It’s Mother’s Day, which means trying to figure out what you can get your mom that lets her know you love her all the while causing you tremendous stress, because you know it will never equate to even a fraction of all the things that she has given you (her time, life, love, money, etc.).
My favorite thing to gift people (HANDS.DOWN.) is books. And, of course, my favorite thing in the whole wide world to be gifted to me is books (more books, please!).
So what do I get my mom for Mother’s Day? A book of course! But how does one choose which to give?! To me, that’s where all the fun lies.
You have the opportunity to give someone an amazing story. The potential to make them laugh, cry, smile, get angry, and most importantly, escape from their busy, stressful world. You get to give them a vacation, a new friend, a new love interest (team Edward!!), and so much more. And if you’re lucky to pick the book just right, you can give them a new favorite story. And oh man, it just makes my heart all warm and fuzzy when I give people a book that they love.
Books are completely magical, and sharing the magic with someone is one of the best reasons to read (I have books on my TBR that I’ll only read to see if it’d be a good gift for person x, y, and z). Why do book bloggers exist? BECAUSE WE LOVE TO TALK ABOUT BOOKS WITH EACH OTHER! And giving someone a book you’ve read and loved ultimately becomes the best gift for all parties involved because you’ve just landed yourself someone you can talk about your favorite book to. And guys, that’s priceless.
Do you love giving books as gifts? What have you gifted to people recently? Do you have certain books that you’ll gift to everyone, or do you try to tailor each gift to the person you’re giving it to? What was the last book someone gave you that you loved?
A. S. Thornton has evolved from book blogger (at “the bandar blog”) to author with a particular fondness for writing forbidden love in ancient deserts. Thornton’s debut, DAUGHTER OF THE SALT KING is available now wherever books are sold.
luvtoread
Daughter of the Forest is SOOO good! I love that book and the series so much! I’ve only read the first three books. I want to re-read them before moving on to the books Marillier has recently added to the original trilogy.
Ali (@thebandarblog)
I never read beyond Daughter of the Forest! I loved that book so much, I was worried the sequels just wouldn’t cut it for me! Would you say you liked them as much? Maybe I should bite the bullet and read them!
luvtoread
Oh read on!! Read on!!! I actually loved the second one, Son of the Shadows, more. I really, really liked the two main characters. The third book wasn’t as good as the first two, but it was still really good and was very enjoyable. That’s as far as I got and then Marillier released more to the series. I think there are 6 books out in the Sevenwaters series now.
Briana
I pretty much always give books as gifts, as well! (Though a lot of people in my family don’t actually really read, so mostly I have to give books to friends.) I do try to tailor the books to individuals. I only get into trouble when I give people books they know I didn’t like. Apparently it’s insulting because they think I’m saying they have bad taste in literature. When really I’m just saying that EVERYONE has different tastes, and I seriously thought they would enjoy the book. :/
Ali (@thebandarblog)
Hahaha, and as a book blogger they definitely know when you didn’t like a book! I have some friends/family that don’t read and I just can’t even deal. Sometimes I’ll try to push a “gateway” book onto them and secretly hope it will get them to start reading. I’m sure they usually just shelve the book and never look at it again.
Briana
I think I’ve given people a lot of books they haven’t read. Though I admit people give me books I hadn’t read either because they’re really not the type of book I normally enjoy.
Kat Impossible
Such a great topic for discussion! I like to gift books, but I know that they are not for everyone. My cousins will always get some, because we share the bookish gene, but my friends are more tricky. Either way, I always try to tailor the books to the receivers. And I barely ever gift anything that I haven’t read myself, so I’d like to believe that I can judge whether it’s a good book or not.
Marie @ drizzleandhurricanebooks
Oh what an interesting post! I loved it 🙂 I would love to give books to people, but I don’t think there are too many people reading the kind of books I like, and it’s hard to figure out what they could actually like…it makes me sad a bit!
Ali (@thebandarblog)
That is sad!! I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have someone I could give books to. I guess that’s what having book-blogging friends are for (:
Marie @ drizzleandhurricanebooks
Exactly! 🙂
Alise (Readers in Wonderland)
My favorite gift to receive is also a book, haha. Unfortunately, none of my friends or family enjoys reading so I can’t really gift books but I wish I could. They don’t know what they are missing out on 😉
Janina
First of all, your blog is just the best! Wonderful design too (not that I would expect anything less from my yearbook editor extraordinaire). I love giving books as gifts. I often give my TA’s and other special graduating seniors books as parting gifts. One year, all four of my TA’s received children’s books based on the main character each student reminded me of. I also love to write quotes in the front cover that are special in some way: something I want them to remember or something that reminds me of the relationship I have with that person.
Ali (@thebandarblog)
Thanks so much! I actually remember that you give books to your students. You probably don’t remember, but you gave me The Book Thief (which is actually in one of the photos in this post)! I love that you do that. It’s so meaningful to the student (I mean, I remember reading the Book Thief right away because you gave it to me!) .