Happy Holiday

Desultory Eclecticism first became acquainted with one of its favorite holidays just last year while working in Honduras.  In commemoration of the deaths of Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare (a happy coincidence between the Julian and Gregorain calendars places each demigod's death on April 23 even though they were separated by a few days in Kantian time), and as an addendum to the St. George's Day tradition that compels men to buy roses for their significant others, women are to reciprocate with a book.

Desultory Eclecticism recommends Mikhail Bulgakov's Heart of a Dog.  So inappropriately-titled a gift is sure to precipitate an awkward exchange between you and your significant other as he probes for the symbolic insult you must have intended.  The resulting hours spent in separate rooms cooling off should allow him to get through the book's first few chapters, which chronicle Sharik's heartwarming rise from anti-proletarian stray mutt to Bolshevik cat-catcher in post-Revolutionary Moscow.