I considered including this in my last post (but it is already long enough), but what gets to me about Kirk finally sitting down to finish reading A Tale of Two Cities—his birthday gift from Spock—is that he can't now that his gift from McCoy, the glasses, are cracked and broken. It's a beautiful yet terrible moment of symbolism.
The glasses are first and foremost a symbol of Kirk's age, that he has gotten older and now needs a visibility aid for reading. Yet the choice of gifts act as an interesting reversal for McCoy and Spock: McCoy gave him a utilitarian gift whereas Spock gave him a gift for pleasure (Kirk is a bookworm and where Spock got his hands on such an old edition of a physical book in the 23rd century...). It's an interesting reversal from those two given their different philosophies (McCoy's sensuality encompasses more than sex and booze, he understands the importance of rest and downtime) but who can argue with a doctor giving someone reading glasses? That's part of his job.
More importantly, the gifts given by his two friends are wholly dependent on the other's. What good is a book if he cannot see it to read it? What good are reading glasses with nothing to read? (Work reports don't count.) Yet the glasses take on a new meaning now in this scene: Spock is dead and Kirk's glasses are broken. His very ability to see clearly has changed, both physically and emotionally in the aftermath.
After this scene, David will repeat Saavik's words about Kirk never facing death and Kirk will finally agree, having no choice but to confront Spock's death. By the next film, the audience will learn that McCoy is no longer himself after Spock's death. To miss one member of the Triumvirate is to destabilize and change the remaining two. All three must be together in order to work and live as they need to.
