‘Tis the season to peruse area bookshelves for holiday giving. The following regional books and calendars are recommended.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU: An American Landscape (Paragon House, 225 pages, $22.95), contains selected writings from the great author’s journals, edited and illustrated by Robert L. Rothwell. The collection was selected from Thoreau’s 2 million-word journal that he kept between 1837 and 1861, and features some extraordinary nature writing.

A HISTORY OF MAINE BUILT AUTOMOBILES: 1834-1934, by Richard and Nancy Fraser (292 pages, order from the authors at P.O. Box 39, East Poland 04230, $24.95 softcover, $34.95 hardcover, plus 6 percent Maine sales tax and $4 for shipping), is an unusually ambitious book on the little-known Maine automobile industry. Included are many fine old photographs of daring young men and women in their machines.

SONG FOR A SHADOW, by Bernie McKinnon (Houghton Mifflin, 311 pages, $16.95), is an excellent teen novel about 18-year-old Aaron Webb, a would-be rock ‘n’ roll star who moves to Maine and tries to conceal his colorful past. The novel has been praised as a powerful indictment of racial prejudice.

GHOSTS ON THE COAST OF MAINE, by Carol Olivieri Schulte (Lone Maple Press, Box 159, Port Clyde 04855, 177 pages, $9.95 plus postage and handling), is a simply written, self-published book about ghosts, not ghost stories. There is a difference, stresses Schulte, who even indexed her subjects, ranging from rumrunners to witchcraft. Great reading for a dark and stormy night.

KATAHDIN WITH LOVE: An Inspirational Journey, by Madelaine Cornelius (Milton Publishing Co., P.O. Box 6, Lookout Mountain, Tenn. 37350, 164 pages, $17.95), is the personal journal of a couple who discover new meaning in life while they hike the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine.

TOURING NEW ENGLAND BY BICYCLE (Ten Speed Press, P.O. Box 7123, Berkeley, Calif. 94707, 174 pages, $10.95), features three-dimensional topographical maps of picturesque cycling routes in Maine, Vermont, and the Cape Cod islands.

BEST HIKES WITH CHILDREN IN NEW HAMPSHIRE, VERMONT, AND MAINE, by Cynthia and Thomas Lewis (Mountaineers Books, 1011 S.W. Klickitat Way, Suite 107, Seattle, Wash. 98134, $12.95), is touted as “a valuable and encouraging guide for parents.”

A CANOEIST’S SKETCHBOOK (Chelsea Green, P.O. Box 130, Post Mills, Vt. 05058, 201 pages, $12.95 paperback, $21.95 hardcover), contains the paddling philosophy of Robert Kimber.

Finally, three Maine calendars.

The 1992 BANGOR HISTORICAL SOCIETY HERITAGE CALENDAR, priced at $8.48 and sold in bookstores and at the society’s museum, looks better than ever, boasting a splendid cover photo of the Bon Ton Ferry and the Boston Boat. The YARMOUTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1992 APPOINTMENT CALENDAR ($5 plus $1 postage and handling, P.O. Box 107, Yarmouth 04096), is fine, too, even featuring a circa 1970 shot of smelt-fishing shacks in Yarmouth harbor. The 1992 MARINER’S BOOKS OF DAYS, by Peter H. Spectre (WoodenBoat Magazine, Brooklin 04616, $12.95), is both a daybook and an information source for the inquisitive mariner.

Richard R. Shaw is the NEWS editorial page assistant.