For the Retro Pop Culture Book Lover on Your Holiday Gift List

Images courtesy of Amazon.com.

Tis' the season for holiday shopping, and what better gift to satisfy the retro pop culture lover than a book? Here are some new ones I recently came across...

First up is PoPsie: Popular Music Through the Camera Lens of William "PoPsie" Randolph by Michael Randolph and foreword by Quincy Jones. William "Popsie" Randolph was a photographer who was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time: just about any recording studio or nightclub from the 1940s until his death in 1978, which means his photographs capture a who's who of anyone on the music scene in the mid-20th century. Lucky him. Among those his lenses preserved are Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Elvis, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and The Rolling Stones. Each photograph is introduced with text by his son Michael, who chose the best among his father's 60,000 negatives. Hardcover, 226 pages, retails for $19.77 at Amazon.

Next, for the TV fan there's the book Sitcoms: The 101 Greatest TV Comedies of All Time by Ken Bloom, Frank Vlastnik, and John Lithgow. The book celebrates situation comedies from television's 60-year history, with chapters chock full of trivia, cast lists, and behind the scenes looks at everything funny that graced the small scene from I Love Lucy to Seinfeld. Hardcover, $19.77 on Amazon, 336 pages.

Lastly, who among us who knits hasn't always said to themselves, "I wish I knew how to make a Mr. T or Queen Elizabeth doll?" Well, now you can satisfy your sick yearning soul with Knitted Icons: 25 Celebrity Doll Patterns by Carol Meldrum. Other celebs who have their images violated by worsted wool include all four Beatles, Madonna, Elvis, and some unusual personalities including Chairman Mao and Che Guevara. What, no Ralphie from A Christmas Story in there? Sure to become a cult classic knitting book, it comes in hardcover, 112 pages, and retails for only $10.85 on Amazon. Happy shopping! Be sure to use an Amazon code when you order!