Bookish gifts, Adaptations, and Some Lists

Don't know what to get your literary friends? Vouched compiled a handy gift guide for the bookish types on your list. Out of Print Clothing is pretty cool, too.

Looking to sharpen your mind? Read these books! The Scientific American reports: “As we follow the ups and downs of a carefully crafted story, we build connections within the social and emotional regions of the brain. The result, according to recent research, is a better understanding of other human beings and a deeper empathy for others, leading to improved social skills.”

When's the right age to tell a book it's adapted? At Salon, Laura Miller discusses why adaptations might work better for TV. “Television and the novel, while not exactly soul mates, have a lot more in common than the novel and theatrical film,” she writes.

It's no secret that David Foster Wallace could write novels. But have you seen his insanely intimidating syllabuses? Slate's Katie Roiphe writes about her fascination: “One of the reasons I find his syllabuses so fascinating is that they are not polished pieces of writing. They are relatively devoid of his stylistic rococo, and while obviously not devoid of his astonishing level of self-consciousness, do provide some slight glimpse into the person, without the baffling ingenious mediation of his art.”

And to kick off the year-end lists that are headed our way, here's some great fiction missed by the New York Times, and the most overrated books of 2011.