history book here)?”

      “Oh, you don’t want those. We looked at (insert history book here) at Barnes & Noble and we didn’t think it looked like something you would want.”

      “Oh, ok, then.”

      My parents actually read a ton, but you have to understand–they’re not reading anything that can’t be found on a front table, you know?

  21. Amy McDaniel

      i just set up a gift exchange for us on Elfster. took 4 minutes. it’s not very indie in aesthetic but it does mean it’s all automatic. unless there are good objections to this method, i’ll post the link and get it started

  22. Amy McDaniel

      i just set up a gift exchange for us on Elfster. took 4 minutes. it’s not very indie in aesthetic but it does mean it’s all automatic. unless there are good objections to this method, i’ll post the link and get it started

  23. Julian Place

      Rose Alley by Jeremy M. Davies
      Running: a novel by Jean Echenoz
      Mother California by Kenneth Hartman
      Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov
      Transparency of Evil by Jean Baudrillard
      First as Tragedy, Then as Farce by Slavoj Zizek
      All That is Solid Melts Into Air by Marshall Berman
      Blood’s a Rover by James Ellroy

  24. Julian Place

      Rose Alley by Jeremy M. Davies
      Running: a novel by Jean Echenoz
      Mother California by Kenneth Hartman
      Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov
      Transparency of Evil by Jean Baudrillard
      First as Tragedy, Then as Farce by Slavoj Zizek
      All That is Solid Melts Into Air by Marshall Berman
      Blood’s a Rover by James Ellroy

  25. Amy McDaniel

      Notorious by Ralph Lauren

  26. Amy McDaniel

      Notorious by Ralph Lauren

  27. Tom
  28. Tom
  29. darby

      best american comics 2009
      the recognitions
      easier works: piano solo sheet music, shostakovich
      the making of americans stein
      the lime twig hawkes
      2666
      bearpaw mens slippers, black, 11M

  30. darby

      best american comics 2009
      the recognitions
      easier works: piano solo sheet music, shostakovich
      the making of americans stein
      the lime twig hawkes
      2666
      bearpaw mens slippers, black, 11M

  31. Gian

      The first person to post the writer from West Virginia published in Tyrant 3 will receive a free copy of Brian Evenson’s Baby Leg.

  32. Gian

      The first person to post the writer from West Virginia published in Tyrant 3 will receive a free copy of Brian Evenson’s Baby Leg.

  33. Gian
  34. Gian
  35. Ken Baumann

      massman and 71 fragments are both powerful.

  36. Ken Baumann

      massman and 71 fragments are both powerful.

  37. Lily

      jeremy davies!!!

  38. Lily

      jeremy davies!!!

  39. Blake Butler

      it’s better than nothing for sure. let’s do it.

  40. Blake Butler

      it’s better than nothing for sure. let’s do it.

  41. Blake Butler

      youu

  42. Blake Butler

      youu

  43. peter

      breece pancake!

  44. peter

      breece pancake!

  45. mike

      Thierry Kuntzel, Title TK
      JG Ballard, Collected Short Stories
      Geoff Manaugh, BLDGBLOG Book

      & i’m going to ask my brother to bootleg me dj screw’s entire discography

  46. mike

      Thierry Kuntzel, Title TK
      JG Ballard, Collected Short Stories
      Geoff Manaugh, BLDGBLOG Book

      & i’m going to ask my brother to bootleg me dj screw’s entire discography

  47. mike

      and by “collected short stories” i mean “complete short stories”

  48. mike

      and by “collected short stories” i mean “complete short stories”

  49. Jeff

      Life: A User’s Manual by George Perec
      Collected Stories of JG Ballard
      Memphis Underground by Stewart Home
      Locos by Felipe Alfau
      Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination

  50. Jeff

      Life: A User’s Manual by George Perec
      Collected Stories of JG Ballard
      Memphis Underground by Stewart Home
      Locos by Felipe Alfau
      Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination

  51. Mink

      McSweeney’s & Wholphin subscriptions
      Dan Chaon, Await Your Reply
      Richard Siken, Crush
      The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories
      Dolores Dorantes, sexoPurosexoVeloz
      George Saunders, The Braindead Megaphone
      Mud Luscious: the Complete 2010 Chapbook (first on list) OR the Complete 2010 Package (third on list)
      Kurt Schwitters, PPPPPP
      Emile Cioran, The Trouble With Being Born
      Brian Evenson, Fugue State
      Juan Rulfo, Pedro Paramo
      John Cage, Compositions in Retrospect

  52. Mink

      McSweeney’s & Wholphin subscriptions
      Dan Chaon, Await Your Reply
      Richard Siken, Crush
      The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories
      Dolores Dorantes, sexoPurosexoVeloz
      George Saunders, The Braindead Megaphone
      Mud Luscious: the Complete 2010 Chapbook (first on list) OR the Complete 2010 Package (third on list)
      Kurt Schwitters, PPPPPP
      Emile Cioran, The Trouble With Being Born
      Brian Evenson, Fugue State
      Juan Rulfo, Pedro Paramo
      John Cage, Compositions in Retrospect

