Custom Made: A Catalogue of Personalized and Handcrafted Items

Here is the ultimate directory for conspicuous consumption, with information on everything from how and where to select monogrammed golf clubs to finding a one-of-a-kind pool table. Buff ( The Birder's Catalogue ) refers to ``breathtaking prices,'' but nothing so crass as an actual price tag for these fabulously specialized, highly touted goods intrudes. In making her selections, the author limits her view to those creations that offer ``uniqueness, quality, utility, and beauty,'' then proceeds to run the gamut from apparel to athletic equipment, from handcrafts to cars, from genealogists to portrait artists. The book is not so much a shopping guide (though an appendix of mainly American sources is included) as it is a directory of a mind-boggling array of artisans--quilters, gunsmiths and the like--that pays tribute to masters of the ilk of Steinway and Mercedes. (Nov.)