Purchasing a book for someone isn’t like running to the shop and picking up a box of decorative soaps, or a bottle of whisky. You can’t just take a stab in the dark and hope for the best. In the best-case scenario, a well-chosen book shows just how intimately you know a person, their interests, their politics . . . their very sense of self. In the worst case, it can show that you barely have any interest in who they are.
