Stocking up for Christmas 2011

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Ho! Ho! Ho! It’s that time of year again: we’re all dashing through the snow, trying to fit everything into the crazy December calendar. I know I’ve been making a list, then losing it twice. Here’s my annual column on great books that will fit a stocking but won’t put a big pinch on your rapidly-draining wallet.

The SAS Survival Guide by John “Lofty” Wiseman: A tiny little book measuring only 4.7 inches tall by 3.25 wide (smaller than most adult men’s palms), the cover touts that this newly-revised, second edition has “practical, easy-to-follow advice with diagrams and color illustrations.” Wiseman has taught survival training to special forces military for more than 26 years. This book, however, is not full of ninja-style tricks or James Bond gadgetry. This is wisdom of the essentials, from the perspective that any actual equipment you have with you is an added bonus. The book’s purpose is clearly stated several times: it isn’t for fun ‘survival games’ in the woods; it’s a reminder and an overview of all the things a person should keep in mind when faced with a true life-or-death, emergency situation. The book covers mental attitude, careful research and interpretation of the situation and climate in which you might find yourself, essential skills such as first aid, finding water, keeping warm, finding your way if you decide to move. That’s a lot of life and knowledge for less than $8.00. (Note to those who aren’t familiar with the “SAS” initials, the SAS is the Special Air Services, a sub-group of the British special forces, whose organization served as an example for the creation of special forces units all over the world.)

Now, on the flip side, for all of you who got depressed when I revealed that the SAS Guide didn’t include the James Bond gadgets: DK Publishing – publishing house especially known for thousands of great educational books on history and science for kids – now has a line of sturdy board books, shaped like a vehicle of some kind. The tractor and the dump truck, the fire engine and the sports car, all have real wheels that roll. A Velcro flap at the front cleverly holds the book together, but when opened, allows the reader to see many colorful drawings and a few quick words about the vehicle of their choice. Why not pop the silver convertible sports car in someone’s stocking? Without a doubt, lots of people like their car toys, not just little boys! Just think about the words to “Santa Baby”. It’s easier on the budget than the keys to a real one.

Another fun toy that’s a book comes from Klutz Press, who re-invented the idea of selling a book and an activity kit together. The one I like best for the Christmas stocking this year is the perfect shape for even the longest, thinnest stocking. Stop the Watch features a top-bound spiral book, with a stopwatch attached at the bottom. This is a great book to get you and your family moving, especially when it’s cold outside and we all feel sluggish from the last month or two of indulging in sweets and huge meals. It’s you against the stopwatch, as you take on the “Hippity Hoppity Marathon” (‘Put the watch in your kneepit and hop as long as you can until the watch falls out’) or the the “Speed Freeze” (Open the door to the fridge and find 3 things that begin with the letter ‘P’, then close the door. No slamming.) All the challenges give you a place to write your time for the first time you try it, your best time, and show you the best time they got at the Klutz Headquarters. There are more than 40 solo events and team events to try, which should only spark your imagination for hundreds of others.

This next series counts as several books, since it includes many gems, such as 101 Things I Learned in Business School and 101 Things I Learned in Culinary School (by Michael Priess and Louis Equaras, respectively). These books are the perfect gift for anyone curious about the featured profession, since they are written by well-known professionals at the top of their field (Louis Equaras, for example, is a famous chef from the Le Cordon Bleu program at California’s School of the Culinary Arts.) Each book gives a wealth of information, presenting a wide range of the trade. With the Culinary book, Equaras discusses everything from how to properly hold a knife to tidbits from the history of food to important tips on restaurant management. These books are a great addition and perhaps a much better overview than the “Dummies” or “Idiot’s” guides available on many subjects, and have the bonus of being more attractively packaged, at a better price.

Well, I’d better get back to trying to cover up the … uh, dark… no, I mean, crispy parts… of this batch of cookies with lots of frosting. I love that homemade confectionary sugar and milk icing; it covers a multitude of sins. I guess someone should buy me that Culinary School book...

Still Klutzy After All These Years

Grandpa, what’s that? Over there! It’s a … craft kit! No, it’s a game! Is it a toy? It looks like a book, but … what is it?

It’s a Klutz kit!

