12 Great Holiday Gift Books for Eclectic Readers
Finding the right gift for a good friend can be tough sometimes. So let’s make it a little easier. This list of books is eclectic. I’m a believer in eclecticism. It promotes diversity and diversity generates strength and wisdom in thought, people, culture and nations. You won’t find these books on the current bestseller list, or cramming your eyeballs on Amazon, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t great. Maybe you’ve forgotten they existed or missed them entirely. Being eclectic, they cover a lot of ground — history, adventure, thrillers, travel, comedy, science fiction, with links and a summary for each. We’re certain that if you buy these as gifts, your friends and family will keep you off their naughty list for a very long time.
Free Holiday Gifts - 2024
Easy ways to get free copies of these great stories.
When you or a friend sign up for our newsletter, we’ll also email the e-book version of Clement Clarke Moore’s classic poem, published over 110 years ago, ’Twas the Night Before Christmas with an updated prologue. Or you can buy it in the Vagabond Adventure Store for $2.99 and print it out for the kids!
We are also giving away e-book copies of Doppelgänger to the first 25 people who request them. Contact me with a brief email and I’ll happily send you your free coupon so you can immediately download the book or forward it free to a friend as a gift. We want to give these away as gifts for Vagabonds so please take advantage. No strings attached!
Get this book bundle for only $18.95 below the already discounted prices for the individual books.
For the holidays we’re making several books in our store available only to you as fellow Vagabonds. For only $18.95 - even lower than the already discounted sales price - you can get a 3 pack bundle of these books, each signed by Chip Walter. Get your signed copy of Doppelgänger, Last Ape Standing, and Thumbs, Toes and Tears by visiting the Vagabond Adventure Store. While you’re there, look for other great gifts for the holidays and beyond.
Onto The Books…
1. The Blue Nile by Alan Morehead - History
In the first half of the nineteenth century, only a handful of Westerners had ventured along the Nile River on its long journey south into Africa - lands that had been forgotten since Roman times, or never known at all. With this book, Alan Moorehead captures the masterful adventure he began with The White Nile, told through the lives of four explorers -- each facing slavery and massacre, political upheaval and all-out war. If you love history and adventure, this is a book you want to open. Beautifully written. An absolute gem that I have re-read more than once.
2. Dominion by C.J. Sansom — Alternate History (Britain capitulates in 1940)
1952. Twelve years have passed. Britain makes terms with Nazi Germany in 1940 rather than go to war. The British people find themselves under increasingly authoritarian Nazi rule. But Churchill's Resistance soldiers on.
A fascinating look at what might have been in 1940 and a cautionary tale for all of us today. What I like about this novel is Sansom’s creation of rich, real characters to go along with his reinvention of the future.
3. The Best of Jeeves and Wooster by P. G. Wodehouse - Comedy
P.G. Wodehouse, the master of British humor, captured the world's imagination with his bumbling, empty-headed, man-about-town Bertie Wooster and his faithful butler Jeeves. Here are eleven of Wodehouse's short stories as well as two hilarious novels, all hilarious. This collection even contains the one-and-only story narrated by Jeeves himself! If you love classic dry, British humor and send ups of the upper classes, give this book to yourself or a friend, but buy it. If you enjoy audio books, I highly recommend reading the book that way. Narrator Kevin Theis brilliantly captures all Wodehouse's many amusing characters perfectly.
4. Here Is New York by E. B. White - History/Commentary
Perceptive, funny, and nostalgic, E. B. White's stroll around Manhattan remains the quintessential love letter to the city, written by one of America's foremost literary figures. The New York Times has named Here is New York one of the ten best books ever written about the metropolis, and The New Yorker calls it "the wittiest essay, and one of the most perceptive, ever done on the city." There’s nothing else to say except few writers have mastered the English language better than White. What an eye for detail and human insight. Classic.
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Jot your own notes, thoughts, and recommendations on your own travel adventures in this beautiful Machu Picchu Spiral Traveler's Journal. Available in the Vagabond-Adventure store. |
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Jot your own notes, thoughts, and recommendations on your own travel adventures in this beautiful Machu Picchu Spiral Traveler's Journal. Available in the Vagabond Adventure store. Support of our store also helps support our travel. |
5. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt - Defies any genre
A story about Tova Sullivan who has lost her husband and, earlier in life, her son. Tova develops a remarkable friendship with a curmudgeonly octopus named Marcellus. Is it possible to write a soulful mystery like this that makes any sense? In Shelby Van Pelt’s hands, yes, yes, yes.
Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared 30 years earlier. Now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late.
Unique, tender, uplifting.
6. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart - Science Fiction
First published in 1949, Earth Abides is one of the most influential science-fiction novels of the twentieth century. It’s still fresh and provocative; a story of an apocalyptic pandemic, societal collapse, and rebirth.
Ish is one of the few humans to escape the pandemic and soon begins a life-long journey that reveals the resilience of the planet and the humans who populate it.
This book is unlike any you’ve read in this genre. All of the story is told through Ish’s calm, insightful eyes and this is what makes the novel, along with its premise, absolutely impossible to put down.
7. Salt, a World History by Mark Kurlansky - History (Audio book by Scott Brick)
Mark Kurlansky has a knack for diving into one subject so deeply that he turns it into a riveting saga. In this case salt. The only rock we eat (and if we don’t, we die), salt has shaped civilization and the history of the human race. It is so valuable that it has served as currency, influenced the establishment of trade routes, provoked and financed wars, secured empires, and inspired revolutions. Populated by colorful characters and filled with an unending series of fascinating details, Salt is riveting. The research that is the foundation of this book boggles the brain.
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Last Ape Standing: The Seven-Million-Year Story of How and Why We Survived. An international bestseller translated into four languages. Get the paperback for $5.99 during the holidays. Why did the line of ancient humans who eventually evolved into us survive when the others were shown the evolutionary door? |
8. Around the World in 80 Days by Michael Palin (not Jules Verne though we recommend that one too) - Travel
Michael Palin has done some traveling in his lifetime, and written about it with insight and wit while he was at it. In this book he follows in the footsteps of the fictional Phileas Fogg (Verne’s hero), and takes the same route. From the opulence of the "Orient Express" to the lurching progress of an Egyptian camel, from the hot and lively streets of Madras to the lofty heights of a hot-air balloon over Colorado, there is never a dull moment in his hilarious account of the journey. You may recall that Palin is one of the members of Monty Python, the hysterical British comedy troop. That humor reveals itself throughout Palin's travel writing and is one of the reasons the book is such a joy.
9. Eye of the Needle by Ken Follet - Thriller/Mystery
1944. In the weeks leading up to D-Day, the Allies are disguising their invasion plans with elaborate decoys of ships and planes in the hopes of gaining the upper hand in World War II. But a Nazi spy working in England learns of the plans. “The “Needle” is Hitler’s prize undercover agent – a ruthless, assassin. After leaving a trail of bodies in his wake, he races to a U-boat waiting to convey his critical message, but he hasn’t planned for a storm-battered island and the remarkable young woman who lives there . . . Just a brilliant story and a unique kind of thriller with real heart and emotion. Follett even manages to somehow make the Needle human and vulnerable, and therefore much more interesting than your average villain.
10. The Enormous Room by E.E. cummings - Memoir
The Enormous Room is a 1922 autobiographical novel by the poet and novelist E. E. Cummings about his temporary imprisonment in France during World War I. Cummings served as an ambulance driver during the war. In late August 1917 his friend and colleague, William Slater Brown, was arrested by French authorities as a result of antiwar sentiments. When questioned, Cummings stood by Brown and was also arrested. This book changed my life when I read it at 19. Cummings reveals the soaring optimism that makes his poetry great and his description of the people he meets makes you happy to be a member of the human race. It will move and change you, a Cummings specialty
11. The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein - Non-Fiction/Commentary
The defining term Klein uses in her book is “disaster capitalism.” At the core of disaster capitalism is the use of cataclysmic events to advance radical privatization combined with the privatization of the disaster response itself. Klein argues that by capitalizing on crises, created by nature or war, the disaster capitalism complex now exists as a booming new economy, and is the violent culmination of a radical economic project that has been incubating for fifty years. You may or may not agree with Klein’s premise, but reading the book will shake you up and cause you to rethink capitalism. That’s a good thing because every premise should be questioned.
12. The Long Goodbye - by Raymond Chandler (Mystery)
Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett invented the noir, hard-boiled detective. But Chandler, as one reviewer once noted, “writes like a slumming angel,” and that gives his writing a touch of Shakespeare. In The Long Goodbye, detective Philip Marlowe befriends a down on his luck war veteran with the scars to prove it. Soon Marlowe finds himself in the kind of trouble only Chandler can create - smoky, complex, brilliantly written with the kind of wit that makes you laugh out loud sometimes. “My mouth felt like the inside of a chauffeur’s glove.” The mystery is compelling, but it’s Chander’s writing that keeps you turning the page. He’s often been imitated, but rarely improved upon. I’ve re-read the book more times than I can count, just for the mastery of the language.
Looking for More Great Reads?
The 10 Greatest Travel-Adventure Books Ever (At Vagabond Adventure)
Traveling is wonderful, but there are some places you simply can’t explore because time has left them behind. Luckily we have writers, adventurers and books. Over the years I’ve read a few. These are my 10 favorites. Each one changed the way I looked at the world. My guess is they’ll change your life too.
Following the release of my fifth literary science book, Immortality, Inc. — Renegade Science, Silicon Valley Billions and the Quest to Live Forever for National Geographic, The Week magazine asked me to suggest six of my all-time favorite science books. I could have come up with dozens, but these six are timeless, and the ones I feel have had a profound effect on me.
What are your favorite books, eclectic or not? Please share yours in the comments…