The Ten Commandments of Book Giving

I saw this column, entitled "The Ten Commandments of Book Giving," by Michael Dirda in the Washington Post Book World section while having my breakfast this morning. Dirda is one of the Book World's weekly columnists and he's good (though Jonathan Yardley is the Post's best book critic.) In a recent column Dirda recommended one of the best novels I've read in a long time, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery - it is a fine, fine book. Dirda has always seemed to me a bit of a high-brow critic and "The Ten Commandments of Book Giving" reflects that so I'm not sure his decalogue completely applies to us low-browers. Still, you might get a few pointers when thinking of a book to give.