For over thirty years, Klutz Press has been offering a little education and a whole lot of fun with its unique “multimedia” approach, combining reading, crafts, outdoor activities, old-fashioned games, trivia, family fun, science, and silliness. Each Klutz book gives simple but detailed instructions for activities as diverse as making clay beads, playing Pick Up Sticks, building a solar car, using face paints, creating rubber band-powered flying machines, and learning to juggle. Attached to almost every Klutz book is a kit of all the materials needed to embark on the specified project, be it a bubble wand, marbles, safety pins, embroidery floss, bean bags, or watercolor paints. Current bestsellers at our bookstore are Body Crayons, Capsters, Paper Stained Glass, and Foam Gliders. My nephew’s new favorites are the Sling-Chute, and Boom! Splat! Kablooey!, while my niece adores Make Your Own Twinkly Tiaras.

It all started as a student teacher’s attempt to keep his tenth grade remedial-reading class engaged. In 1977, John Cassidy, English and education major at Stanford University, tried to keep his sophomore reading class from falling asleep by throwing tennis balls out at them, following them with printed instructions on how to juggle. Not only did it help Cassidy determine how much his students were able to read when they were motivated, but his class had fun and most students learned to juggle quite capably. Inspired by this success, Cassidy asked two friends to help him earn money by offering sidewalk juggling lessons and selling Cassidy’s book, Juggling for the Complete Klutz, along with three beanbags. The first 3,000 copies of the book-with-beanbags sold from backpacks and the back of bicycles, within weeks; by the end of 1978, they had sold 50,000 copies. Darrell Lorentzen, the business major, wrote the official business plan; B.C. Rimbeaux, the psychology major, asked the bank for a loan. The three friends incorporated as Klutz Press, in Palo Alto, California, at the end of 1978.

Sales continued to be “steady [but] unspectacular”, says John Cassidy, on the “About Us” section of Klutz’s official website. In 1982, the group published their second book, The Hacky Sack Book, with instructions for several different ways to play the bean-bag kicking game which was growing in popularity. The how-to guide included, of course, a hacky sack, and buyers responded in a big way. Obviously, people liked having the fun, simple guides that came with the “equipment” needed to play. At this point, Cassidy committed himself to the company in earnest.

Since that auspicious point, Klutz has created more than 200 different kits, encompassing such broad categories as crafts, art (drawing, painting, sculpture), games and puzzles (remember Cat’s Cradle? Cootie Catchers? Jacks?), travel activities, science (solar cars, rockets, constellation guides and charts, battery activities) and so much more. In 1995, seven years before Scholastic, Inc. bought Klutz, Klutz was selling nearly 5 million books a year without spending money on advertising.

These days, Klutz continues to sell fun and learning to people of all ages. When Explorabook was first published in 1991 in conjunction with the San Francisco Exploratorium science museum, general manager Kurt Feichtmeir hoped to eventually sell 100,000 copies. Feichtmeir was stunned when, less than four years later, it had sold more than 800,000 copies. Many books appeal to adults as well as to children – for example, Watercolor for the Artistically Undiscovered sells extremely well with the retired population. At our store, when we issue monthly reminders for our Klutz craft and activity night, I joke that “children under 10 should be accompanied by an adult. Adults need not be accompanied by children.” Following the spirit of John Cassidy and the crew at Klutz, I love to invite the child in all of us to play.

10 for $10: our fourth year of listing inexpensive gift books for everyone

Well, we’re at that time of year again, folks – the email from the editor, reminding us that there isn’t one but TWO back-to-back early deadlines for the newspaper, to end the year right as New Year’s follows Christmas in less than one week. It’s also the time for those few last minute gifts: gifts for the office party where, thankfully, a reasonable spending limit has been set; stocking presents; presents for your second cousin’s boyfriend who is coming to the family Christmas get-together after all; and, best of all, it’s time for your favorite book columnists to give you our yearly small price-list book-list. In years past, we’ve called it our stocking stuffer book list, or our budget gift book list, as we’ve extolled the virtues of the mass-market paperback, or the big-bang-for-your-buck factor of gifting a book. Here, then, once again, to help make certain your “ho-ho-ho!” doesn’t turn to “oh no, no, no!” is this year’s rendition, the “10 Books for under $10” list.

Here are some of our favorites, with something for everyone on your list….

No. 1 Draw Thumb Animals: Fine Art at Your Fingertips, by Klutz Press, cover price $6.95. Klutz specializes in creative books, featuring either crafts or games, and the materials necessary to engage in said activities. These fine books, directed mostly at children, are also loved by adults for either (a)giving the family something to do together or (b)giving the children something fun to do so the adults don’t kill the whining children who are now bored at the end of their Christmas vacation or on the drive back from Grandma’s house.

