Christmas wish list, 2017 edition

Anyone have secret, childish wishes for something you hope to find under the tree Christmas morning?

My "list to Santa" would include Pierre Broue's THE GERMAN REVOLUTION (1917-23), Leon Trotcky's HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION (both huge door-stoppers)...and I've been pondering a tablet, for portability and as a reader for the 50+ e-books I've accumulated in the last few years.

I don't see any narrow, seven-foot boxes under the tree so I'll assume my dream of a coat/hatstand by the back door won't be coming to fruition.

I'd be pleased to greet a copy of The Cairo Trilogy, or The Sea of Fertility, but since I didn't mention either of those to anyone I think my chances are fairly nonexistent.

On the other hand, I felt that way last year about In Search of Lost Time and a gift certificate effectively made that appear, so, indirectly there's still hope.

Ah, the fabled gift certificate.

I wish more people would give them out, in lieu of trying to buy me books.

Sadly, even close friends don't understand my tastes AT ALL, their choices usually total misses...

I just need some shelving, actually, at this point. I am really running out of places to put my books and Chris has already filled the huge board game shelf I got him less than a year ago.

>1 CliffBurns: Don't bother with a tablet,. I got one for my birthday last year and I hardly use it. It's no good for writing on as Mobile Office is shit. My TV has a much bigger screen. And I can browse the web perfetly well on my phone.

More shelving would be nice—another bookcase or two to handle the general overflow, even though I keep saying "no more bookshelves."

I love my tablet. I didn't think I'd use it much when I got it as a Christmas gift a few years ago, but it turns out I use it constantly. Mostly as an ereader—for my ebooks, and library ebooks, which I borrow a lot, and for the New Yorker (I usually have a print issue going at home and its e-counterpart on the iPad), the NY Times, the Washington Post. And I like it for all the arts and book and recipe oriented email digests I get. I have a regularly sized phone, not one of the big ones, and I find that just a bit too small to read on. Plus I have a long public transportation commute every day, often much of it standing, and the tablet is easy to heft in a crowd.

I don't like writing on it, but I have other stuff to write on.

Yes, I've dropped a hint about shelving.

After all this time, I've finally seen a use for a tablet/iPad; I was at a meeting last month and one of my colleagues had his agenda, minutes and papers (which I had generated!) on his tablet. "Why didn't I think of that!" I thought. Like lisapeet, I have other devices to write with.

I love my tablet for internet browsing, reading email and reading social media such as FB and library thing. I also like playing games on it. But I still don't like reading a book on a screen (for some reason reading nonfiction articles and such is fine and I can do it for hours but I don't like reading books that way). And everyone upthread is right that they are a big pain to type on. I am a very fast typist and I just get frustrated trying to type on a tablet where I have to constantly be fixing typos because the typing screen is so cramped.

#5--What kind of tablet was it, Ian? I don't have a phone and I thought a tablet might come in handy for Wi-Fi, etc. When we're away from home I have virtually no access to the internet and that can be a pain in the ass.

...and as for typing, what about getting a detachable keyboard? I hate that touch-screen shit...

>9 CliffBurns: It's a Lenovo, with a built-in detachable keyboard. It runs Windows 10. Tablets are not small laptops - everything on them is cut-down. I can see how they might be useful for watching films when you're travelling, always assuming you have access to wifi. They're sod all use without wifi.

Any of these art books will do:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/14/arts/the-best-art-books-of-2017.html?rref=col...

>10 CliffBurns: I have a big-ass 10.5 inch Apple Pro. It's beautiful but I'm still getting used to it.

Merry Christmas to everyone--we're off to spend a few days with family.

Hope you all have a safe, soul-filling holiday season.