December is flying by so fast. Are you scrambling to find great gifts? Here are some perfect presents for the writer or book lover in your life.
JOURNALS
Who doesn’t love a shiny new journal—especially if it comes with colored pens or pencils? You can even personalize it for each writer. Think about adding some inspirational thoughts or writing prompts. There are so many creative ways to gift a journal!
BOOK BINGO
Here’s a fun, inexpensive gift you can make for someone on your own or using an online Bingo generator. There tons of free ones available, such as this one (after making the card I discovered that they charge you if you make more than 30 cards, but if you’re only making a few, the graphics are really nice). Here are some other Bingo generator sites a teacher rated online. You can include favorite book titles, characters, details, quotes…whatever you want.
FAVORITE BOOK TRIVIA
If you share favorite books with someone, then you can create a trivia game of favorite book details using something like index cards or printing them out on card stock with the questions on one side and answers on the other.
SIGNED BOOKS
Check your local bookstores to see if there are any book signings in your area. If there aren’t, you can often contact your favorite authors and see if you can order signed books from their local store or send an SASE for a signed bookplate (since it’s close to the holidays, you could gift the book and put a cute note inside saying that the author’s signature is on its way).
*Keep an eye out for giveaway posts on our site where you can win signed books! They may be too late for this holiday season, but will still be great for future gift needs. 🙂
BOOKSTORE CERTIFICATES
These always make great holiday gifts for friends, family, teachers, students, etc. If you’d like to give a great book as a gift, check out our monthly new release posts and unique book lists.
WORKSHOPS, CONFERENCES, ETC.
The writer in your life would probably love to attend a workshop, conference, online class, or other writing-related event.
There are so many unique items for writers and book lovers that you can buy from places like Cafe Press, Etsy, etc. Check out these book bracelets! I even found a place that creates bracelets with one or more custom book charms—so an author can proudly wear charms of her own books or a book lover can walk around with her favorite books on her wrist.
For more ideas, check out this awesome Mixed-Up Files post of Gifts for the Bookish Types.
Author Tara Lazar has a post full of fun and creative gifts for writers.
I hope this holiday season will be wonderful for you! Which writer or book lover gifts are your favorite to give or receive?
Mindy Alyse Weiss writes humorous middle grade novels with heart and quirky picture books. She’s constantly inspired by her two daughters, an adventurous Bullmasador adopted from The Humane Society, and an adorable Beagle/Pointer mix who was rescued from the Everglades. Visit Mindy’s Twitter, Facebook, or blog to read more about her writing life, conference experiences, and writing tips.
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Repped by Joyce Sweeney at The Seymour Agency.
Thanks for you great ideas regarding gifts for book-lovers. I appreciate all the suggestions you made. The Book Bingo idea is superb! As a librarian at a school where parents help out so magnificently, we are always looking for great gift ideas that will bring pleasure to our volunteers and incentives that will be exciting for our students. We have found that our parents seem to enjoy a gift certificate to a book store pared with something to illuminate the reading experience, such as hot chocolate, coffee, a candle, mini flashlight, candy, interesting book-marks, or fun book bag. Since our school is in Seattle, it is pretty easy to find independent book stores and locally owned shops to choose our gifts. For students we offer a reading certificate when students read over the summer, but your suggestions have given us a great idea for breaks and holidays Thanks again. Nancy Kiefer, Library Specialist, University Child Development School, Seattle, Washington.
That’s a fantastic suggestion, Rosanne! If someone calls ahead of time, maybe the store will have the author personalize it while he/she is there before shipping it.
Annie Blooms sounds like a wonderful store. 🙂
Thanks for the roundup of good gift ideas. And I second the idea of getting a signed book from an author’s local indie bookstore. We do this all the time at Annie Blooms where I work. Another option is to see where your favorite author is touring and call in a book order. The staff of a bookstore usually has an author sign stock so it’s not a problem usually to get one of those signed copies sent to you.