You'll hear our wishlists on Wednesday's podcast episode (#19).

But we want to know ... what book(s) are you wishing for?

Way too many is the best I can say off the top of my head -- what I really want is a visit to my daughters, each in turn, so that I can shop for books at my favorite places! Sacramento's Time Tested Books and -- oh, shoot, I always forget one or the other -- well, "the other store" and then of course Powell's in Portland!

I'll come back and add some actual titles when I get a bit more time to play here.

Forgot to mention that I am fortunate in that I am generously gifted by my father-in-law each Christmas and use some percentage of that windfall for books each year. Here is the beginning of the wish list:

Decorating with Books

Color: A Natural History of the Palette

At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live with and Care for Their Libraries

Outside the Bungalow: America's Arts and Crafts Garden

A Mencken Chrestomathy

Le Grand Tango: The Life and Music of Astor Piazzolla

Becoming Little Women: Louisa May at Fruitlands

Wishful Drinking

A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes

The Teahouse Fire

What Lips My Lips Have Kissed: The Loves and Love Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay

Coffee at Luke's: An Unauthorized Gilmore Girls Gabfest

Gilmore Girls and the Politics of Identity: Essays on Family and Feminism in the Television Series

Proust, Cole Porter, Michelangelo, Marc Almond and Me: Writings by Gay Men on their Lives and Lifestyles

The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life

The holidays are the only time I can justify wishing for some nice oversized coffee table books, so my wish list includes The Clash, Raising the Bar, Ski the 14ers, and a couple of DC Comics' Absolute editions. All pie-in-the-sky wishes, but it is nice to dream! Other than those, I'm in the same boat as Dottie - way too many regular prose and nonfiction books to list off the top of my head.

Since Dottie has posted her list and called me out, here is some of my full wishlist.

- Y: The Last Man Book One Deluxe Edition - Brian K Vaughan
- Complete Maus - Art Spiegelman
- Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! - Richard P. Feynman
- God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
- Walking Dead, HC Vols 1-4 - Robert Kirkman
- Knockemstiff - Donald Pollack
- The Woman Who Can't Forget - Jill Price
- Sex for America - Stephen Elliott
- He Said Beer, She Said Wine - Sam Calagione and Marnie Old
- Chic Ironic Bitterness - R. Magill
- God on Trial - Peter Irons
- Constitution and National Security - Edmund Muskie
- The Brewmaster's Table - Garrett Oliver
- The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House - John Harris
- The Oxford Project - Peter Feldstien

Whew! That is a start, at least...

I'm in Dottie's corner too. I love to make a trip to my favorite bookstore this time of year. The Tattered Cover in Denver is wonderful, an independent with so much charm yet the selection of books to easily rival a change. Wonderful atmosphere. Their employees are so helpful too when you are trying to find the perfect book for your favorite kids. Gee, I just made a commercial. Go Tattered Cover!

Typing too fast, I meant "easily rival a chain" but I haven't had caffeine yet today.

Well, as the others have said, the entire list is waaaay too long to include here, but here are a few I'm hoping to find under the tree:
The Christmas Sweater - Glenn Beck
How to Make Books - Esther K. Smith
A Dog Named Christmas - Greg Kincaid
An Irish Country Christmas - Patrick Taylor
The Eternal Sea - Philip Plisson
The House on First Street - Julia Reed
Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing; A Novelist Looks at his Craft - David Morrell
The Spy who came for Christmas - David Morrell
Why New Orleans Matters - Tom Piazza
Duct Tape Marketing - John Jantsch
The King and the Corpse - Heinrich Zimmer
The Christmas Pearl - Dorothea Benton Frank
The Good Pirates of the Forgotten Bayous - Ken Wells
Getting Things Done - David Allen
Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat who touched the World - Vicki Myron/Bret Witter
Izzy & Lenore: Two Dogs, An Unexpected Journey, & Me - Jon Katz
Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea - Noah Andre Trudeau
In Pursuit of the Common Good - Paul Newman & A.E. Hotchner
Two Bobbies
Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan
The Oxford Project - Peter Feldsten & Stephen Bloom
The Man who Invented Christmas - Les Standiford
The Tin Roof Blowdown - James Lee Burke
The Last Polar Bear: Facing the Truth of a Warming World - Steven Kazlowski

You're probably sorry you asked at this point, but I did, in fact, edit the list SUBSTANTIALLY, and tried not to include many BOTN suggestions because I thought others would list those.

If you're wondering why there are so many "Christmas" themed books, it's because I have a huge collection of them & try to add a few every year.

Here's a few I want:

Inkdeath
The Hunger Games
The Potato Peel Society and etc. etc. etc.!
The Graveyard Book
The first book in the Wheel of Time series

... just for starters....

Okay, now Josh and Karen have to come out of that corner because I've added my booklist to that earlier post. Thing is now that I have -- what fifteen or so on a list, I'm thinking of all sorts of books that I could add. Tsk, mustn't be greedy.

