Calendars Give You A Year With A View

It’s that time again. Time to choose a 1998 wall calendar for yourself or that finicky person on your gift list.

There must be something appropriate for that blank space on your wall. You can choose from “Dilbert,” “The X-Files,” Volkswagen Beetles, Robert Rauschenberg, tugboats, country churches or cathedrals, sisters, soccer, wetlands, chimps, classic ballparks …

Here are some of our favorites for the coming year.

-“Diana: Princess of Wales: A 1998 Commemorative Calendar” (Avalanche, $12.99).

Just months after her death, Diana joins Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley as a wall calendar icon.

-“The Quintessential Cigar” (Graphique de France, $11.95) and “The Artful Cigar” (Ronnie Sellers Productions, $12.95).

Cigar connoisseurs will light up with pleasure when they see these two calendars celebrating the hot stogie trend. “The Quintessential Cigar” features attractive photos of artfully arranged cigars, in boxes and out; while “The Artful Cigar” elevates cigar-label designs to an art form.

-“Pickups: Classic American Trucks” (Ronnie Sellers Productions, $11.95).

These pickup trucks from the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s (taken from the 1996 photo book of the same name) are so good-looking, you’ll want to hop in for a ride.

-“Bichon Frise” (Landmark, $10.99) and “Cat Yoga” (Pomegranate, $12.95).

In this year in which chickens, moose, gorillas, iguanas, turtles and rabbits get their own calendars, here are a couple for plain old dog and cat lovers. “Bichon Frise” wins the award for silliest dog get-ups (Fluffy in a sunflower hat?); while “Cat Yoga” takes home the flexibility prize.

-“The Beetles: American Museum of Natural History” (Workman, $9.95) and “The 1998 Bugs Calendar” (Browntrout, $10.95).

The budding entomologist in your house will be bug-eyed when he sees these visually dazzling calendars.

-“Biography: A&E 1998 Calendar” (Pomegranate, $12.95).

Abraham Lincoln, Queen Elizabeth, Amelia Earhart, Josephine Baker … this is your life! A&E’s popular “Biography” TV series gets a spot on the wall.

-“Hudson River School Paintings: 1998 Calendar: Wadsworth Atheneum” (Pomegranate, $12.95) and “The Art of the Sea: Mystic Maritime Gallery” (Tide-mark, $11.99).

The majesty of the 19th-century American wilderness comes alive through the Wadsworth Atheneum’s (Hartford, Conn.) renowned Hudson River School paintings; the beauty of ships at sea is portrayed by contemporary artists who have exhibited at the Mystic Maritime Gallery in Mystic, Conn.

-“Trout” (Knopf, $10.95).

James Prosek was an undergraduate at Yale when he published his book of luminous trout paintings, which are featured in this colorful little calendar.

-“Fairies” (Pomegranate, $11.95).

Have an ethereal year looking at these delicate depictions of fairies. What do you mean you don’t see anything?

-“Tibetan Portrait: Faces of Compassion” (Ronnie Sellers Productions, $11.95).

Spend a year in Tibet, not with Brad Pitt, but with Tibetan refugees handsomely photographed by Seattle’s Phil Borges.

-“Nostalgic Journeys” (Lime Tree, $9.95).

Trip down memory lane with these graphically bold travel posters from the ‘20s and ‘30s, now in England’s National Railway Museum collection.

-“Hispanic American History” (Pomegranate, $12.95).

This bilingual calendar from the Library of Congress uses old photos and artists’ renderings to trace Hispanic American culture and history.

-“Cinema Portraits” (National Portrait Gallery, distributed by te Neues Publishing, $11.95).

You look marvelous! British screen greats such as Elizabeth Taylor, Stan Laurel, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard and Cary Grant pose for the camera in these black-and-white portraits from the National Portrait Gallery.

-“The Writer’s Desk” (Pomegranate, $12.95).

Photographer Jill Krementz captures writers at work, including her husband, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen King, Toni Morrison, Eudora Welty and Amy Tan.

-“Linda Evangelista” (te Neues, $12.95).

The supermodel strikes many poses, in artsy black-and-white.

-“Alienz” (Landmark, $10.99), “UFO: Unidentified Flying Objects Calendar” (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $11.95) and “Men in Black” (Landmark, $11.99).

Close encounters with both aliens and alien-busters (“Men in Black,” from the hit movie).

-“Nicholas and Alexandra: The Fall of the Romanovs” (Pomegranate, $12.95).

With the fall of communism, the story of the last czar of Russia seems more romantic than ever.

Photographs of Nicholas II and his family are culled from the Library of Congress collection.

-“The Fillmore Posters” (Pomegranate, $12.95).

Wow, man. Turn on your black light and groove to these publicity posters for rock concerts Bill Graham promoted in San Francisco in the ‘60s.

-“Currier & Ives: Museum of the City of New York” (Pomegranate, $11.95).

As we approach the millennium, consider retreating to a simpler time with Currier & Ives lithographs from the 19th century.