if you are in montreal tomorrow you definitely will want to head to drawn&quarterly for the launch of elisabeth belliveau's new book. she'll make you laugh, she'll make you cry. she's a miracle.
if you're looking for a really nice gift for someone, might i suggest one of these: whether your passion is data analysis or you simply enjoy pretty pictures of charts and graphs, these books contain some truly fascinating examples of stats-gone-visual. i'd lend you my copies but i don't own these yet - they were introduced to me at penland by one of my classmates, philip. but mark my words: the next time i have the luxury of owning a bookshelf, these will be placed centre-stage.