Gift Idea: Pairing a Book with Some, um, Non-Book Merchandise

And by non-book merchandise, I mean liquor. Cognac, to be specific. Last New Year's my wife and I made Sidecars (cognac, cointreau, lemon juice and sugar...yum), and I really liked them. I also liked having a glass of the leftover cognac after a big meal. The trouble is I only had wine glasses from which to drink it. I don't typically have a bottle of cognac in the house, so it seemed silly to buy a snifter for something I enjoy relatively rarely.

But that doesn't mean I wouldn't want to get one as a gift. This one looks good, and best of all, it can be bought at local independent store The Barkeeper (located down the street from the Cheese Store of Silverlake). But a glass on its own doesn't a great gift make (unless its a wedding gift). So this is where the fun part comes in. Maybe you buy a bottle of cognac to go with the glass. That might get pricey, so a fun alternative would be a book. Maybe a guide to liquor and spirits like The Complete Book of Spirits, by Anthony Dias Blue, or a mixed drink guide, like The Joy of Mixology. Or you could go in another direction, and pick up Kingsley Amis' Everyday Drinking. The man knew from drinking.