It's often hard to know what to buy a man for Christmas - but if he's an avid reader there are plenty of of enticing options on sale now. In the second of our December-long daily guide to the top 10s of Christmas, KEIRON PIM selects 10 books to suit all tastes. TELL US YOUR TIPS USING THE COMMENT SECTION BELOW.

Argo

Antonio Mendez

Penguin, �7.99

This is the true CIA story behind the new Ben Affleck film. Tehran, November 1979 - militant students stormed the American embassy and held 60 Americans captive for 444 days. Until now the CIA has never revealed the twist to the Iran hostage crisis: six Americans escaped, and the escape plot was run by Antonio Mendez, head of the CIA's extraction team and a master of disguise. Mendez invented a fake sci-fi film called 'Argo' and after announcing the production to the movie industry, put together a team of real Hollywood actors, directors and producers - along with covert CIA officers. They would travel to revolutionary Iran under a foreign film visa and while 'scouting locations' track down the six Americans. Mendez is considered one of the greatest officers in CIA history. The story of his greatest mission has never been told.

The Horologicon

Mark Forsyth

Icon Books, �12.99

The Horologicon (or book of hours) collects the most extraordinary words in the English language, arranged according to the hour of the day when you most need them. These span from when you awake in the morning feeling groggy - or 'philogrobolized' - to the evening meal, when you're on top form and become a 'deipnosophist', or sparkling raconteur. From Mark Forsyth, author of the bestselling The Etymologicon, this is a book of weird words for familiar situations, and is book of the week on BBC Radio 4 from December 3, read by actor and comedian Hugh Dennis.

Waging Heavy Peace

Neil Young

Viking, �25

Waging Heavy Peace is the long-awaited memoir from one of rock music's enduring talents, from his youth in Canada to his crazy journey out to California, through Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash, to his successful solo career and his re-emergence as the patron saint of grunge, through to his role today as an uncompromising older statesman of rock 'n' roll - this is Young's story told in his own words. Along the way he writes about the music, the victims, the girls, the drugs, the guitars, cars and sound systems; and also about his happy family life but with it the health problems he and his children have experienced.

Man of the World

Gareth May

Square Peg, �12.99.

This is billed as the ultimate travel guide for the young man preparing to set out and explore the world, and it's packed with comprehensive cool city guides and unexpected travel tips, from international dining etiquette to making a safe ascent of Kilimanjaro. There are tips on surviving a shark attack through to how to seduce a woman in Paris, and from where to experience the world's most exhilarating white water raft to how to get married by an Elvis-lookalike in Vegas. All very handy for any modern man setting off passport in hand for the first time!

On the Map: Why the World Looks the Way it Does

Simon Garfield

Profile Books, �16.99

Maps don't just display the world: their history charts our growing understanding of the world and with it our stories. From the early sketches of philosophers and explorers through to Google Maps and beyond, Simon Garfield's witty text examines how maps both relate and realign our history. Along the way he describes the quest to create the perfect globe through to the challenges of mapping Africa and Antarctica, from spellbinding treasure maps to the naming of America, and much more.

Building Stories

Chris Ware

Jonathan Cape, �30

Building Stories is a graphic novel like no other, comprising 14 books and booklets of various sizes in one beautiful box. It imagines the inhabitants of a three-story Chicago apartment building: a 30-something woman who has yet to find someone with whom to spend the rest of her life; a couple who wonder if they can bear each other's company another minute; and the building's landlady, an elderly woman who has lived alone for decades. It's a book with no deliberate beginning nor end, but a world of ambition, artistry and emotion in its pages: in Chris Ware's own words, 'An abusive experiment of a book'.

Sword and Scimitar

Simon Scarrow

Headline, �18.99.

Bestselling author Simon Scarrow, who lives near Norwich, brings the Great Siege of Malta to life in this action-packed tale. Scarrow has developed a strong following for his two series of novels and Roman centurions and the Napoleonic Wars, but this is a standalone book in Elizabethan times. It's 1565 and in Malta, a vital outpost between Europe and the relentlessly expanding Ottoman Empire, the the knights of the Order of St John face a ferocious attack by a vast Turkish fleet. Amongst those called to assist is disgraced veteran Sir Thomas Barrett. Loyalty and instinct compel him to put the Order above all other concerns, yet his allegiance is divided. As Sir Thomas confronts the past that cost him his honour and a secret that has long lain buried, a vast enemy army arrives to lay siege to the island.

Maritime Norfolk

Robert Malster

Poppyland Publishing, �19.95

The author has long been one of East Anglia's foremost maritime writers and in this new book from the north Norfolk independent publisher he draws from a life-long interest in local history. With 272 pages and 249 illustrations, many in colour, Maritime Norfolk is a comprehensive coverage of the coast from the ports of Wisbech and King's Lynn round to Winterton and Caister. It also includes a chapter on the inland waterways and the port of Norwich. One for any Norfolk man who's never happier than when he's out on the water.

The White Goddess: an Encounter

by Simon Gough

Galley Beggar, �10.

Simon Gough has lived in north Norfolk since the 1970s when his father, the actor Michael Gough, filmed The Go-Between. And for much of that time he has been working on his memoir of the heady, life-changing days of his youth in Majorca with his great uncle, the writer Robert Graves. It was a period of love, lust and ultimately betrayal - and at last, in a well-received debut publishing venture from Norwich-based Galley Beggar, the now seriously ill Gough has told his story to memorable effect.

War Memorial

Clive Aslet

Viking, �20.

Through the prism of one war memorial - that of the Dartmoor village of Lydford - Clive Aslet traces in detail the stories behind the engraved names, revealing the lives of the 22 men and one woman who made the supreme sacrifice fighting for Britain in the two World Wars, the Falklands and Iraq. The result is an intimate portrait of one corner of the countryside in the twentieth century, and an extraordinary tale of the endurance and bravery of otherwise ordinary people - farmers, masons, railway-workers, landowners, schoolchildren - who, but for the war memorial, would be forgotten.

Tomorrow - Top 10 Christmas family days out