Gift Guide, Part II

A gold foil ribbonI asked for submissions, and BOY HOWDY did I get all the good links. But you're going to hate how tempting so much of this gift guide is, so feel free to blame me.

Or maybe next year we should all go shopping together, like pot luck gift shopping.

Kate suggests: The Folio Society

 

Beatrix Potter bound edition, cloth binding pen and ink illustration at the top.The Folio Society has truly gorgeous bound copies of classic books, including children's books, classic fiction, poetry, and humor.

Katie says, “I am particularly drooling over these….Please ignore the fact that I already own them leather-bound.”

Anna suggests: Novel Teas, Mugs, and Cozy Things

 

I've linked to Novel Teas before, but if your memory is as fuzzy as mine, well, drink your tea. No, just sit and relax while Anna gives us a round up of all the wonderful things.

NovelTeas, from Bag Ladies Tea, are a set of 25 sachets of English Breakfast tea, with literary quotes on the tags.

And, to quote Anna, “If you need a bookish mug to go with your tea, Zinnia Pea has a bunch.  And then you can go a bit nuts and look through all her gorgeous wall tiles and jewelry, since it's all book themed and book inspired.”

Here, be tempted by the following mugs:

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good book must be intolerably stupid.” – Jane Austen

“On the cup is 'Curiouser and Curiouser.' On the saucer is: '”Take some more tea,” the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly' from Alice in Wonderland.

Oscar Wilde! “On the cup is 'Always forgive your enemies….' On the saucer is: 'Nothing annoys them so much.'”

In the LibraryAudrey Hepburn: “I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day.”

“She is too fond of books, and it has addled her brain.” – Louisa May Alcott

Anna continues: “Or if you want to smell like a book geek, I get a little giddy over the In The Library perfume.”

The website describes the fragrance as, “In the Library is a warm blend of English Novel, Russian & Moroccan Leather Bindings, Worn Cloth and a hint of Wood Polish. The main note in this scent was copied from one of my favorite novels originally published in 1927.  I happened to find a signed first edition in pristine condition many years ago in London.  I was more than a little excited because there were only ever a hundred of these in the first place.  It had a marvelous warm woody slightly sweet smell and I set about immediately to bottle it.”

(There's also 2nd Cumming, a new Alan Cumming fragrance. If you missed the promo for the first Cumming: The Fragrance, have a look. But it's not quite SFW!)

And finally, now that Anna has bankrupted us all, she has one more suggestion: “And I really love the Spineless Classics, gorgeous posters with the full text of (mostly) classic novels, silhouetted with an image to suit the book. There are several Jane Austen novels available (as well as a whole host of other fabulous books and authors), and you can even get Pride and Prejudice and Zombies if your tastes run to that direction.”

Thanks, Anna! 

Vi suggests: Storiarts Scarves

Vi says that the owner of Storiarts only sells 12 Pride and Prejudice scarves per day. But there is also a shipping delay notice at Storiarts at the store that after December 1, shipping might take up to 4 weeks as the owner is going on her honeymoon (yay!). So perhaps this is a gift meant to be bookmarked for a birthday? Or, you know, post-holiday indulgence!

Bryn suggest: Bas Bleu's Pride & Prejudice Throw Blanket

Oh, Bas Bleu, the most tempting and wonderful catalog ever, with reviews and recommendations and interesting books and gifts for readers, and gosh, I'm sorry to link to it because if you get sucked in like me, well, at least I'm not alone. Bryn has a great suggestion, though: a throw printed with a few paragraphs from Pride and Prejudice.

The Wuthering Hoots sweatshirt is on sale, too. We're doomed.

Gail recommends Think Geek – and Sock Dreams!

DIY Library kit, complete with date stamp and lending cards

Gail writes:

“From ThinkGeek, a t-shirt statement to warm any snarky reader's heart or the DIY library kit to harken back to days before barcodes.

Also, the best socks to accessorize your reading material.

I love Sock Dreams, they have some of the best selection, prioritize their customers, and as a bonus they ship free on every order.”

Sarah adds: Some of their socks are 5-8$ each! Including Harlequin socks! No, not that Harlequin, the other one. 

Larissa recommends: Ex Libris journals.

 

Larissa: “Do you know about Ex Libris journals?”

Me: “I DO NOW, DAMMIT.”

Larissa says this one is her favorite.

Handmade, one of a kind journals from vintage books, some with pages hiding inside. From the website: “to complete it’s formative journey, we collate and drill the journal with holes, and then bind it with plastic coil. voila! the metamorphosis is complete, and the new journal is ready to be scrawled, scrapped, brushed and glued upon by it’s lucky owner.”

Le sigh.

