Poor Charlie English. He went to Qikiqtarjuaq to build an igloo with an Inuit expert but they had the wrong kind of snow so the roof fell in. He went to Chamonix to mountain-ski to Zermatt but got a savaging by an archetypally sadistic French mountain guide. He went to the Klondike, read a lot of gung-ho stuff by Jack London, heard too the call of the ptarmigan but strayed out on to the thin ice of a glacial lake without realising it. Yes, The Snow Tourist (Portobello, £14.99/offer £13.49) is about a tragic passion. The story of Mr English's feeling for snow makes a book as delicious as a double chocolat liégeois and, as a plate of tartiflette is stuffed with calories, so the volume is rammed with random information - literature, painting, photography, science, history, zoology ... did you know that the ice crystals in a glacier can grow to the size of a cricket ball?

Obsessed, lui? I'd say so, but the white stuff gets people that way. White Weekends (Bantam, £20/£18) by Tom Robbins is one of the timeliest publications of the season since early snow in Europe plus tougher economic times inclines skiers to favour minibreaks. An authoritative and temptingly illustrated handbook, it's organised under headings such as Glamour, Budget, Kids, Extreme or Party. Similarly, and equally irresistible, The Book of Surfing: The Killer Guide (Transworld, £20/£18) by Michael Fordham tells you everything you'd ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask in case you sounded just gay - “quasi-homophobic term for anything regarded as uncool”. Yup, there's a dudish glossary. Also black-and-white photos of surfing heroes in retro trunks, blueprints for boards, loving descriptions of waves and idiot-proof guides to finding and understanding surf. Art, folklore, VW camper vans, it's all there.

The Good Tourist (Arcadia, £11.99/£10.79), the collected wisdom of Lucy Popescu and her colleagues in the human rights movement, is written for the traveller who doesn't wish to leave their conscience in the long-stay parking. Popescu focuses on 15 destinations, some expected: Burma, Turkey, China, and some surprising: Australia, the US, the Maldives. In each there's an appreciation of the beauties of the location, followed by a clear assessment of what the tourist board doesn't want you to see, and a practical guide to what you can do to make life better for the population.

Almost 40 years ago, the American writer Paul Theroux defined adventuring for his generation. Now his sons, Louis and Marcel, are at the cutting edge and Theroux senior has retraced his original train journey from London through the Middle East and Asia in Ghost Train to the Eastern Star (Hamish Hamilton, £20/£18). That which was daring then reads a mite pervy now, as in “pornography offers the quickest insight into the ... inner life of a nation”. He finds that Madras has quadrupled in size, phenomena including tuk-tuks, call centres and the tsunami have ravaged the world and Singapore has finally lifted the ban on Saint Jack, his novel of that city.

If you only buy one book this Christmas make sure it's...

Michael Parkinson, Sheila Hancock, Roger Moore, Elaine Paige and Andrew Castle pick out some perfect reading for the festive period

BACKGROUND

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Gifts

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Fiction

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Crime

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Biography and memoir

• Christmas bestsellers

BACKGROUND

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Art

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Food

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Music

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Travel

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Children's audiobooks

BACKGROUND

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Film & theatre

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Graphic Novels

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Back to basics

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Poetry

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Children's 2-10

From another great rail traveller comes Jonathan Dimbleby's Russia: A Journey to the Heart of a Land and its People (BBC, £25/£22.50), a proper book among the seasonal celebrity detritus. The tale of a journey from Vladivostok to St Petersburg, it's strong on reportage and history but still twinkling with an enthusiasm that makes light of the mighty task.

With flexible friends suddenly less amenable to long-haul jaunts, many of us will be happy to rediscover the UK this year. Depending on your taste, you may enjoy Lyttelton's Britain (Preface, £14.99/£13.49), a wonderful compilation of essays by the late Humphrey Lyttleton put together by his Radio 4 producer, Iain Pattinson, a man with a keen appreciation of the puns, double entendres and other aural gags that delighted audiences for so long. Bemused visitors from the US will feel much better after A Field Guide to the British (Quercus, £14.99/£13.49) by Sarah Lyall, a New York Times reporter who meditates wittily on class, circumlocution and non-cosmetic dentistry. Icons of England (Think, £14.99/ £13.49) is a wonderful art book that is an icon in itself, with essays from many great writers on their favourite English sights.

And finally - if there was one book published this year that delivered total bliss and joy, it is Patisseries of Paris (The Little Bookroom, £10.99) by Jamie Cahill. With illustrations. Millefeuilles. Chaussons. Chocolatines. Sultanes. Cornes de gazelles from La Mosquée. Babas au rhum. Tartes aux fruits rouges. More petits fours than there are in heaven.

Explore Books

• Book Extracts

• Book Reviews

• Books Group

• Audio Books

Times Recommends

• The 100 Best Books of the Decade
• The Times picks the 50 best paperbacks of 2009
• The conversation: James Ellroy