I just loved taking the time and care to pick a book as a fitting gift mostly for birthday or Christmas presents for the kids about over the years who could really use a practical book. It's not something I've done for over a decade so not many spring to mind.

For someone I considered daughter like for her senior school year I took time to get my hands on a "Pears' Cyclopaedia" for her birthday.

My neighbour who had lupus but continued to smoke heavily, no sarcasm intended, with sincerity I got her dark but funny "The Book of Bunny Suicides" by Andy Riley. She photocopied the image of the bunny smoking as many as it could and hung in up.

Spike Milligans war diaries - i love how he captures the banter and laughs amongst everyman soldiers in WW2, and how you can see the seeds of the goon show and monty python developing in WW2. He also balances it well with the sadness of war

Top 5 books I've offered (and still offer):

1. Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (translated by Gia-Fu Feng)

2. The Analects by Confucius (translated by Annping Chin)

3. This Is Water by David Foster Wallace

4. 3 years of Mini Stories - 36 short stories to read quickly, and think slowly — written by me.

5. As Causas do Atraso Português by Nuno Palma

Photobox: 250 Images You Need To See, Thames&Hudson It’s a good book for visual people — designers, photographers, artists, or just someone who is looking for inspiration.

A bunch of William Gibsons.

Philip K. Dick's Ubik, A Scanner Darkly, and Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.

Clifford D. Simak's City.

Classics.

Martin Eden was the best

The Four Agreements

The Chip War

The Power of Now

Atomic Habits