Need a gift book to satisfy even the most niche person on your list? We've got it
This is one of those annual stories in which the writer tries to convince you to give books as holiday gifts. And not just any books - pricey, oversize books, light on text, heavy on photos, so narrowly defined that, well, yes, Virginia, there really is a new coffee-table book for your cousin who seriously misses old horror-movie ads in newspapers, "Ad Nauseam: Newsprint Nightmares from the 1980s" ($35, 1984 Publishing). And a new coffee-table book for your dad who won't shut up about someday visiting the 2,500-square-foot mural at Cornell University called the Wall of Birds; "The Wall of Birds" ($45, Harper) is part "Birds of America," part contemporary account of that very singular achievement.
Anyway, I stand by my decision to nudge you in the direction of large, costly books.
Last summer, on one of those Chicago mornings when rain looks days away, I left windows open next to tall stacks of big illustrative keepsakes. When I returned home that night, beloved suitcase-size volumes about dinosaurs, Laurie