Like everyone else on this forum I have a wish list a mile long. But I think the ultimate gift would be a book that I didn't know I wanted...some little known gem that someone picked out for me knowing that I love all things British or mysteries or World War 2 set dramas etc. The best gift would be discovering a new book or author. Of course - that is what is so great about this group and podcast. So many new discoveries!!

All that being said, I do hope someone gets me Doomed Queens or The Fire by Katherine Neville or The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

Jennifer, this is me to a T:
"But I think the ultimate gift would be a book that I didn't know I wanted."

Exactly!!

Jennifer, you just voiced the ultimate wish!

I agree with Jennifer, I love it when that happens. The books on my list though are -

Family Christmas Treasures
Edited by Hugh Lauter

I See You Everywhere
Julia Glass

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson

Revolutionary Road
Richard Yates

The Reader
Bernhard Schlin

The Good Thief
Hannah Tint

The Book of General Ignorance
John Lloyd & John Mitchinson

The Forgotten Garden
Kate Morton

Magic
Various

Wide in the North
Judith O’Reilly

Let it snow: 3 holiday stories
John Green, Lauren Myracle, Maureen Johnson

The Graveyard book
Neil Gaiman

No time for goodbye
Linwood Barcley

Warrior Princess
Barbara Erskine

Stephen Fry in America
Stephen Fry

Alexandra- are you the Alexa that commented on the blog? If not, go here for a chance to win THE GOOD THIEF

Hey Michael

Yes I am, no idea why I use my full name on goodreads! but thanks I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

I'm flattered that so many of you are listing books from BOTNS - that's really not required, you know. You won't hurt our feelings.

Dottie, I must find out: what in the world is Wishful Drinking? I could Google it, but it's far more fun to ask you.

I not only put a book on my list but decided to get it early - just in case - and wanted to let you know that for anyone interested in cooking, The Complete Robuchon is a fantastic gift. I have been cooking for more years than I want to admit and am generally considered a fair cook (with about 100 cookbooks) but I learned 3 or 4 things in the first few pages and am working my way through the entire 800 pages. It isn't just a recipe book - its a cooking class on paper.

Dottie M

Dottie M. - Yay! Though you have such a way with words that I wonder if you should be doing this podcast instead of me -- "a cooking class on paper" -- I love it!

Wishful Drinking is Carrie Fisher's first book of memoir as opposed to novels and is based on a one-woman stage show she wrote and performed -- I'm not sure when it debuted but now she's put it into book form and I cannot wait to read it. I love her books -- started out reading the first one let's admit it because I loved her mother and her father and rode the whole sordid unraveled tale through the years -- Liz and Eddie, Debbie and Harry. But Young Ms. Fisher can hold her own let me say. You know I wasn't into the Star Wars thing and though I knew it was her, I paid small heed and only became interested when that first book appeared.

Oh, and just to say, the title above and all my list of titles in my original post are links and since I put them into the posts as links, they also appear in a list of links over to the right hand side of the thread and then you can follow to (other topics) which I believe takes you to other conversations where the book is mentioned or discussed -- more Goodreads "magic" to explore. Oh yes, since I've linked Wishful Drinking twice here, there is a notation in the list to the right that it is mentioned two times.

Dottie M., I'll second the praise for that wording. I must admit that cookbook fiend that I've become -- or is that aficionado? -- well, these cookbooks have been calling my name but I'm trying to hold my ground. Then there you are saying this is a cooking class on paper -- I may have to look at it and then what happens will be anyone's guess. May have to gift myself as you have done.

Josh mentioned coffee table books. I LOVE those as gifts. There is one called Georgia O'Keefe and Ansel Adams: Natural Affinities that looks amazing. I also browsed through a photo book by photographer Andrew Zuckerman called Creature that I went ape over in the store. I could spend hours with those visual wonders!

Micha wrote: "
My book was just featured on NPR, living on a cruise ship, fun intriguing read, see more below

Ever wonder what it is like to live and work on a cruise ship. Micha Berman’s new cruise memoir – Pe..."

Uh-huh, but to get back to the point of this thread... So what books do *you* want as gifts? I figure you want other people to want your book but surely you don't want to be given a carload of your own book, do you? :)Don't you have a book wish list for Santa?

Well said, Dottie. We can certainly understand what it's like to be a self-published author, but let's stay on topic Micha!!

Josh wrote:Since Dottie has posted her list and called me out, here is some of my full wishlist.

I'll have to check out some of those, Josh. I'd missed your edit until now. Glad you took up the "challenge". ;) Spiegelman, Feynman and Dawkins have been on my radar for a long while and I've yet to pick them up and there are a couple of others of interest there.

Hope everyone gets at least a few choice volumes from some elf or another -- maybe Santa?