I dont care if Glenn Beck is on your Christmas list

An excellent question from Kate Ward of Shelf Life in regards to gift-giving etiquette:

"Is it possible to feel good about spending $20 for a book that you despise but know your loved one will devour?"

For me, it depends upon where the profits from the purchase are going.  If my loved one has asked for a copy of Virginia Woolf's TO THE LIGHTHOUSE or Edith Wharton's ETHAN FROME, two novels that I despise, I would have no reservation about plunking down $20 for the gift.  While Woolf and...