I judge books against other gifts that proliferate during the holiday season

Bob Greene : Most Christmas gifts are ephemeral, except books.

Greene: I judge books against other gifts that proliferate during the holiday season .

He says properly chosen and appropriately gifted books are far less subject to disuse, on account of wisdom they contain, or breakage.

Greene says many books are aligned with his interests or obsessions during a given year .

A decade later , my mother gave me Essential Manners for Men : What to Do, When to Do It, and Why by Peter Post .

I don't think I especially appreciated either at the time, but I now find that I am more fascinated in discerning my parents' hopes for me, through the books they picked out, than in remembering my own hopes for myself.