#1: your "The Princeton Companion.." or any of the great suggestions that you got here
AND THEN
#2: "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas Hofstadter. Best if you can get an old, old beat up paper copy at Amazon. Tell him that if he's lucky it will take him a lifetime to actually "get it". Tell him to keep the book in sight, bedroom, studio.. why not, bathroom. And to just read it not sequentially but at random. That is the best present to a mind thirsty for knowledge.
He might not appreciate it right not, he will appreciate it 30 years from today, if he's lucky.
#1: your "The Princeton Companion.." or any of the great suggestions that you got here
AND THEN
#2: "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas Hofstadter. Best if you can get an old, old beat up paper copy at Amazon. Tell him that if he's lucky it will take him a lifetime to actually "get it". Tell him to keep the book in sight, bedroom, studio.. why not, bathroom. And to just read it not sequentially but at random. That is the best present to a mind thirsty for knowledge.
He might not appreciate it right not, he will appreciate it 30 years from today, if he's lucky.