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For the men in your life, whether they be father, friend, son or partner, finding a Father's Day gift becomes an increasingly difficult task but we've found two books that satisfy two male areas of interest: the gadget and the garage.

Garage: Reinventing the Place We Park by Kira Oblensky
Taunton Press

Garages were just a step up from carriage houses and backstreet mews but, obviously, they've become a focus for architectural creativity and decorating.

Hewlett and Packard combined their engineering talents in a Palo Alto, CA garage, rock stars such as Buddy Holly and Nirvana were sent to the garage to prevent parental eardrum abuse and the Fonz, Batman and Audrey Hepburn's Sabrina all put the structure to good use.

The garage has become the keeper of collections, whether they be cars, art, model trains or perhaps more importantly, memories. The structures themselves pictured in this lavishly photographed book have housed boat makers and fine furniture woodworkers, a studio for a painter's efforts and office space for a small business. One retired janitor created a project called "The Throne of the Third Heaven of the National Millennium General Assembly" in his garage, a project that has since been donated to the Smithsonian.

The function of the garage has, in many of these examples, deviated from the original intent to uses the homeowner has dictated. The fifty-two buildings pictured are imaginative and versatile statements about the owners and their private needs.

At the moment, we live on a hillside where no garage has gone before and in all probability will not appear before we leave this house. For now, my husband can read his Father's Day book and dream.

Collapsible: The Genius of Space-Saving Design by Per Mollerup Chronicle Books

When this book arrived from Chronicle for review purposes, it was immediately picked up and perused by my husband who declared it, "excellent."

The first collapsible that I received as a birthday present decades ago was a folding paratroopers bike, reputedly dropped during the Second World War. The last collapsible I purchased was found at a tag sale. It was a safari chair in disreputable shape that reminded me of one that would be used by that Hemingway hero, Francis McComber.

Actually, a number of wartime heroes are pictured in the book: Winston Churchill with his Panama hat, a chapeau alleged to roll up thinly enough to be able to pass through a wedding ring; Douglas MacArthur, wearing his Ray-Bans, stares back from the page; Field Marshal Montgomery praises the contribution Bailey bridging made to the forward movement of the Allies.

A number of the objects pictured are just plain beautiful: the Ambassadeur Morrum 560-C reel, the Betts's Portable Globe, the Shaker swift.

A Markies caravan (called a trailer in the US) unfolds by a motorized device to triple its floor area. Collapsible go-carts, the precursors for today's strollers, were in evidence at the turn of the century. Pocket cutlery ('knifeless man is lifeless man' is quoted) is displayed in numerous folding forms including the Joseph Opinel knives designed in 1890 which is still available today. My Swiss Army "Champ" Knife seems to have been upgraded by the Cyber tool but our family has been favoring the Leatherman Supertool of late.

The devices shown are illustrative of the title, demonstrating man's genius for invention and the historical times in which they were developed. Regardless of the holiday observed, it should prove to be popular with any lucky recipient.