From-the-Editors-Desk

Into the Wild (of Holiday Shopping)
November 28, 2010

Week two of BiblioBuffet’s Booklovers’ and Readers’ Gift Guide is here, and with it the items I’ve found in the categories from Calendars to Home. There are lots of ideas here so be prepared to spend some time. Happy shopping!

Calendars
There are any number of ways of keeping track of the days. One of them is through desk and wall calendars with literary themes. If you are a fan of the NYRoB, you’ll appreciate this David Levine one filled with thirteen witty caricatures of authors. For those who love the sight of books, this Book Lovers 2011 Calendar is a glossy 12 x24 wall one that features literary pictures, fun library facts and stories, author birthdays, and bookish quotes. For desks, the Book Lover’s Page-a-Day Calendar offers a recommendation for a book every day, giving a brief description, perhaps an excerpt from a review, and the title, publisher, and date of publication—an interesting and unusual way to learn about books worth reading.

For those who love language and find the gaffes and blunders often found in written communications amusing this Anguished English Desk Calendar is perfect. New York Times crossword fans are sure to appreciate the Crossword Engagement Calendar (edited by Will Shortz); it contains a Sunday puzzle on each week-per-page. Both the Reading Woman Wall Calendar  and the Reading Woman Engagement Calendar include twelve gorgeous images of women reading along with quotations about the joy of books. There’s also this lovely Reading Woman wall calendar that highlights paintings of long ago. Women of a different variety—from pulp fiction covers of the 1940s—are featured in this Dynamic Dames calendar.

If you fancy Ireland, check out this Famous Irish Writers calendar or if you favor quality insults of a bygone era, how about the Shakespeare Insults calendar?

Children and Young Adults
The best gifts for children and even young adults are books. So this category encompasses not only some literary gifts but suggestions for publishers that issue great books you may or may not yet know about—but are definitely worth knowing.

Bath time for the youngest ones can be made more fun with the Literary Rubber Duck. No quacks to disturb reading time, but it does float.  

Fans and soon-to-be fans of Pride and Prejudice will undoubtedly find these paper dolls intriuging. There are a total of eight dolls and forty-eight period costumes so creating the various settings is both fun and easy.

For those age 10 and up, Konexi: The Gravity-Defying Word Game is an enjoyable way to build their vocabulary and architectural skills at the same time. Players can go up, down, or sideways but the trick is not to be the one who makes gravity kick in.

For young girls, this poster of Little Miss Muffet, design courtesy of WPA artist Greg Arlington, would be a wonderful addition to a bedroom wall. Or if plush toys are a favorite, these storybook characters would make wonderful accompaniments to the books themselves. Book lights come in all shapes and sizes, but I’ll bet you don’t know about these kid-friendly Pillow Light. (Maybe adults could use them too.)

Reading with your child is not only one of the best ways to instill a love of books and reading but is downright fun. Get closer with this Read to Me Pillow, a soft lap desk that you and a child can share for reading together.

Of course the best gift of all is books. The Annotated Children’s Classics Set is particularly nice for children since it includes six favorites with additional literary, historical, and psychological insights and more than 600 illustrations. They will make reading a new adventure for both child and adult.

But other books are difficult to recommend since the selection is nearly limitless and the range of interests broad. However, if you are looking for books, you  may want to check out the websites of the following publishers, whose pages for children and young adults I have specifically linked:

Big Mouth House (for readers age 10 and up)
Candlewick Press
Children’s Book Press
Cinco Puntos (bilingual and English books)
David R. Godine, Publisher
Egmont USA
Gibbs Smith
Heyday Books (California)
Leapfrog Press
Milkweed Editions
Newmarket Press
NewSouth, Inc. (scroll down for their children’s & YA categories)
New York Review of Books
Peachtree Publishers (picture books, middle reader, teen/young adult)
Pelican Publishing (accelerated reader, children’s fiction, children’s nonfiction)
Running Press (comics and graphic novels, juvenile fiction, juvenile nonfiction)
Red Rock Press
Silver Dolphin
Star Bright Books
Turtle Books

Christmas
Christmas Day has, for most of us, certain rituals—who we give gifts to and who we receive them from, when we open then, who visits whom, when the big meal is served, and what is served. Though this is probably best given before Christmas, one of the most charming gifts I found was A Christmas Dinner (A Story by Charles Dickens). Written in 1835, when he was twenty-two, it is composed of his ideas about what a family Christmas should be, including preparations, gifts, mistletoe mischief, etc.

