Wow!!! Your package arrived from Amazon today, and what awesome picks! I have been absolutely engrossed in the Miyazaki books. Starting Point is a collection of essays ... so far they seem to be aimed at animators but they are fascinating. (Being aimed at animators is not at all a bad thing, I love learning about how things are made, and so I get a lot more from this than I might get from an essay aimed at "laymen" like me). Even stuff he has said in essays back in 1979, 1980, I recognise in his work now. Equally enlightening is the contempt he has for "factory" animation, where the process has been broken up so much that the animator has become a mere pencil pusher, and how this ruthless efficiency translates to crappy anime. Actually it's also worth mentioning John Lasseter's forward - he's the Pixar guy (Toy Story, Bugs Life etc) and I first heard his name when I read the Steve Jobs biography. It's an excellent forward, also incredibly enlightening, and really made me excited to get into the book. In fact, if that is the job of a forward (and I'm not sure that it is, but if it is), then I don't think I have ever read a better forward to a book.

The Howl Art Book ... I have looked at these artbooks before online and been so close to buying one so many times. Well, let me tell you, they are excellent. So much beautiful artwork, which of course I knew it would have, and some commentary on the artwork, which of course it is going to have, but also what I didn't expect is that it is full of short interviews with different people involved in the process. The Art Director, the Supervising Animator, even the guy in charge of the Color Palette. It really is an incredible insight to what goes on in the creation of a movie like Howl. How much research they do (they all went to Alsace in France to experience the architecture, the environment, the light and the colours firsthand). The binding and the printing is of incredibly high quality, and it occurred to me that maybe Ghibli produce these partly as a reward/souvenir for the people who worked on the movie. Well, I'm sure that's not the only reason, but it really does come across as very personal and must be a treasure for those people who have worked on the film.

To say that Hayao Miyazaki is the Steve Jobs (and Jony Ive rolled into one) of anime sounds like a cliché, but it has definitely occurred to me reading this stuff is that what makes them different is that their focus is not in making a successful product, or in making a successful movie, or one that will sell well, or is what people are asking for, or is like a competitor's but different in some small way, but in making an awesome product or movie that they in fact would want to use or see. This was a central theme in Jobs. And of course, they both also have incredible imagination and vision.

I am guessing you are also a fan, or at least familiar, with Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. I've barely posted I think in the /r/ghibli subreddit (it's a very slow subreddit), but I am absolutely a big fan. I have seen pretty much all of Miyazaki's movies, read his Nausicaa manga, and even visited the Ghibli museum on a stopover trip in Japan on my way back to Australia from Europe (where I got to see the famed kittenbus short!). So you really absolutely nailed it. I would not believe that someone who was not a fan picked out these books. I am so glad that when you messaged me asking what to buy, I made you life more difficult by saying "find something we have in common" rather than making your life easy by saying "I want this book".

Rewind a bit now to earlier on in my day. A package arrived from thriftbooks, a secondhand copy of "Montessori Play and Learn" arrived, with ideas of things to do with my son. The thing I admire most in other people is creativity, because it's something I feel I lack. And so it is with my son, I am aware that I could be more creative with how we spend our time. Anyway, so I had looked at this book a while ago and so when it arrived I thought that it was my redditgift, and I must have saved it in an amazon wishlist or something as a reminder to myself. I was very happy, as the book does have some good activities that I am looking forward to doing with him, but to be honest a bit disappointed that (so I thought) you had found my wishlist and bought something that I might well have bought anyway, rather than take a risk and order something that was a complete surprise. Then, when your parcel arrived, I thought ... hang on ... checked my gmail, and it turns out I ordered this back in January and it had taken forever to get here. I must have forgotten to star the email in my gmail, and it just got forgotten. My point being that again, you absolutely nailed it with the "Science Play" book for my son. I read Richard Feynman's autobiography, and remember reading about his father and how his father would really explain things well to his son, and nurtured an interest in science. The young Richard might ask how a tree grew, and his father would reply by questioning Richard about what he thought, and their conversation would take them through all kinds of different concepts. I want to be that father. (Incidentally, Richard Feynman is an incredible explainer of science, and I recommend watching videos on youtube, particularly the excerpts from Horizon where he discusses fire for example, or the electromagnetic field.) My point is, as the fact that I also received the Montessori book today shows, a book like this is very much exactly the kind of thing I want to help give me ideas for things to talk about with my son, and ever since reading Feynman (which was actually long before he was born) I've been looking forward to us exploring science together. He's not quite ready for the stuff in this book yet, but the last two years have flown by and I don't think it will be too long before I'm taking it down off the shelf and doing stuff with him. Actually, there is a recipe for what they call Gooblek in there (a cornstarch solution that has very weird properties) that I might actually make myself just because it's a substance I have heard about but never come into contact with.

Thanks again, anonymous gifter, this gift was incredibly generous and you could not have picked better books. AND, as I just typed "anonymous gifter" I realised that maybe you weren't anonymous and checked the Amazon slip which had some messages from you, and yes you are indeed a Ghibli fan! And a parent! Awesome! I think that this is one of the nicest things about redditgifts ... you get assigned a complete stranger, and hopefully find some common ground that enables you to pick a great gift. And to be honest, I think that the gift from you and also the tea I got from another redditor at Christmas have been two of the best gifts and nicest surprises I have ever received.