My wonderful wife got me Gear for your Kitchen by Alton Brown. If you enjoy cooking, it’s got great advice on how to shop for the right gear, not to mention great recipes. The only downside is that now I have the desire for more kitchen stuff (KitchenAid Stand Mixer cough cough!)

If you haven’t checked out his show, “Good Eats”, I recommend that you do. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear Alton was an Engineer before he was a TV Chef, his show (and books) combine science with cooking, and is pretty entertaining to boot.