Professor

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
$29.99
The game is challenging and fun. The end is a problem though-it saves the data but makes you replay it anyway.

So You Want to Be a Professor?: A Handbook for Graduate Students
$63.95
After getting approximately 10 books on how to be a professor for Christmas, I was least impressed with this one, mainly for two reasons.
1. The author seems to be somewhat clueless when it comes to being female or non-white (or disabled or homosexual etc.) in academia. For example, at one point he says he doesn't understand why questions about marital status or children should be banned from the interview.
2. He contradicts himself many times. In the prologue he claims that academia is a meritocracy (something none of the other books I got seem to believe), but later makes it sound like it isn't. Additionally he claims that there are many institutions where research is not important or necessary (also something none of my other books believe), but in later chapters denies this. His chapter on how to overcome teaching anxiety looks pretty good, but I would take the rest of what he says with a grain of salt....

Rubik's Professor Cube 5x5
$29.95
I bought this "5 by 5", as my 13 year old son calls it, for his Cube collection. I haven't seen his eyes since. He puzzles with this thing nonstop. I find it stashed under the covers each morning when I make the bed. It's a great gift, and I am his hero for buying it.

From Student to Scholar: A Candid Guide to Becoming a Professor
$14.95
This slender volume is a practical treasure trove of information for anyone in graduate school who wants to be a professor. I always feel like I was absent the day the handbook of How To Do This was handed out, and that I am just faking my way through this experience, but THIS Is the handbook I was wishing for all along. It deals with the whole process from the dissertation to job searching to interviews to publishing. It maps out the process and includes priceless advice for not only how to conduct oneself but how to get what you need out of the whole process.

Seriously--if you are headed for a life in academia, I cannot recommend this book enough. It is clearly worded and well written and frankly downright indispensable.