Read His Lips: George Herbert Bush blamed Alan Greenspan after losing the White House to Bill Clinton. He said Greenspan had failed to act quickly enough when the economy faltered, and claimed the Fed head's faux pas cost him the Oval Office.

Was it just bunk from Kennebunk? It's hard to tell, really. But there is no doubt that Greenspan is a very powerful and influential man. With his guidance, the economy soared under Clinton. And perhaps, under his direction, it will take off again under President-elect George W. Bush.

Whether or not you agree with his policies, Greenspan is undeniably an imposing figure, a man who has the ability to make the markets bounce like a yo-yo by issuing only a few words.

In short, he sounds like the type of guy an investor would want to know about in minute detail. And as a result, Justin Martin's Greenspan: The Man Behind the Money is at the top of the holiday gift list compiled by RealMoney.com contributors.

Here are a few additional suggestions:

Contributor David Brail writes:

The year 2000 will be remembered as a brutally hard year in the markets. Unless your intended gift recipient aced that test as an investor and made big returns, I suggest penance as a theme for their holiday reading.

In that vein, my two book suggestions are, in the spirit of 2000, brutally difficult reads. But both are worth the effort.

Roger Lowenstein's When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long Term Capital Management -- which I have recommended on RealMoney.com several times -- is indispensable in understanding the events surrounding the global liquidity crisis of 1998 and the downfall of Long Term Capital Management.

As an investor who was hurt badly by the aftershocks of the Long Term Capital Management debacle, I want to understand the causes and effects to prevent future losses in a similar crisis. And I believe this book helps. What better gift could there be than the promise of avoiding future losses? This book is dense and presupposes a reasonable understanding of markets. It is for your more financially sophisticated recipients.

And for balance, I suggest a book with more of a 2000-era debacle theme: George Gilder's Telecosm: How Infinite Bandwidth Will Revolutionize Our World .

If you -- or your prospective gift recipients -- have traded any of the new-fangled optics and telecom stocks, I would challenge you to take a brief quiz as to the products and technologies of the companies you have bought and sold. If you are like me, you might do horribly. So this book will help. It is a thorough description of modern communications technology that integrates the underlying physics with the practical considerations faced by today's Global Crossings, JDS Uniphases and Cienas in building tomorrow's communications infrastructure.

If 2000 taught anything, it is that companies aren't just stock symbols. One warning: This book is a very tough read for anyone without a science background. But I found the effort worthwhile, and I believe friends and family members with an interest in technology stocks will agree.

Chris Edmonds, who covers real estate investment trusts and power and energy issues for RealMoney.com and TheStreet.com, offered the following suggestions:

Latticework: The New Investing by Robert Hagstrom.

Says Edmonds:

"The author of The Warren Buffett Way and The Warren Buffett Portfolio has taken a step beyond the Oracle of Omaha with his new book. In Latticework, Hagstrom explores the use of multiple disciplines in investment analysis, taking pages from physics, biology and the liberal arts in describing how he has developed the investment strategy he uses in managing the Legg Mason Focus Trust. And even more intriguing are the insights on the subject of multidiscipline investment analysis from two other investment icons: Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger and Bill Miller, manager of the Legg Mason Value Trust and the only fund manager to beat the S&P 500 in each of the last 10 years. Hagstrom's book is full of facts and examples, yet is not an unduly taking read.''

Edmonds' second choice is Damn Right: Behind the Scenes With Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger by Janet Lowe.

Writes Edmonds:

"Ask any investor who runs Berkshire Hathaway, or to name the most successful investor of our time, and most people will say Warren Buffett. Yet behind Buffett's success is Charlie Munger, the man many people think is responsible for a great deal of Buffett's success. Munger, the vice chairman of Berkshire and a billionaire in his own right, has always played second fiddle to Buffett, being content to serve as a behind-the-scenes adviser and Buffett's straight man during the Berkshire annual meeting.

"Now, Lowe, the author of Warren Buffett Speaks and Value Investing Made Easy, removes the shroud from Munger, possibly the smartest person in Buffett's circle of influence. With exclusive access to Munger and his colleagues, Lowe does an exceptional job of painting a balanced picture of one of the most fascinating and least known investment minds of our time."

RealMoney.com contributor Don Luskin, a favorite of The Best of RealMoney , made three suggestions:

His first choice is: The Way the World Works by Jude Wanniski. Luskin describes it as the best book on economics that has ever been written, and he says it introduced the Laffer Curve to the world and ushered in the Reaganomics Revolution.

One of Don's new favorites is The Power of Gold: History of Obession by Peter Bernstein. Luskin writes that it "dares to talk about 'the barbaric metal' in an age of monetary madness."

Luskin's last choice may surprise you: Hooking Up by Tom Wolfe. Luskin describes it as "All of Wolfe's previously uncollected short pieces, including modern-day killers on the Internet and biotech, and old classics like his famous 'Tiny Mummies' send up of The New Yorker."

Last, Gary B. Smith already suggested a half-dozen of his own greatest hits for technical analysis nuts in his recent column, Stuff Your Stocking With Stuff on Stocks . He also offers a selection by Dave Barry for general-purpose nuts like myself.