Okay, so it’s a pitch, but you’ve got to humor a bookseller once in a while. The picture today is another self-indulgence on my part, a dip back into the memory banks to enjoy Nikki enjoying the snow-filled meadow. And here now, without further ado, are my top ten reasons for giving books as gifts::10. They can be opened again and again and again.
9. If treated well, they never wear out.
8. They add character and warmth to any room.
7. You can’t go wrong on size or color.
6. You can enjoy them yourself before you give them.
5. They are easy to wrap and ship.
4. They’re fun for kids despite the approval of parents and teachers.
3. They are equally at home in the woods and in the city.
2. They require no batteries or outside power source.
1. You’re adding to the recipient’s lifetime pleasure.
5 comments:
11. They look so much better on a shelve than knick-knacks. Knick- knacks? How's that for a word from yesteryear?
There's a word I like even better but may not be able to spell. I'll give it a try: tchochkes?
There was an article in the Parade magazine Sunday (no great magazine but worth a look since I had purchased the paper.) The article was The Best Gift to My Son by James Patterson. He writes to his son that maybe the best gift he can give him is that every Christmas he will give his son at least one book. "What loving parent wouldn't get their kids a book to read over the holidays?"
Deborah, I still remember the year I received BLACK GOLD by Marguerite Henry. I was so thrilled!
I would say, don't just give someone a book -- read to them. I read to my kids until they were into middle school, really until they had so much homework that we couldn't find time. I work four or five nights a week, so often I would start a book and they would finish it themselves after the first few chapters because I wasn't home at bedtime. Lately I read the first half of Jane Eyre to sixth-grader Anna. She ate it up as much as her sisters did.
I read occasionally to the people in the breakroom at work, especially when something makes me laugh out loud above the din of the TV, and they all wonder what's IN that book? It's funny to see a grownup drift away with the sound of a voice reading, just like kids do.
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