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Things You'd Never Search For
Most gift shopping starts with a search, and a search starts with a noun the shopper already knows. That is why so many presents feel familiar before they are opened. The interesting ones are the things you would not have known to type.
Nobody searches for a dictionary of sorrows that have not been named, or for a field guide to being lost, or for a sealed bottle of liquid that spikes when a magnet approaches. That is the argument for a cabinet. Someone else already went looking.
Why these
- Search rewards the obvious. These are the objects a search would not surface as a gift.
- Some are books with peculiar jobs: a dictionary of unnamed feelings, an encyclopedia in a script nobody can read, a novel that arrives as a box of pieces.
- The rest are single-purpose oddities: a maze in a sphere, a kaleidoscope you build, a bagel guillotine, a bottle of magnetic liquid.
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Has everything · No. 06
Perplexus Original
A clear sphere with a three-dimensional maze inside. You tilt the whole world to move one small ball.
Oddity 
Gift for: fidgeters, coworkers, travelers
Under $25 · No. 12
Nature Kaleidoscope Kit
A kit for building a kaleidoscope, then filling the end with dried flowers, stones, and whatever small thing you add later.
Oddity
Gift for: makers, designers, fidgeters
Never search for · No. 16
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
John Koenig's dictionary of invented words for emotions the old words do not quite cover.
Oddity
Gift for: writers, readers, partners
Never search for · No. 18
A Field Guide to Getting Lost
Rebecca Solnit's essays on wandering, blue distance, and the uses of not knowing where you are.
Oddity
Gift for: writers, readers, travelers
Has everything · No. 05
S. (Ship of Theseus)
A novel printed as a library book, stuffed with margin notes, letters, and loose inserts you have to keep in order.
Oddity
Gift for: readers, writers, partners
From the future · No. 15
Ferrofluid Kit
A sealed display of magnetic liquid and two magnets, so someone can pull spikes out of a black puddle without a cleanup.
Oddity
Gift for: scientists, makers, coworkers
Under $25 · No. 10
Bagel Slicer
A small guillotine that holds a bagel still and splits it without the usual drama.
Oddity
Gift for: cooks, hosts, coworkers
From the future · No. 19
Crookes Radiometer
A glass bulb with black-and-white vanes that spin when light hits them, and sit still in the dark. No battery, no motor.
Oddity
Gift for: scientists, desk dwellers, coworkers
Shouldn't exist · No. 20
Mirascope
Two parabolic mirrors that project a small object so it appears to sit on top of the dish. A finger goes through it.
Oddity
Gift for: fidgeters, designers, coworkers
Never search for · No. 21
Codex Seraphinianus
Luigi Serafini's encyclopedia of an invented world, written in a script nobody can read, with diagrams of creatures that do not exist.
Oddity
Gift for: designers, writers, readers
Has everything · No. 22
Building Stories
Chris Ware's graphic novel as a box of fourteen separate pieces: books, pamphlets, a newspaper, a board, and scraps you can lose in a real apartment.
Oddity
Gift for: readers, writers, designers
Shouldn't exist · No. 23
Pythagorean Cup
A ceramic cup with a hidden siphon. Fill it to the line and it is a cup. Fill it past the line and the whole drink runs out the bottom.
Oddity
Gift for: hosts, scientists, partners
Never search for · No. 34
Science Tarot
A 78-card tarot deck whose pictures are scientists, discoveries, and the odd habits of the physical world.
Oddity
Gift for: readers, scientists, writers
Never search for · No. 30
Tim Bird
A rubber-band ornithopter with a 15.5-inch wingspan. Wind it, toss it, and the wings flap hard enough to fly.
Oddity
Gift for: makers, scientists, partners
Never search for · No. 37
Otamatone
A Japanese note-shaped instrument. Slide a finger along the stem for the pitch, and squeeze the mouth for the wobble.
Oddity
Gift for: partners, makers, coworkers
From the future · No. 31
MicroKits Theremin
A solderless kit for an instrument you play by moving your hands through an electric field. Breadboard, parts, batteries, and a booklet are in the box.
Oddity
Gift for: makers, scientists, fidgeters
Shouldn't exist · No. 38
Wandini Glow.0
A rechargeable LED wand on a thin black string. Loop it on a finger and the light seems to float while the hand draws.
Oddity
Gift for: partners, designers, fidgeters