Tag Archives: books

Books make good Christmas Gifts

Posted in Writings about Writing by

For the month of December, my posts will all be Christmas-themed, just to be festive (or annoying, depending on your point of view). You can love it or hate it, celebrate it with joy or celebrate a different winter-time festival—but either way, Christmas is here and so is its impact on our culture. So I figured it would be appropriate if my blog reflected that.

Since it’s the season for buying lots of stuff to give to other people, I decided to compose a short list in support of buying a book as a gift for your friend, family member, or even co-worker who you don’t really like. In the future, when I have some published works under my belt, this would of course apply to you, dear reader, buying (cough cough hint hint) one of my books. But since I’m not published (yet!), you can go spend your money with other authors for this Christmas.

So here’s my list of Christmas shopping tips, and why I think you should spend your money on books:

-Books are the gifts that keep on giving. A good story, or even a good non-fiction book, can be enjoyed again and again, and can be enjoyed by multiple people for years after the moment of the giving.

-Even if someone doesn’t like to read, there’s a book out there for them. It may not be hard to shop for the teen who’s into YA fantasy novels, but what about those other people? Well, even non-reader Uncle Bob might enjoy a glossy photo-filled book about his favorite wines, or a book of sports cartoons might be the perfect Secret Santa gag gift for your co-worker.

-If you’re buying an e-reader as a gift, it would add that little something extra if you spent a few dollars more and put a book or two on there. Especially if the person receiving the e-reader has never used one before or isn’t especially tech-savvy, having some ready-to-read books on it will make the gift that much more personal and user-friendly.

-Books don’t have to be expensive gifts. Sure, you can buy that $50 glossy hardcover coffee table book. But if your budget (and/or long list of people to shop for) doesn’t work well with that, you can still buy books. Most paperback fiction can still be bought for under $10. And don’t forget e-books, many of which are cheaper than that. And many small press and indie authors have special deals on their own websites with discounts or free gifts at this time of year, so check out author websites.

-Buying a book supports the author, so it’s like two gifts in one. Whether the author is a gajillionaire like J.K. Rowling, or a struggling indie writer you’ve never heard of, every book was lovingly crafted by somebody. Somebody put time, thought, energy, money, and love into every paperback, non-fiction book, and e-book out there. So if you buy a new book for a gift, you’re also giving to that author, and they deserve a merry Christmas too.

How many of you like to give or receive books as gifts?

My Bookshelf

Posted in Music, Movies, and other Muses by

They say that you can tell a lot about a person by the books that they read. If this is true (which I fully believe it is), then I’m about to reveal a large part of myself that my readers and friends may or may not already know.

Here are two pictures of my bookshelf (well, one of my bookshelves). I have several shelves full of books, and several more boxes in the attic of books that I don’t have room for right now. One day I want to display them all in my own library. Anyone remember Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and that enormous library that stretched to the heavens? Yeah, that’s my dream library.

But I digress. Until I’m able to have the Beast’s awesome library and show it off to my friends and readers, then we’ll all have to be content with the skinny shelf that’s next to my closet door.

The top two shelves:

Bibles go on the top shelf. It’s something that’s important to me, so I want them displayed for prominent visibility and easy access, because I use them a lot. And no, I do not equate The Chronicles of Narnia with the Holy Bible (despite its Christian message). There just wasn’t room on any of the other shelves for it. Lame reason, yes, but that’s what I did.

The next shelf down features some books that I deeply enjoyed reading and have gotten a lot of meaning from, and some of them I’ve read many times. It’s a random assortment of books, the arrangement based on a combination of importance in my life and space on the shelf.

The next three shelves:

The first shelf has a lot of my favorite fantasy books on it (Lord of the Rings and Narnia encyclopedias, the Bone series). Other assorted cool books fill up the rest of the space, like the Norwegian collection of  Beatrix Potter’s stories and the picture encyclopedia of musical instruments. This is also the tallest shelf, so again, it’s mostly about space issues.

The next shelf has all the littlest books on it, which conveniently are mostly foreign language dictionaries and other non-English books (some of which I can sort of read, others I’m clueless). Sadly, the tall Norwegian Peter Rabbit book wouldn’t fit on this shelf.

Then there’s the shelf of total randomness. Again, some of my favorite books, and ones that I enjoy looking at or re-reading. It’s everything from a collection of stories about Inuit women to 17th century religious poetry to historical fiction about ancient Egypt. And, of course, another Narnia book.

Not pictured is the very bottom shelf, which houses my atlas, some photo albums, other assorted oddities, and is shielded by a cardboard box to keep my rabbits from chewing on the books.

So there you have it—one of my bookshelves. Interpret this how you like, but it’s me, for better or worse. Hopefully I didn’t hit a TMI level with this.

And what about you—what does your bookshelf say about you?