Father's Day Gift Ideas: 10 Father's Day Books He'd Never Get For Himself (But He'll Love) (PHOTOS, POLL)

I don't have X-ray vision, but I'm pretty sure that white-collar Dads who can read without moving their lips will get Scott Turow's Innocent for Father's Day. Dads who like sports will get Andre Agassi's autobiography, Open. Dads who have no known hobbies and unimaginative children will get James Patterson.

Nothing wrong with those choices. But let's think different. Let's give Dad a book that no one else in his crowd is getting. A book that will put ideas in his head, delight his senses and provide him with something fascinating to say. Like these....

[Cross-posted from HeadButler.com]

 

Comments

[Norman Jean]

07:36 AM on 06/18/2010

Fathers are not picky, I can say that since I am a father myself. May it be books, or gadgets or just a simple kiss and hug, we appreciate even small gestures. Last year my wife gave me the Art Of Shaving book and a set of wet shaving items which she got online from http://fendrihan.com. I never thought she could choose shaving props that will work great for my skin.

[Tom Matlack]

11:40 PM on 06/15/2010

Great list Jess. For my money, though, I would alway go with McPhee LEVELS OF A GAME.
My dad read it outloud to me as a kids. I can still quote from it.

[Ziona Etzion]

02:23 AM on 06/14/2010

A great gift for father's day is Linchpin by Seth Godin. Today is worldwide Linchpin day...

This book open's one's mind to infinite possibilities.

[Sun-Hoo]

12:35 AM on 06/14/2010

I would add The Stark Truth: The Most Overrated and Underrated Players in Baseball History, a good read for baseball fans. No one captures the duality of human nature better than John Cheever. Mark Oldman is my favorite wine critic.

[Pennsanic]

08:57 PM on 06/13/2010

I'd add "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien. Masterful.

[Aberfeldy]

12:38 PM on 06/13/2010

Okay, HP, enough with the stupid polling on every page, please!

[estonesoaps]

11:55 AM on 06/13/2010

How about a fishing book like,Better Bass Fishing: Secrets from the Headwaters by á Bassmastér

[jukesgrrl]

11:18 PM on 06/11/2010

Interesting list, Jesse. You have a few I was unaware of. My Dad is gone now and was never a reader of anything except reference books. But I have many friends who enjoy books, so I'll save this for holiday time.

[cinemaven]

05:06 PM on 06/11/2010

When I was 11, I asked my dad what he'd like for father's day and he told me he wanted a tin of Quality Street chocolates. I saved up and that's what I got him... every year until he passed away when I was 33. I often asked him if he wouldn't like something else but he would tell me that he looked forward to that tin of chocolates four times a year (birthday, Christmas, anniversary and father's day.. each from a different daughter but, as the oldest, I started it with father's day). I know he really did enjoy them and I usually wished I was the quality street daughter at Christmas because it was hard to know what to get him. Fishing lures were usually a hit and the Popeil Pocket Fisherman I bought him one year was a total success but generally, I wrote for him. It wasn't until he died that I realized that every year, my telling him how great a dad he'd been that year and adding remembrances of our times together at the beach or picking out the christmas tree were all folded and kept in his wallet in a bulky package.

A book is such an impersonal gift for a dad (Unless it's one of George Carlin's tomes as Kane mentions below) .. I think you should let dad find his own book and give him something he actually wants.. ask him, he'll probably tell ya.

[jukesgrrl]

09:50 PM on 06/11/2010

Thanks for sharing that lovely story. Your Dad must have been a great guy.

[Kane]

03:06 PM on 06/11/2010

A couple of years ago I gave to my father, George Carlin's "When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?" and "Napalm and Silly Putty".

My father genuinely enjoyed these laugh out loud books.

[cinemaven]

05:07 PM on 06/11/2010

I think Carlin wrote the only books that are truly appropriate to give a great dad. For the most part, I think books aren't the best gift.

[naschkatze]

09:10 PM on 06/11/2010

If you know it's a book he really wants but doesn't have yet, it's a good gift. But I would be wary of foisting something I love on someone else.

[RDog]

02:14 PM on 06/11/2010

> Alan Furst is a master of a genre that is pretty much his own invention

Furst owes a tremendous debt to Eric Ambler, the true inventor of the genre. Go ahead, ask him.

MS

[c-tom]

09:08 PM on 06/11/2010

Except what Ambler was writing in the 30s and 40s wasn't historical fiction.

[Zweiback]

02:00 PM on 06/11/2010

What about Dave Margolis' "It Was A Very Good Year?" Funny, dark, touching, all about the Empty Nest, mid-life crisis, etc. One reader dubbed it "The Kvetcher in the Wry."

[TankGirlz]

12:50 PM on 06/11/2010

It'd have to be an audio book...sigh

[Leviathan21]

12:16 PM on 06/11/2010

How about the new Christopher Hitchens memoir?

[Reyeshawk]

12:12 PM on 06/11/2010

McPhee is an amazing writer. I would read anything he wrote. "We Were Soldiers Once..." is just to dm depressing a read for me. So many screw-ups, so many unnecessary deaths.