  53. Gian
  54. Gian
  55. alec niedenthal

      collected stories, lydia davis
      the infinite conversation, maurice blanchot
      kamby bolongo river, robert lopez
      what the world will look like without us, laura van der berg

  56. alec niedenthal

      collected stories, lydia davis
      the infinite conversation, maurice blanchot
      kamby bolongo river, robert lopez
      what the world will look like without us, laura van der berg

  57. Rob

      Darkness Moves – Michaux
      You Bright And Risen Angels – Vollmann
      The Revolt of the Masses – Ortega Y Gasset
      Complete Stories of Nabokov
      Something by Foucault and Baudrillard
      The Tanners – Robert Walser (maybe… if the translation is as good as “Jacob Von Gunten”)
      blah blah blah
      and some of the short fiction collections from the authors on this sight –
      (I enjoyed Scorch Atlas)

  58. Rob

      Darkness Moves – Michaux
      You Bright And Risen Angels – Vollmann
      The Revolt of the Masses – Ortega Y Gasset
      Complete Stories of Nabokov
      Something by Foucault and Baudrillard
      The Tanners – Robert Walser (maybe… if the translation is as good as “Jacob Von Gunten”)
      blah blah blah
      and some of the short fiction collections from the authors on this sight –
      (I enjoyed Scorch Atlas)

  59. Rob

      site*

  60. Rob

      site*

  61. Mike Meginnis

      Don’t think anyone has the money to give me gifts this year except possibly (*possibly*) my wife, but I would love collected P. K. Dick novels in the nice hardback editions, Kamby Bolongo River, and some Evenson maybe.

  62. Mike Meginnis

      Don’t think anyone has the money to give me gifts this year except possibly (*possibly*) my wife, but I would love collected P. K. Dick novels in the nice hardback editions, Kamby Bolongo River, and some Evenson maybe.

  63. cmr

      all i’m asking for is a copy of Flannery O’Connor’s collected short stories and a blender. my finger’s are crossed hoping my mom throws a pack of new socks in the box too.

  64. cmr

      all i’m asking for is a copy of Flannery O’Connor’s collected short stories and a blender. my finger’s are crossed hoping my mom throws a pack of new socks in the box too.

  65. Amy McDaniel

      blake’s only asking for books by men cause he’s already read every book published by a woman this year

  66. Amy McDaniel

      blake’s only asking for books by men cause he’s already read every book published by a woman this year

  67. Ken Baumann

      men men men men men men men men

  68. Ken Baumann

      men men men men men men men men

  69. blake

      women published a book this year? :P

  70. blake

      women published a book this year? :P

  71. Amy McDaniel

      we did! we all got together and published a book.

  72. Amy McDaniel

      we did! we all got together and published a book.

  73. John Dermot Woods

      I want big books full of pictures.

      Justin Green’s Complete Blinky Brown
      Jack Survives by Jerry Moriarty (the new edition will reproduction of the original pages)
      Abstract Comics (Andrei Molotiu’s anthology)
      Lake Antiquity by Brandon Downing

  74. John Dermot Woods

      I want big books full of pictures.

      Justin Green’s Complete Blinky Brown
      Jack Survives by Jerry Moriarty (the new edition will reproduction of the original pages)
      Abstract Comics (Andrei Molotiu’s anthology)
      Lake Antiquity by Brandon Downing

  75. Nate

      Selected Poems by Dara Wier
      Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste by Carl Wilson
      Taking Care by Joy Williams
      Pink and Hot Pink Habitat by Natalie Lyalin

  76. Nate

      Selected Poems by Dara Wier
      Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste by Carl Wilson
      Taking Care by Joy Williams
      Pink and Hot Pink Habitat by Natalie Lyalin

  77. jereme

      i think the book was called “chicken soup for the victim’s soul”. something like that.

  78. jereme

      i think the book was called “chicken soup for the victim’s soul”. something like that.

  79. jereme

      i don’t get xmas and i do i guess.

      i tell people not to buy me shit. i would rather they spend the money on something else, something for them.

      i don’t accept gifts or compliments well i’ve been told.

      i sort of get quiet and feel worthless.

      but hey that’s me.

      on the other hand i just had a conversation with my son about what he wants for x-mas.

      he wants a guitar, amp and etc. setup. it’s going to cost me about 800-900 $.

      i was unsure about his resolve.

      i told him “this is a good choice. this is going to get you laid later in life.”

      he smiled a “12 year old boy just getting hair on his nuts and girls excite him now” sort of wry smile at me.

      i don’t think he understood what i fully meant.

      that smile is what xmas is about for me..

      plus he’s going to practice that shit at his other house, the one with the XWife.

