Gifts for the Fairer Sex – Buying for a Bookworm

Gifts for the Fairer Sex – Buying for a Bookworm

(“Please Make your selection and leave…”  “I have!”  “What do you want to take out?”  “The Librarian…”)

By: Sarah

So your lady likes to read.  And read.  And then eat and sleep and read.  The good news is there are more books in this world than you can shake Potter’s wand at.  The bad news is there are more books in this world than you can shake a vampire interlocked in mortal combat with a werewolf at.  So, where to start?  Here are a few suggestions,.

Of course the big item right now for any digital friendly bibliophile is the e-reader, with the two heaviest players being Amazon’s “Kindle” and Barnes & Noble’s “Nook”.  The cost on each of these e-readers is $259.  The beauty of these splurges into literary technology is that you can easily download a book practically anywhere at any time and thousands of books are available to download for free.  Is this contributing to the overall insatiable demand for instant gratification and laziness that pervades our society today?  Perhaps, but it’s still pretty cool to have that novel you’ve wanted to read at your fingertips in an instant.

Another cool option is to give her a monthly book gift through www.giftlit.com.   You can choose to send her a 3, 6, or 12 month subscription.  The Giftlit.com panel of literary experts chooses the selection of books that go out, but you or the recipient can change the selections through the website.  There are selections for women, but also for children and young adults if you have a younger reader in your life.  Prices can range anywhere from $50 for a 3 month subscription up to $340 for a year-long subscription.

If your budget can only handle a book or two, start doing a little snooping to see if there is a book you can buy her.  Does she belong to a book club?  If you know a member ask what one of the upcoming reads will be?  And if she’s not in a book club you can still approach her friends about a book she might want to read.  Trust me; we bookworms have these conversations all the time.

And if nothing else there’s always the trusty gift card from your neighborhood bookstore, which at this point is most likely Barnes & Noble or Borders.  But don’t forget about your local book purveyors if you have them, the smaller guys appreciate the business too!

(Photo by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair)