Gift Guide: There’s a book for that

William Ingles of The Book Shop in Iowa City has been selling books since 1963. In that time he's found that this time of year is a great time to let people in on two secrets: 'Reading is fun,” and 'whatever your interest, there's always a book for that.”

Overwhelmed by choices? Just ask people like Ingles.

He and other area bookstore owners partnered with the City of Literature for an event just before Thanksgiving. Armed with stacks of treasures and cups of hot chocolate, they discussed their stores and recommendations for the season.

Nialle Sylvan of The Haunted Bookshop has turned finding the perfect gift into a game.

She asks the shopper to tell her three things about the giftee: 'It can be any three things. Tell me three things and we'll see if we can find something.”

In addition to books, Sylvan also carries a number of stuffed animals ('reading buddies”), as well as wooden toys and other interesting toys designed to help children develop pattern recognition and other skills useful when learning to read.

There also are a number of Iowa-specific gems out there. Greg Delzer of Defunct Books is selling original Paul Engle chapbooks. The poet created these small three-poem collections for the holiday season back in the 1950s. Each is initialed by the author and cost just $8.

'That's a piece of Iowa City. That's a gift someone can take out again each Christmas and remember.”

Delzer also pulled out a remarkable historical illustrated atlas of Iowa from 1875. 'You can buy reprints, but there's something to be said for the actual artifact.”

These booksellers all carry a number of esoteric items, but they also carry a wide range of mainstream titles as well. One favorite of Prairie Lights owner Paul Ingram is the New York Times Bestseller, 'The Paying Guest” by Sarah Waters, a novel about a London mother and daughter in World War I who are forced to take in tenants to help with bills.

'I can't say enough about how much fun this book is. It's a big pleasure.”

But Ingram also demonstrated the depths of the Prairie Lights catalog with a copy of the new National Geographic Atlas of Indian Nations by Anton Troyer.

'If you want to know the history of a culture, get yourself a historical atlas. Then you get the big picture, then you know what happened.”

These booksellers are all committed to providing readers with the big picture, and one bookstore, Uptown Bill's, has a 'mission to include people of all abilities in our selection of books,” says owner Tom Gilsenan.

The store is named after Bill Sackter, a man who spent more than 40 years in a mental institution and later became a champion for people with disabilities.

One of Gilsenan's book recommendations is 'The Soloist” by Steve Lopez, a 'fascinating book” about a Julliard-trained musician whose struggles with schizophrenia drive him to live on the streets.

'Each of us knows people who are living with mental illness and we're struggling to know how to be helpful. So it's a good book for that.”

University Bookstore owner Doug Ward's fifth-grade son Ferguson offered his pick for the season - 'What If” by Randall Munroe - using an entertaining PowerPoint presentation.

In the book, author Munroe, a NASA scientist turned webcomic artist, provides serious answers to seriously funny hypothetical questions such as, 'Is it possible to build a jetpack using downward facing machine guns?”

Matt Lage from Iowa Book had a similar favorite pick: the 'Big Ideas, Simply Explained” series that takes difficult concepts and breaks them down into understandable parts.

'What is arbitrage? If you read this book, you will know.”

And sometimes you need a gift that's just plain fun.

Christina Stanton of The Book End at the Iowa City Public Library has just the item: 'Giant 3-foot-tall kid's books that are really a lot of fun for kids of all ages.”