Christmas and holiday cards with literary themes abound, among them this set of the cover of The Jolly Girls’ Book; the cards were taken from a quarto series of anonymous picture and story books for children than ran between 1929 and 1974. You can also find other holiday cards, such as the Shakespeare Lover’s Christmas Cards, Preparing the Feast, Festive Library, The Birds’ Christmas Carol, Once Upon a Christmas Time, and the Christmas Books Puzzle Postcard. (On all except the Shakespeare, click “Close Window” to order.)

For library lovers, there are several great gifts: a set of Happy Holiday Library Cards, And for holiday home decorations, there are the READING IS FUN and CLASSIC PETER PAN wreaths.

The Bodleian has a number of gift wraps. (To go to the main page and order, just click the “Close Window” button and it will take you there.) First up is the Shakespeare Gift Quotes Giftwrap, which features various Shakespeare quotes on the themes of gifts and giving. There’s also Colorful Titles, Victorian Children’s Books, and Arts End.

If you are a fan of Penguin covers, the Penguin Montage and Penguin Spines wrapping papers re gorgeous. Each order is only one sheet, but the price is right—and you can order as many sheets as you like. Scrabble and word fans are in luck! Scrabble wrapping paper that features a field of the distinctive tiles will work perfectly.

Clothing
This is one crowded category. Readers have thousands of items and designs from which to choose so what I have listed here is a tiny portion of what is available. But it is a good overview so let’s get going.

If someone you know sews (and loves Jane Austen) the JA Centre offers a variety of patterns for dresses and other garments straight out of her books. This lovely Regency Gown is one example, but they also offer other items (pre-made and patterns) as well. If you favor more modern clothing, how about a long-sleeved shirt imprinted with Mr. Darcy’s proposal?

Ties can work as gifts if you know the man in your life will welcome them and voluntarily wear them. If that is the case, this Author! Author! Tie with facsimiles of signatures alongside pens and ink bottles would be fun. There’s also the Ex Libris Tie that features old books on shelves as well as the Required Reading Tie, and even the Shakespeare Tie with the bard’s likeness and play titles. There’s even this red and blue Books Tie.

Given the cold weather, a scarf is always welcome and this Emily Dickinson Silk Scarf includes some of her best poetry. Or there’s Shakespeare’s Sonnet Scarf, also in double-layered silk. You’ll never be out of things to read wearing either one. If you love typography, these two scarves—the Uppercase Scarf and the Lowercase Scarf—both of microfibre suede, would be great. (The former seems to be out of stock at the moment, but it’s worth contacting the company to see when they expect new stock if you are interested.)

Tee shirts are (almost) always welcome clothing, and this I Cannot Live without Books one (the quote courtesy of Thomas Jefferson) is an excellent choice. Or you could go with this lovely one: A good book is like an old friend. A true classic! The Well Red T-Shirt is sort of a combo but if you know someone who likes wine  (red, please) as well as books this is another great gift. Great cover art has many fans; if someone you know is one these Out of Print shirts for women, men, and children would make wonderful gifts. Even though this shop caters to librarians, they offer a number of tee shirts that would be great for any book lover. Probably the most popular slogan of all—I’d Rather Be Reading—is why this shirt looks like it would get a lot of use.

For the book club member in your lie, the More Book Club Please Tee would probably be very much appreciated.  

