Willamette Week | Gift Guide 1 | $35 and Up

Literary License
BY SUSAN WICKSTROM

RABBIT IS A DOORSTOP
The New Yorker was founded by old white guys and furthered by the same. One prolific standout is John Updike, who just published his 50th book. More Matter: Essays and Criticism ($35, Barnes & Noble, 1231 NE Broadway, 283-2800) is a fat volume of eight years' worth of his prose, most of which was originally published in the highbrow magazine. The tome is a self-aggrandizing monument that displays his many literary talents, packed with comments and opinions on nearly everything from literature, movies, art, music and culture as well as revealing personal reflections. If you think Updike's fiction is boring, you'll find these 900 pages of nonfiction stultifying. But plenty of people admire Updike as an icon; he is an author from which younger writers can learn puh-lent-y. Give this book to your favorite old white guy or any aspiring writer.

TRICKLE-DOWN FICTION
Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan by Edmund Morris ($35, Looking Glass Bookstore, 318 SW Taylor St., 227-4760) got a lot of press when it was published because the author used the unusual vehicle of a fictional character to tell the true story of former President Ronald Reagan. Many people were critical; others, such as Reagan's own son Ron, hailed it as a brilliant approach that served to reveal the inscrutable politician. No matter how you feel about old Ronnie, this biography is different from every other biography ever written. Give it to your favorite Republican or history buff. Perhaps that fictional character is actually whomever (or whatever) Reagan spent eight years mumbling to when he was president.

BEYOND GODZILLA
Hayao Miyazaki's classic animated movie Princess Mononoke is, after Titanic, the highest-grossing film in Japan, as well as a critical success. Animation freaks in this country were thrilled when the story of a girl raised by wolves finally made its way here this fall. Like Disney, Miyazaki elevated animation to high art. Now you can delight your own animation lover with Princess Mononoke: The Art and Making of Japan's Most Popular Film of All Time ($39.95, Borders, 708 SW 3rd Ave., 220-5911). This hefty volume provides a step-by-step analysis of how the movie was created, including computer-generated three-dimensional images. It also contains color photographs of the movie's most amazing scenes.

GATES OF HEAVEN
Henry Louis Gates Jr. has devoted his career and life to furthering universal understanding of the African-American experience. He traveled to Africa to explore the continent's history and lost civilizations. His trip resulted in a PBS television series and a companion book, Wonders of the African World ($40, Twenty-Third Avenue Books, 1015 NW 23rd Ave., 224-5097). Gates' insightful observations are accompanied by incredible photographs taken by acclaimed artist Lynn Davis. Though the kids today may think Gates is out of touch with the African-American community, he certainly knows what he's talking about when it comes to Africa's history and its effect on the modern world.

GET A LIFE
As the 20th century winds down, an avalanche of books attempts to recap the past hundred years. Life: Our Century in Pictures ($65, Annie Bloom's Books, 7834 SW Capitol Highway, 246-0053) may be the best of the lot. Year after year, Life magazine has published some of the most evocative and provocative photographs of the American experience: the sailor kissing a woman at World War II's end, John-John saluting his dead dad, etc. These famous and fascinating pictures are enhanced by essays from esteemed historians such as David M. Kennedy, Garry Wills, Paul Saffo and Ann Douglas. This book isn't just for history geeks--think pictures, lots of big, glossy pictures. Of course, centurians will also appreciate the visual timeline.

I'M TOO SEXY FOR THE SHELF
Slip into something more comfortable with this millennium wrapper. The Century of Sex: Playboy's History of the Sexual Revolution 1900-1999 by James R. Petersen and Hugh Hefner ($35, Tower Books, 1307 NE 102nd Ave., 253-3116) presents a comprehensive overview of sex's important role in our culture. The book is divided into decades, from the 1900s when spermicidal jelly and psychoanalysis first appeared, to the 1990s when cybersex and Viagra radicalized the sexual landscape. The photos are evidence of how sex is absorbed into our culture through movies, books, music, scandal, advertising and, of course, magazines such as Playboy. The research is mostly anecdotal, but the entire package makes a fun romp through sexland seem academic and sort of respectable.

TAKE A DIVE
Anyone who has snorkeled or scuba-dived will attest to the fact that there is a whole other world under the sea. Now you can share the magic with those who don't want to get wet. Wild Ocean: America's Parks Under the Sea by Sylvia Earle and Wolcott Henry ($40, Powell's Travel Store, 701 SW 6th Ave., 228-1108) gives treehuggers something new to embrace. The U.S. National Marine Sanctuary System is a group of underwater wildlife preserves scattered from Washington state's Olympic Coast to American Samoa to the Florida Keys. This gorgeous National Geographic book is flooded with photographs that reveal the mysteries of the ocean and all the critters that live there.

LAND HO
The white man's settlement of the Pacific Northwest was a long, hard road. But he persevered; money is a great motivator. Now Vancouver, B.C., map collector Derek Hayes has compiled 320 reproductions of original area maps in Historical Atlas of the Pacific Northwest: Maps of Exploration and Discovery ($35, Borders-Tigard, 16920 SW 72nd Ave., 968-7576). Gaze upon the same charts that sea navigators such as Drake and Cook used, as well as the maps created by overland explorers like Mackenzie and Lewis and Clark. The book is an interesting history of how this region was methodically claimed and sold. An engrossing read, it proves that the Native Americans were dead wrong when they claimed the land belongs to us all.

BLUE XXX-MAS
Christmas and pornography are two concepts that most of us try not to commingle, but it may be necessary to do so when it comes to buying gifts for that weird uncle or loner brother. Besides, Pornstar by Ian Gittler ($35, Powell's, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651) isn't all that dirty. Gittler began photographing pornographic movie stars in an odd attempt to legitimize the business. He thought a tasteful coffee-table art book would elevate porn into the mainstream. But once he started hanging out in that grim world, he realized it was a separate place that most people will never know. His book is filled with his photographs--some graphic, some sad--as well as his detailed account of the underworld he infiltrated. The book comes shrink-wrapped for your protection.