Juliana recommends: Brookish and BookFiend on Etsy

 

Juliana writes, “Brookish: A Jane Austen-inspired shop — lovely hand-written quotes (including “I am half agony” from Persuasion) on tee-shirts, tea towels, scarves etc, and also a fun… poster with place names from Austen’s books e.g. Longbourne, Netherfield, Pemberley.”

I also like this guy:

A bearded man in a grey shirt that reads,

Juliana also recommends “Bookfiend,” which is “gifts for people who really love books.”

I don't know any of THOSE people, do you?

Juliana writes, “literature-inspired jewelry, stickers, cuffs and gifts — it was their leather wrap cuffs/bracelets imprinted with customizable quotes that caught my eye — but how to choose?”

Yeah, that'll be a problem.

And fear not – I have more gift suggestions to share, plus the results of my own indefatiguable catalog shopping expeditions. If you'd like to suggest ideas for the gift guides, please email me at SarahATsmartbitchestrashybooksDOTcom with “Gift Guide” in the subject line. Thank you for the submissions, everyone! And the rest of you can take your credit cards out of the freezer now. It's safe. Sort of! 

Categorized:

Tagged:

Comments are Closed

  1. Okay I’m going to be broke now.

  2. *Le Sigh* Too much wonderfulness, too little cash. But there are some awesome ideas here. Thanks for sharing, Bitchery.

  3. SB Sarah says:

    Good to know I won’t be alone!

  4. Lyra Archer says:

    Bye bye money. There may not be much eating this month, but I’ll be drowning in shineys.

  5. Mary Beth says:

    Goodness, thanks so much for lots of great suggestions!  I can second Anna’s recommendation of NovelTeas.  Last year I bought these to give to my friends from book club.  They were nicely packaged and a fun little holiday gift.

  6. Danielle Nguyen says:

    So I want pretty much everything on this page. Thanks for that.

    Seriously though, great gift ideas!

  7. Natalie H6 says:

    Great! Now I am officially broke! It’s worth it though 🙂

  8. graniagrace says:

    I really want “In the Library”.  And then I started reading the descriptions and stories of all the scents, and it is like reading the J. Peterman catalog…. appealing to the senses in so many ways, that it is like choosing from a sampler of incarnations of yourself. Until now, I did not know there was such a thing as scent porn.  Now I’ve got to pause in reading the Kristen Ashley oeuvre to read the entire CB Scents site. 

  9. Anngeewhiz says:

    I have the Mr. Darcy proposal mug from Brookish.  It was supposed to be a Christmas present last year.  Hmmm….

  10. Geggattskis says:

    You HAVE to add http://www.litographs.com to this list!

  11. Michelle says:

    Barnes and Noble have some pretty leather bound editions too:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/

  12. My poor credit card…  I love those quotation mugs

  13. Alexis says:

    Okay, I admit it, I bought the Alice in Wonderland tea cup! Well, it is my birthday next week …

  14. I love the Folio Society’s editions…but. Want to browse their books for gifts? They are indexed on the Society’s website into “books for him” and “books for her.” Apparently my uterus renders me uninterested in Charles Darwin, Patrick O’Brian (a personal fave, I’ve read ALL of them), Isaac Asimov, or Douglas Adams.

    Seriously? 

  15. Alexis says:

    I was very confused by your comment and wondered if I’d missed something at the website … went back and looked again, saw only Christmas Gifts and Box Sets under Gift Ideas. Then I looked at the sites for different countries – the US and Canada have Books for children, Books for teens, Books for him, Books for her. The UK, Australia, New Zealand and everywhere else have the former set up.

    I wonder why the difference?

  16. cate says:

    No wonder you named yourself Bitches …..!!!! Do you know how much dosh I’ve just spent in under 45 minutes ????? And the trouble is – half of what I’ve bought is for me 🙂
    Had an utter Gollum episode when I hit Think Geek, Storiarts (where have they been all my life ?) and as for Brookish….. am hiding the bank statement when it comes in ..

  17. Sybylla18 says:

    Postertext.com is another site with the same idea as SpinelessClassics and Litographs.  (It’s also substantially less expensive than SpinelessClassics if you’re in the US.)

  18. Katie Ann says:

    Ooooh thank you for that link to Sock Dreams, I’ve never seen them before and just bought myself several pairs of over-the-knee fun socks to wear in this lovely boot weather.  I suppose I could’ve bought some as presents.  😀 They seem like an awesome business that I don’t mind supporting, I love that they include such specific dimensions and measurements for their items.

  19. Tin says:

    Love, love, love the DIY Library Kit. ^_^

Comments are closed.

By posting a comment, you consent to have your personally identifiable information collected and used in accordance with our privacy policy.

↑ Back to Top