Linda, I do hope our son gets his wish to study in Japan. I think the NYT recently had an article about book covers which I think was a list of the best ones for this year. I love this post about books, the hand held ones. My husband and I have a tradition where we buy each other books for Christmas and then hand them out one at time after we have read the book we have. We do give each other a list, but often add something we think the other will enjoy. We have a house full of books and the floor to ceiling shelves in the den need some work, so that we can shelve some of the newer ones. We are both voracious readers and while some of what we read overlaps, we each also have our own interests.