Curling up at home with a book means comfy clothing, and these Books Poplin Lounge Pants, made entirely of cotton, have the perfect pattern for all readers. For those like me who prefer nightshirts, this cotton Reading Girl Sleep Shirt (a one-size-fits-most) is sure to please. More nightshirts include this pretty lavender I Need My Reading Time T Shirt, the So Many Books nighshirt, and the Good Book one.

Shoes! Who knew there were literary shoes? Well, you (and I) do now. The Berthe Morisot Little Girl Reading Fine Art Shoes look so comfortable, the kind you would slip into before heading down to your favorite café to read on Saturday afternoon. There’s also the Jessie Willcox Smith's Children Reading Shoes, the Stacks of Books Shoes, the Library Lover Mini Slip-On Shoes, and the Books on Foot Custom Pro Keds Hi Top Shoes.

E-Readers and Accessories
If your recipients are joining the crowds at the electronic reading bar, an e-reader may be on your gift list. There are several: the Kindle, the Nook, the Nook Color, the iPad,  the Sony Reader, and others.  Though e-readers strive to make themselves easy to hold, the Deluxe Kindle Stand & iPad Desk Stand (which likely works with other e-readers too) gives you the opportunity to work with it hands-free. This store specializes in accessories for most e-readers out there. Its products include covers and cases, screen protector films, and much more.

Food and Food-Related Items 
As any reader knows, books are a superb accompaniment for food (and vice versa). This was one of most enjoyable searches I undertook primarily because of the range of items I found. Among them is the Novel Tea Box, a container of 25 bags of English Breakfast Tea along with a printed thought from various authors on the tea tag concerning the delights and comforts of tea and books. Specialty teas are widely available, and for her fans the Jane Austen Blend that “recreates the teas that were available during Jane Austen’s time.” The description notes that it is a tea with “a smooth flavor with a toasty and subtle dryness that yields a bright golden and coppery liquor.” Umm. Perhaps this silver-plated tea strainer, a reproduction of a period piece, is the perfect accompaniment? For more modern tastes how about this Booklover’s Personal Teapot and the wonderful book, Tea with Jane Austen.

It’s not new but it’s still a goodie: The Book Lover’s Cookbook, which has recipes inspired by celebrated works of literature and includes the passages that feature those recipes. You can have Mrs. Dalby’s Buttermilk Scones, Connie May's Tomato Pie, Mr. Casaubon’s Chicken Noodle Soup, and many more. Among literary cookbooks is The Jane Austen Cookbook, which combines recipes used in the Austen household, descriptions of Jane’s interest in food, and social conventions in shopping, eating, and entertaining.

Cooking requires aprons, of course, and what better than a Shakespeare Food Quotes one or if you are feeling snarky, the Shakespeare’s Insults Apron. Perhaps a single Shakespeare quote—He hath an excellent stomach—would be a good apron for the man who loves to cook, or if he has a sense of humor, The Rascal Cook apron. Cutting boards are also a necessity in the cooking arena, and what could be more wonderful than these Writers Blocks (Volume One = Large; Volume Two = Small) made in Maine. Then there’s the custom-crafted cutting boards, two of which revolve around books: To Grill a Mockingbird and Food for Thought. Or you can create your own idea. A plainer but no less pretty cutting board is the Cutting Book

If you like or prefer to carry your own water around, the colorful Book Lover Sigg Water Bottle is a good idea. If your idea of a good drink is a martini, how about a Dorothy Parker Martini Glass, etched with her famous saying: I like to have a Martini, two at the very most; three, I'm under the table, four I'm under my host!

Actual food for booklovers could include Medieval Selection Chocolates (click “Close Window” to be taken to the main page), a package of seven milk chocolates wrapped in gold foil that contains a detail from seven different medieval manuscripts. Who knew there was such a thing as Book Lover’s Chocolate? We do now. Typography fans will no doubt find these custom-made chocolates to be heaven-sent. And for gum chewers, the Shakespearean Insult Gum includes seven book packages, each with the name of a play that contains two gumballs and a different insult.

