In a post on JavaLobby, Meera presents her TOP5 of technical books published in 2008.
I definitely agree with the first three:  a new book from Robert C.  Martin, the second edition of the great Effective Java and a collection of articles from ThoughtWorks.
I haven’t read yet the first one but i liked his “Agile Software Development” and the initial reviews are quite good.
The new edition of Effective Java contains 21 new items and presents 1.5 language features such as enum, generics and annotations and also updates items related to improved features e.g.  items in the concurrency section.
An interesting reading is also the ThoughtWorks Anthology, a collection of essays on various IT topics, ranging from software methodology advices to ant build files optimization tips.
If you are a software developer or if you know one, this time of the year is the right time to buy one of these books.
Let me add a few more titles, that even if not published in 2008 (or not technical) could be good gift ideas:

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In handwritten letters it said, “Google World Headquarters”.

Ubergizmo publishes this touching interview from 1998 and this reminds me of the great book “The Search” by John Battelle , a vivid and detailed description of the search market in the pre-bubble era (plus some chapters with debatable content about the future of the search engine and the search market in general).
Maybe it’s the right time to start “Founders at Work” or to buy the recent “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good”.
All Books about great people and successful ventures, someone should really write something similar to Banvard’s Folly (GREAT book with awesome stories) set in the bubble era, possibly non following the Startup.com documentary lousy approach…