Early December once again found Santa...

Early December once again found Santa Claus in the paperback section of his favorite bookstore, looking for last-minute gifts. The budget cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency meant he could get away with lumps of coal for the people on the “naughty” list, he figured, but he still needed some presents for the “nice.”

NOMADS OF THE DAWN The Penan of the Borneo Rain Forest by Wade Davis, Ian MacKenzie and Shane Kennedy (Pomegranate Art Books: $24.95; 144 pp.) . The price of overconsumption can be seen in this book. In recent years, the nomadic hunter-gathers of Sarawak have seen their way of life threatened by ruthless clear-cut logging, as these dramatic photographs demonstrate. One Penan woman laments: “We yearn for the sounds of the forest. We have always heard these sounds. . . . To us the sound of the bulldozers is the sound of death.”

After lighting a small fire in the O.J. Simpson section of the bookstore, Santa departed with his traditional apostrophe, “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Read! “