To protect your tables from your wine glass or coffee mug, coasters are necessary props. The beauty of the Antique Book Effect ones is what makes these particular ones perfect for readers.

Free
Yes, there are free gifts out there for the readers and booklovers in your life. Among them are these free bookmarks that you can download and print onto cardstock or high-quality photographic paper. They also have Christian ones. Some more for children are here, and here is a wonderful list of how to design and make them as well as links to more bookmarks pages.

Games
With online games having a solid grip on many, it is sometimes a wonder that board and card games are still so popular. But they are! And here are a number of book, reading, and literary games for people of all ages.

Wordplay challenges you to  find words that meet the criteria you have been given by spinning; it is best for those over the age of thirteen. A slightly modified version of the same game is also available for children ages six and up—Wordplay for Kids. Another take on word games is the Snatch-It wherein players earn points by creating their own words or by snatching their opponent's letters. One of the most interesting of literary games is Bookopoly, a version of Monopoly where your knowledge of classical literature helps you win. Roll the dice; advance to Read; collect Bookstores; trade them in for libraries. You might even become president of the Book Club, or you may be banished and sent to watch television. If you like your lies in your games, how about the Liebrary board game? Players are given a book title and a plot summary and asked to create the most believable first line of the book. Bluff your fellow players into choosing yours as the correct one.

Teens who like mysteries can now hold their own mystery party with Panic at the Prom. When prom night is ruined by a prankster who pulls the fire alarm, drenching everyone, it is time to find out who did it. Comes with eight character booklets, party invitations and envelopes, player nametags, crime scene clues, and a party-planning booklet with decorating, music and food suggestions. Bookchase is a board game about books from children’s to classics because the questions roam all over the place. The prizes: books for your bookshelf! From Ash Grove Press comes two board games: (1) Pride and Prejudice: The Game, and (2) A Christmas Carol Board Game. Booktastic is a literary board game in which players move around a quaint town square of bookstores, buying, selling, and trading books on their reading list with money earned from answering questions prior to their turn. Literati Challenge offers players five words from which they must create a story in ninety seconds using all the words. But what if the storyteller doesn’t know all the words? Ah, the challenge comes in making your competitors believe you do!

Jigsaw puzzles can be a lot of fun, and this Jane Austen one would be a wonderful addition for any young fan of hers.

Lit Wit! is a card game that uses 100 cards to pose questions and reveal the answers (on the back, of course). Are you a casual bookworm, a legitimate bibliophile, or a bona fide lit wit? You’ll find out. If you’ve always wanted to rewrite a great classic, Lit Libs is your opportunity to do so. Words are missing; do you want to follow clues and find them or make some up?  (Note, there are drug and sex references in this game.)

Giving
So many organizations ask for help during the holidays, and most of them are worthy of anything you can give. Here are some that focus on books and reading.

Librarians Without Borders: This is an all-volunteer groups of socially-minded librarians who “want to address the vast information resource inequity existing between different regions of the world.” They can use both volunteer assistance and donations.

Books for Soldiers: Being away from home during the holidays, especially when the reason is war, is truly awful. Donating books is one way to show your appreciation for their sacrifices.

Donors Choose: is a truly fine organization since it supports teachers and students in ways they need and that you choose. When you go on the site, you chose a classroom project from among those listed. DonorsChoose then delivers the materials you donate to the class, and the children send you photos and thank-you cards in return.

BiblioBuffet: We have a Book Donations page that lists quite a few organizations that also need book donations. They have all been checked out, and we can recommend them without reservation. Of the ones listed on this page, Reader to Reader and First Book are my favorites.

Home: Bath
If you like to read in the bath, wouldn’t some Paperback Bubble Bath or some after0bath Paperback Calming Body Lotion work well? Both promise a “smell just like an English satire from the 1970s - sweet, timeless and only very slightly musty.” For your bath or maybe just for decoration, these handmade soaps inspired by Austen’s novels might be just the thing.