No. 2 Track Pack by Ed Gray and Decourcy L. Taylor, published by Stackpole Books, cover price $9.95. Making the lists for at least the third year in a row, I can’t say enough about this awesome little outdoor guide. Thin and tall enough to fit in a back pocket, backpack pocket, or inside jacket pocket, page for page, this book is packed with more information than most books five times its size or expense. Spiral-bound for easy use, each page shows the life-size paw print of at least one wild animal, complete with fold-out pages for the big ones (like the grizzly bear! cool!) and a little map showing the animal’s range in North America. Users can put the book right down on the ground next to a print for comparison. Now you can really see if those “reindeer” prints are caribou, or white tails.

No. 3 From the “Little Golden Guide” series that has been around for generations, Stars, by Zim, Baker, and Chartrand, with illustrator Irving, published now by St. Martin’s Press, cover price $6.95. I chose the one on Stars because I love explaining to folks how these books – full of pictures, charts, diagrams – are great for kids, but have enough information that my brother was required to buy this one for his college class on introduction to astronomy. Grab one of these and take the family to Cherry Springs’ Dark Sky Park.

No. 4 The first book in the Shakespeare series by Charlaine Harris, entitled Shakespeare’s Landlord, published by Berkeley Prime Crime, cover price $7.99. Though it was her “Southern Vampire” series that vaulted Harris to national fame when HBO picked up the books for the basis of their “True Blood” series, forget all of that, at least for a little while. Grab a great mystery with a complex main character, a young woman made too old for her years since she was the victim of a horrific crime. Lily Bard moves to a small town to start again, becoming as low-profile as possible. She chooses Shakespeare, Arkansas to amuse herself with its tie into her last name, and paces the streets at night as she wrestles with her PTSD. Unfortunately, she witnesses someone depositing a body in the local cemetery, and feels compelled to report the crime….

No. 5 The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss, cover price $8.99, from Daw Books. This one is definitely for the fantasy, epic journey reader on your list, but, even better, it’s for the folks who DON’T normally read in this genre, either. Rothfuss is a word craftsman, a really skilled technical writer, as well as a heck of a storyteller. Dive into this rich, adventurous novel, and join the rest of us who are dying for the sequel.

No. 6 Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, edited by Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith, published by Harper Perennial, cover price $12. Okay, I know I’m cheating here a little bit on the price, but most bookstores have some kind of discount program; I happen to know an especially good one in this area. :)This is a great book for just about anyone: can you write your life’s story in six words? These six-word memoirs are fascinating, especially as you imagine the story behind them.

No. 7 Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Living on a Budget (2nd revised edition), by Peter Sander, published by Alpha Press, cover price $9.95. Out of the many books on the subject, don’t you agree it’s better to start simple, keep it simple, and best of all, it’s one of the least expensive books on the subject!

No. 8 My Name is Charles Saatchi and I Am an Artoholic, by Charles Saatchi, published by Phaidon Press, cover price $9.95. Phaidon Press published hundreds of great titles, focusing on art, art history, and the work of specific artists, and many of these books are fantastic paperbacks listed at $9.95. Saatchi, with his brother, was the co-founder of one of the largest and most influential global advertising agencies, and his art collection rivaled his business fame. This new title by the normally reclusive Saatchi is a fascinating look at the strange economics of contemporary art.

No. 9 Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, now published by Dell, cover price $7.99: eighteen years after its first publication, this first book in an epic series combining history, romance and fantasy, still regularly populates bestseller lists. I’ve seen many couples who read this series together, following the two main characters back and forth in time from Scotland in the mid 1700s to the Civil War in America to the battlefields of World War II. This is romance with substance and hundreds of pages of adventures.

No. 10 The Bible – for some, a controversial selection; for others, a given. Whether you are a Christian or not, and whether the recipient is a Christian or not, a Bible is still (a) one of the bestselling books, not just of all time, but for any given fiscal year; (b) one of the most-often gifted books, under many different circumstances; (c) a fascinating, confusing, engaging, culturally-relevant read which has the potential to enrich the mind, education, spirit, conversational ability and overall life of the reader. As far as price is concerned, a person can spend a great deal on a Bible, but there are many varieties available for under $10.

So, my friends, I hope you are able to use this list as a springboard: you can still stretch your dollars to stretch your mind, learn a lot, laugh out loud, escape your life, enhance your life and/or change the life of the person with whom you share a book. Happy holidays, and happy reading!

Hobo is too busy getting as close to the heater as possible to comment. He has to concentrate so his fur doesn’t scorch. He says Kasey wrote enough here, anyway, except she forgot to mention that “Hobo Finds A Home” is also less than $10, if you know the right people to ask.