Saturday, December 24, 2011

The Gift of Reading

I love buying books for Christmas. I have given my cousins (who are 21 and 23 years younger than me) gifts for their birthdays and Christmas since they were small. My niece gets books. My sister and her boyfriend - books. My boys have always gotten books. This year my husband did as well. (Chris - don't read on!)

Here were the books under my tree this year:


  • Steve Jobs bio to my husband and my brother-in-law.
  • Focus by Schmoker to my sister.
  • Divergent to a cousin.
  • Crossed to a cousin.
  • The Knife of Never Letting Go to a cousin.
  • Two Babymouse books and I Want My Hat Back to my niece.
  • Lego Ninjago guide, Lego Ninjago chapter books (2), Wonderstruck, The Adventure of Sir Gawain the True, and Frindle to my oldest son, Luke (9).
  • Lego Idea book, Look – A book!, Chicken Butt’s Back, and Should I Share my Ice Cream to my youngest son, Liam (6).

And I have several books for myself such as: 68 Rooms, Where Things Come Back, 100 Cupboards, and Leepike Ridge – all from a phone conversation yesterday where I decided I HAD to have them.
I love buying books. Every Christmas as a kid one of my favorite gifts was books. Where would I be transported to? Would I grow to love the books I got? Incredible.


On Twitter today some of my friends were discussing where you buy your books. We used to have an AMAZING independent bookstore five years ago. It's gone now. My choice for buying is Barnes and Noble - not in my own town but the largest town near here, which is 30 miles away. I buy a lot of my books on Amazon. Hate to do it, I know that doesn't help our struggling bookstores, but I don't have a lot of options. Just learned about Indie Bound this year. Haven't figured it out yet, honestly, but am happy to use it if it will help out the smaller stores. I also use my local library for my own reading much more than I used to. Love reserving the books online and just picking them up at the counter.

Are you buying any books for Christmas? Please tell me about them. And check out the Nerdy Book Club website. Colby and John have videos up talking about what they are giving this holiday.


Happy Holidays!