Holiday Gift Guide, Part 2: For The Pop Culture Junkie

I'm writing this post from the floor in Terminal B at LaGuardia, because the only outlet I could find was at a Samsung charging station with no seats remotely near it. On my way there, I tripped over a power cord belonging to a guy using the same bank of outlets. He scowled at me and shouted, "You BROKE my computer." This isn't likely, right? Because I'm thinking he was just a grade-A asshole.

Oh right. Merriment! Good will toward men! These are picks for your music or movie lover in the house -- some I've read, some I've been dying to read. (If you have read them, why not let me know where they're any good in the comments?) The overarching theme for these books is not, "I'm a huge fan of X," but "I'd love to know more about X." And if you're heading to a place where you can't get cable, good radio stations or high-profile December releases, a book might be your best chance to do that:

Tyler Gray, THE HIT CHARADE. I just reviewed this book for the A.V. Club so I must needs be brief, but this is a fantastic biography of Lou Pearlman, creator of the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, from seemingly meteoric rise to epic fall. And to go along with yesterday's books on the economy, this has a great explanation of what a Ponzi scheme is, in case you've been hearing that term in the news lately.

Christopher Sandford, POLANSKI: A BIOGRAPHY/ Stefan Kanfer, SOMEBODY: THE RECKLESS LIFE AND REMARKABLE CAREER OF MARLON BRANDO. A bunch of really big biographies hit stores this year, like DARK VICTORY about Bette Davis and NOT THE GIRL NEXT DOOR about Joan Crawford. But I'm singling these two out -- the Sandford I've read, Kanfer I haven't -- as two men whose popular image is pretty divergent from their actual bodies of work. Both of these would go great with, say, a Netflix gift certificate to compare the discussion of works with the works themselves. Maybe I'll be spending some time with Brando in '09. 

Tara Ariano, HEY! IT'S THAT GUY! If your local pop culture geek doesn't own this guide to character actors and the celebration of small parts, she or he is simply missing out. A miniature desk reference with jokes, this book takes actors like J.K. Simmons and Margo Martindale (look them up!) and celebrates their memorable, if brief, turns in movies or on TV. You could just read all the profiles on Fametracker from whence they came, but then you wouldn't be able to take the book to Sundance next year to settle a bet between friends, now would you? 

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, WATCHMEN. With the director of "300" on board, a huge ensemble cast including Patrick Wilson and Billy Crudup and a splashy trailer that played before "The Dark Knight" last summer (you know, the one with the glowing blue dudes!), "Watchmen" is one of the most anticipated releases of 2009. Enjoy the superiority of saying, "The original was better," with a paperback or hardcover collection of the original comic, about an alternate-history Cold War. I just checked this out from the library and look forward to reading it by the light of the Christmas tree.