On the occasion in the UK of World Book Day (previously mentioned here) the Guardian asked 45 writers to nominate which books they like to give away. They received some fascinating replies. Salman Rushdie likes to give The Arabian Nights; John Lanchester likes to give Denis Johnson’s short story collection Jesus' Son; for William Boyd, it’s Nabokov’s unsurpassed puzzle, Pale Fire; and Margaret Atwood keeps four or five copies of Lewis Hyde’s The Gift on hand “for swift giving to people who need them” - usually discouraged artists. It will be interesting to see the impact digital publishing has on the purchase of books as gifts.
Do you give books as gifts? What book have you gifted most?