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.
Mine's not all that terrible, but I started dating a very nice (and somewhat wealthy) man a few weeks before Christmas. Since we were brand new, I'm sure I got him some thoughtful but inexpensive thing, and he gave me a book. A brand new, hardcover mystery book by Patricia Cornwell that he obviously had laying around and just grabbed. A book would have been a great gift but I don't read mysteries (but felt obligated to read this one) and once we'd have been dating a little longer he would have been able to accurately gauge my reading tastes.
We went out for years and he ended up being a stellar gift giver!
I've read a lot of her stuff and you either really like her or you don't. There's no middle ground.
She was a good writer; it was just the genre. The book was The Body Farm. Yikes!
OMG! That's one of the worst ones, as far as being gore filled. I learned about the body farm and that it's a real place from that book.
That is definitely NOT the book you'd normally give if your were trying to impress. 🤣
Right? Put me off Cornwell, although I read her Jack the Ripper stuff.
I know! By the time she came out with her Ripper stuff, I wasn't into her anymore. I watched the show she made about it though.