I hate getting books for Christmas in general because I’m such a mood reader, and I’ve plastered a fake smile on my face many a time and repeated internally ‘Its the thought that counts.’ as I unwrap a book I will not read.
But the worst one by far, given to me by my own Mother , who I know loves me, when I was fourteen years old! was >!Men are from Mars Women are from Venus.!< I am sitting there horrified thinking what is she trying to tell me? As my sisters are flat on the floor laughing to the point of puking. We eventually came to the conclusion she just saw an attractive cover on a bestseller table and grabbed it. Love to know your terrible gift stories.
My ex-wife’s father once bought me a subscription to the Reader’s Digest. He thought I liked it because I used to read it whenever we visited them. I read it because there was nothing else in his house worth reading. He was a high-school German teacher and a former Lutheran minister, and all the reading material in his house was either Lutheran theology, or conservative politics, or was written in German --plus there was the Reader’s Digest.