For Christmas 2012 I received  "Understanding Exposure (3rd Edition)" by Bryan Peterson. I'm not a big reader, but this had lots of pictures, so I read the whole thing.

I've always enjoyed photography. Once when I was a youngster, I saved the UPCs from a few cereal boxes (Honey Nut Cheerios perhaps?) to get the advertised "free, 35mm camera!" Of course, I had to pay for shipping and it was hardly more than a plastic film holder with a pin-hole.​ Film not included.