  80. jereme

      i don’t get xmas and i do i guess.

      i tell people not to buy me shit. i would rather they spend the money on something else, something for them.

      i don’t accept gifts or compliments well i’ve been told.

      i sort of get quiet and feel worthless.

      but hey that’s me.

      on the other hand i just had a conversation with my son about what he wants for x-mas.

      he wants a guitar, amp and etc. setup. it’s going to cost me about 800-900 $.

      i was unsure about his resolve.

      i told him “this is a good choice. this is going to get you laid later in life.”

      he smiled a “12 year old boy just getting hair on his nuts and girls excite him now” sort of wry smile at me.

      i don’t think he understood what i fully meant.

      that smile is what xmas is about for me..

      plus he’s going to practice that shit at his other house, the one with the XWife.

  81. Amy McDaniel

      that’s a sweet story, Jereme, in your way

  82. Amy McDaniel

      that’s a sweet story, Jereme, in your way

  83. jereme

      you mean in the “he’s crazy/asshole/etc. but seems to love his son” sort of way?

      i just want him to be happy and everyone knows teenage boys only think about the V.

      it is the same thing i want for any relationship i hold.

      a list or no list.

      when he’s 30 and im 50 we will probably have a different talk, a talk about soul and complacency and etc.

      but for now it’s about the V and i like to see him smile.

  84. jereme

      you mean in the “he’s crazy/asshole/etc. but seems to love his son” sort of way?

      i just want him to be happy and everyone knows teenage boys only think about the V.

      it is the same thing i want for any relationship i hold.

      a list or no list.

      when he’s 30 and im 50 we will probably have a different talk, a talk about soul and complacency and etc.

      but for now it’s about the V and i like to see him smile.

  85. Amy McDaniel

      you’re right, you do have a little trouble taking compliments :)

  86. Amy McDaniel

      you’re right, you do have a little trouble taking compliments :)

  87. david erlewine

      so will old dogs

  88. david erlewine

      so will old dogs

  89. david erlewine

      i would like a book of nothing but his collected mailbags.

  90. david erlewine

      i would like a book of nothing but his collected mailbags.

  91. howie good

      the only gifts that count: health, freedom and the continued ability to create. . . .

  92. howie good

      the only gifts that count: health, freedom and the continued ability to create. . . .

  93. david erlewine

      i want love and some sort of validation

      i want to ride the train to work and not try to think about things like the real name of the obtuse shawshank warden

      i want my sister to stop making fun of me for crying 25 years ago about having to dissect a frog

      i want someone to walk by me on the street and try to cave in my head so that I can justify all the money i’ve spent on UFC and boxing

      i want to see my friend and slap his hand

      i want my uncle bill to stop calling me algernon

      i want my niece Teresa to stop texting me that she thinks my writing is the devil’s poop

  94. david erlewine

      i want love and some sort of validation

      i want to ride the train to work and not try to think about things like the real name of the obtuse shawshank warden

      i want my sister to stop making fun of me for crying 25 years ago about having to dissect a frog

      i want someone to walk by me on the street and try to cave in my head so that I can justify all the money i’ve spent on UFC and boxing

      i want to see my friend and slap his hand

      i want my uncle bill to stop calling me algernon

      i want my niece Teresa to stop texting me that she thinks my writing is the devil’s poop

  95. brandi

      I want “devil’s poop”

  96. jereme

      hahaha yes. that is funny.

  97. brandi

      I want “devil’s poop”

  98. jereme

      hahaha yes. that is funny.

  99. Matthew Simmons

      I’m in Love with the Morton’s Salt Girl by Richard Peabody
      The Long, Lonely Leap by Joe Kittinger

  100. Matthew Simmons

      I’m in Love with the Morton’s Salt Girl by Richard Peabody
      The Long, Lonely Leap by Joe Kittinger

  101. Dave Mesing

      I recently picked up some books for myself for Christmas, including Percival Everett’s “My Name is Not Sidney Poitier” and “The Manual of Detection” by Jebediah Berry, but here are some more that I want:

      Anatheism by Richard Kearney
      Agamben: A Critical Introduction by Leland de la Durantaye
      Capitalism and Slavery by Eric Williams
      Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things by Gilbert Sorrentino
      Philosophy as a Way of Life by Pierre Hadot
      With Deer by Aase Berg
      The Man Suit by Zachary Schomburg

      …and more. The list can always go on and on, and I have little money and do no want to ask for much from family. I’m trying to be content with what I’ve got, which is plenty.

  102. Dave Mesing

      I recently picked up some books for myself for Christmas, including Percival Everett’s “My Name is Not Sidney Poitier” and “The Manual of Detection” by Jebediah Berry, but here are some more that I want:

      Anatheism by Richard Kearney
      Agamben: A Critical Introduction by Leland de la Durantaye
      Capitalism and Slavery by Eric Williams
      Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things by Gilbert Sorrentino
      Philosophy as a Way of Life by Pierre Hadot
      With Deer by Aase Berg
      The Man Suit by Zachary Schomburg

      …and more. The list can always go on and on, and I have little money and do no want to ask for much from family. I’m trying to be content with what I’ve got, which is plenty.