Bathing fanatics who love to read can always use a bathtub caddy. The Aquala caddy is made of bamboo and has both a wine glass holder and book support. The Mercer Bathtub Caddy offers the same, but is all stainless steel making for easy cleaning. The Satin Nickel Aromatherapy Bathtub Caddy has a unique feature—a wineglass holder that provides a bit more stability and there’s more room for your book. Also wonderful is this Sip and Read by Candlelight Bathtub Caddy.

Home: Bedding
Consider this wonderful Literary Cat Throw, especially if you or your giftee is a combined cat and book lover.

Home: Décor
On the quirky side are these Recycled Magazine Picture Frames, which because they are so busy, can be confusing at first. Hint: Your picture goes in the middle of the frame. More dignity can be found at Books4Looks, a Welsh firm that specializes in turning books into wall art while keeping them intact and accessible to the reader. You can order them arranged by theme, color, style or period.

Not necessary, just one of those accessories that can be pleasant to have around  is the Cast Iron Book Press, a reproduction of an early twentieth-century bookbinder’s press. The screw-down top plate is functional, but unless you are pressing flowers in books this is probably best used as a decorative item only.

Strikingly beautiful are these Antiqued Uncovered Book Bundles, which are books that have been “liberated” from their covers, then stitched and bound with jute twine in order to become “objets d’art.”

Home: Furniture & Accessories
Not a bookshelf, but more of a lovely piece of furniture, this English Revolving Book Table offers not only an exquisite design but . . . room for books! If you are always looking for furniture to do double duty, this “Book It” Coffee Table might be just the thing with plenty of extra room on the bottom shelf for all those books now piling up on your floor. The trompe l’oeil Lord Byron Wooden Side Table shows off faux books that actually are a single drawer while underneath the spines open as double doors for convenient storage. There’s also Hemingway’s Library Book Side Table, the Power of Books Sculptural Glass-Topped Side Table (you could also buy two of these, add a rectangular  or oval glass top and have a coffee table), and the Stacked Volumes Sculptural Glass-Topped Book Table. The Bookseller’s Trough is an unique occasional table of sorts that hold volumes at an angle (thus giving visitors a chance to easily see what you are reading). This Leather Books Table, handmade in Italy of leather over wood, creates a magnificent antique look of old books while actually offering two drawers (the top and bottom “books”). Inside the drawers is bookbinder’s paper used as lining. 

The Nettlestone Library Ensemble is a library table-and-chairs that could also be a small dining or game table that has two tone-on-tone chairs on casters that also offer hidden space for books and a hand-painted, lacquer-finished top of faux buried wood.

What struck me about the Bedtime Reader’s Nightstand is the sheer practicality of it. Who doesn’t have a pile or two of books and magazines near her or his bed? Having a lovely nightstand that can hold them in convenient stacks with just enough room for a lamp and your current book on the top makes this a perfect table for any passionate bedtime reader. Another way to keep books close to your bed is with a bookcase headboard, of which a selection of practical and inexpensive ones can be seen here and here.

Chairs for reading need to be comfortable and this traditional Churchill Reading Recliner fits that bill nicely. Perfect for the reading man in your life. Another variation on this chair is the Tufted Leather Eloise Reading Chair in a classic design and made of distressed buttery leather.

Book-themed furniture for children can be found at Big Cozy Books. While most of their designs are meant for public use—libraries, offices, businesses, reception areas—they would work perfectly in a child’s  bedroom, assuming the room is sufficiently large.

If you are looking for a throw for sofa, loveseat, or chair, here is a great one for readers: the Reading Time Cover. And if you’ll prop this pillow on your sofa, it will certainly tell your guests what they need to know about you (assuming all your books don’t).

This Bibliophile’s Tissue Dispenser is handcrafted of wood and designed to resemble timeworn leather books. It is an unusually elegant cover for those necessary tissues.

For those with numerous electronics that comes with their own remotes, a more practical gift is this Remote Control Holder in which they can all be gathered together in one easily seen and accessed book box. Clocks in the shape of books can be found including this Book Clock in black and in multi-color.

