Laurie Hertzel at the Star-Tribune has a piece on the book-buying binge Pres. Obama went on over the weekend at Politics & Prose, an independent bookstore in Washington, D.C.

Two of the 21 books he purchased are all-time favorites of mine: “Ragtime” by E.L. Doctorow and “My Antonia” by Willa Cather. The rest of his list looks interesting, too.

My reading this year has mostly been non-fiction, but all of the books below (with links to posts about them) are recommended as gift possibilities:

• “Gods Like Us: On Movie Stardom and Modern Fame,” by Ty Burr
• “Joseph Anton,” a memoir by Salman Rushdie
• “My Pilgrim's Progress: Media Studies 1950-1998” by George W.S. Trow
• “Popular Crime: Reflections on the celebration of violence” by Bill James
• “The House that Ruth Built” by Robert Weintraub
• “56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports” by Kostya Kennedy
• “An Athiest in the FOXhole: A Liberal's Eight-Year Odyssey Inside the Heart of the Right-Wing Media,” by Joe Muto
• Marvel Comics: The Untold Story" by Sean Howe

You? Recommendations?