Cheap Gifts!

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UNDER $40

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Custom Bobblehead Dolls (Whoopass Enterprises, $39.95)

"You're a doll," said to a loved one, is a cliché, but thanks to Jaeson Rosenfeld, Anthony DiMaggio, and Darby Bringham, it can become a reality. The process is simple. First, go to www.whoopassenterprises.com and decide which body your bobblehead will haveis he muscular or does he have a beer belly? Is she wearing a T-shirt and pants or a bikini? Or is it not even a person but a turkey, pig, or jackass? Then, upload a JPEG of your recipient's facea single frontal head shot will do fine, giving the artists a general shape and features to re-create. Soon, the sincerest form of flattery will be bouncing from the neck up on the desk of an acquaintance of your choice. Completely custom dolls, with bodies made to your specifications, are available for $70 plus shipping; customerservice@whoopassenterprises.com. MICHAELANGELO MATOS

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Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph (Aperture, $35)

Of her expeditions into nudist camps, homes for the mentally handicapped, and birthday parties of cross-dressers in the '60s, photographer Diane Arbus said, "It's a little bit like walking into an hallucination without being quite sure whose it is." This is very much the case with looking at Arbus' anthropological images. In Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph (the 25th anniversary, 184-page oversize paperback edition goes for $24.50 on Amazon.com), a portrait of a small boy in Central Park in 1962 shows him stretching his face into a bizarre grimace. His suspendered short pants are strangely askew, in one hand he holds a toy hand grenade, and the other hand is curled into a snarled frozen grasp while remaining empty. You don't know if he's on drugs or if you are. It is possible to "read" this book of black-and-white photography in the same way that one would read a collection of Burroughs stories. A perfect gift for those who love to recall the '60s, as well as those who obsess about missing themand also all your Williamsburg-wanna-be buddies. Arbus, who committed suicide in 1971, taught at the Rhode Island School of Design and Parsons, and the hard copies of her channeled hallucinations would make uneasy yet incredible visual accompaniments for any art-punk band around. LAURA CASSIDY

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Happy Naked Girls by Andrew Einhorn (Goliath, $37.95)

Truth in advertising will out: The women in New York photographer Andrew Einhorn's new, sturdy little volume of black and whites, are indeed naked, and they do indeed look happy. Or maybe playful is more like itEinhorn captures his subjects seeming completely at ease with themselves, usually in their own apartments, and frequently with their cats sharing the frame with them. (Insert Freudian slip here.) They're also very New Yorkforthright, resilient without being brittle, ready for whatever, exceptionally diverse. M.M.

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UNDER $30

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The Billboard Book of Number One Hits by Fred Bronson (Billboard Books, $27.95)

Watching the top of the Billboard charts has become a mite depressing, not because pop music sucks (it doesn't, at least not any more than usual), but because its biggest examples have become so extremely omnipresent. For instance, the 52 weeks of 2002 were divided among a whopping eight No. 1 hits. You might think that in the face of such homogenization, the latest update of Fred Bronson's compendium of page-long, 700-word profiles of the most popular songs in the country (for example, Clay Aiken's June chart-topper, "This Is the Night") would have no interest at all. But you'd be wrong. As he has since its earliest printings, Bronson seems to relish the stories behind each of the entries in The Billboard Book of Number One Hits, and his fascination comes through even if you don't particularly care for the song or the artist in question. M.M.

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Clue 1949 First Edition (Winning Moves, $29.95)

Was it Col. Mustard in the ballroom with the candlestick? The board game Clue has been a part of pop culture for decades, spawning even a Tim Curry feature film with three different endings. But it's the classics that endure. Retro board game experts Winning Moves have replicated the 1949 first edition of Clue: The Great Detective Game (ages 8 and up), complete with original artwork and game pieces, including the metal gun and slightly bent lead pipe. Every part of this replica feels substantial, and a 12-page bonus booklet details Clue's history, versions (note the rare "Sherlock Holmes" edition), and tips. But you still have to figure out who committed the murder with what weapon in which room of the mansion out of 324 possible combinations . . .hey . . . put down that pipe wrench! www.winning-moves.com. FRANK CATALANO

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The Game Makers by Philip E. Orbanes (Harvard Business School Press, $29.95) That beaten-up copy of Monopoly in your closet has a storied historyas do Sorry, Nerf, Trivial Pursuit, Risk, and something called Innocence Abroad. All are games that came out of the firm that George Parker began, as a teenager, 120 years ago. This fascinating new history of the pioneering game maker, by games historian and former Parker Brothers executive Philip Orbanes, is based in part on the never-before- published personal archives of Parker. From its start in 1883 with the card game Banking through Parker Brothers' ultimate home as a brand at toy giant Hasbro, The Game Makers follows how Parker developed 12 "rules" to guide his business decisions for decades. But feel free to focus on the Boggle instead of the business. The history of Parker Brothers is the history of the games we all grew up with. www.harvardbusinessonline.com. F.C.

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Heartaches by the Number: Country Music's 500 Greatest Singles by David Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren (Vanderbilt University Press/Country Music Foundation Press, $27.95)