Home: Garden
Gardens and books are natural companions. Where better to read? And how many books have you read where at least one scene hasn’t taken place in a garden? To remember that, this stone flowerpot made of books (okay, not real books) is a truly beautiful memorial to that connection.

If you like the idea of stones in your garden, but want ones that are a bit more personalized, then this Make Your Own Word Stones kit is just what you want. Everything is included: letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and the ingredients for the stones themselves. Prefer poetic stones? No problem!

Garden furniture is generally thought of as tables and chairs, but for something different, and gorgeous, Randolph Rose has created this handmade bronze sculpture as well as this spectacular Stack of Books Bench for the garden.

Home: Kitchen
Washing dishes will never be fun but it can certainly be made more pleasant with literary tea towels including Treasure Island, Agatha Christie’s Labours of Hercules, Alice in Wonderland, the Secret Garden, A Room of One’s Own, and many others.

Home: Lighting
Lamps made of books or made to look like books can be fun or graceful depending on the design. The Bookrest Lamp falls into the former category, but it nevertheless would be an excellent choice for a Penguin fan. This Stacked Books Accent Lamp is perfect for a more formal room, certainly a private library but a home office or really, any room that would benefit by a touch of warm light and rich burgundy color. The Enlightenment is an unusual light—a Plexiglass lamp in the form of a book that lights itself (with a 9-watt bulb) from the inside. The New York Public Library offers an adaptations of the lamps originally designed for the Library by the architects of the its landmark building—the Reading Room Lamp and the Reading Room Floor Lamp.

Home: Office
If you have a home office, you probably have numerous “things” seeking space. One wonderful solution to corralling them is this antique book box that promises to keep them all handy but hidden. One of the things you can keep in there are these “I Cannot Live Without Books” set of pencils. What could be better?

Next week I will be back with the third in our five-part series, and it will begin with Horror Lovers and go to  . . . well, we’ll see.

Upcoming Book Festivals:
One festival coming up on December 3-4 is the New Jersey Antiquarian Book Fair in East Hanover, New Jersey. Thirty-nine dealers in scare and rare books, prints, maps, and ephemera will be exhibiting their wares at the Ramada Inn on 130 Route 10 West from 5:00 to 9:00 pm on Friday and from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on Saturday. Admission is $7 for both days or $5 for Saturday.

The Pub House:
Children's Book Press focuses on multicultural and bilingual books for children. It’s not for reasons of “political correctness” that I highlight them here, but because they produce books worth reading. With America more than ever a land of many cultures and with the world becoming ever more interconnected with lands and people beyond our shores, the opportunity to explore stories that reflect that grows. CBP’s books page shows that they offer books in the general categories of African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Latino, Multicultural, and Native American. Among their new releases are My Papa Diego and Me. It is written by the daughter of  painter Diego Rivera (and illustrated by his paintings of children) is full of stories of her memories with him and of the wisdom he passed along to her. Quinito, Day and Night, the story of a boy who explores, explores, explores the world around him. In Going Home, Coming Home, Ami Chi is taking a trip to far-off Vietnam. To her parents it’s a home they left during the infamous war, but to her it’s confusing: how can you go back home to a place you’ve never been?

Imaging Books & Reading:
With Santa coming in less than a month, I thought this image particularly relevant. And fun. Happy December!

Of Interest:
It’s the inaugural year for it, but I like the idea behind the Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day. As Jenny Milchma writes, bookstores  “are places to discover an author, a story, a life. Nothing affords the conversation and interaction among books and book lovers that a bookstore does. . . . we must expose future generations to the unique pleasures they offer. On December 4th, 2010, take the child in your life to a bookstore. Watch his face light up as you give him free access, not just to a new book, but to tomorrow.” Such a good idea! Why not set aside a couple of hours next Saturday and enjoy the mutual love of quiet time among the shelves?

Until next week, read well, read often and read on!

Lauren

 


 

 
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