We all know a book lover or two we need to get presents for this time of year. Instead of just gifting the classic book, why not buy something a little more unique that the literature lover in your life is sure to love and help prevent their bookshelf from overflowing!
By Alex Boersma, Literature columnist 25/26
As a book lover myself, I adore receiving books as presents however I often end up with a huge pile to add to my never ending to be read pile. As much as I love being gifted books, there are many other literature related gifts that you may not have thought of. I have included a range of prices here so there truly is something for everyone no matter the student loan budget! This also makes these gifts the perfect stocking fillers or secret santa gifts!
The first gift idea is a pot of prescription pills from the Poetry Pharmacy. Ranging from £9.95 to £13.95, each bottle is filled with lines of poetry, book quotes or inspiration in little pill like capsules. You can pick different prescriptions including words for joy, comfort, becoming, love, calm and wild remedy. Each category includes a variety of more specific themes such as 'Broken Heart', 'Mindfulness' and 'Pillosophy'. These not only contain lovely words but they also look great on your uni accomodation's bookshelf which is where I keep mine!
Another idea is a framed print of their favourite book or quote to cover the mould on their uni bedroom! These are always a lovely thought and sure to be highly appreciated by your literature loving friend!
The next gift idea is a portable book light. Despite being very cute, these are also incredibly helpful for travelling when the person on the plane/train next to you is sleeping and you don’t want to wake them up by putting on the big light to read! This genuinely saved me the awkward fear of disrupting someone and leaning over to turn on the light while I was interrailing. It easily slides onto the back of the book and you have the perfect, discreet reading light! These are sold at Waterstones for £6.99 in a variety of colours, so go get some more book stamps!
My next present idea is a book embosser which I’m sure many of you saw on TikTok a couple of years ago when they blew up! These are such gorgeous gifts and can be personalised in so many ways. The majority will say ‘This book belongs to the library of (insert name)’ and have a pretty image on! They’re also surprisingly satisfying to press onto the book pages. As they are personalised, they tend to be on the more expensive side and vary between £15-£30.
Homemade gifts:
Onto some homemade gifts now we have the obvious but always appreciated annotated book. It is so lovely to receive a book well loved by someone you know and filled with their annotations of lines and sections they think you may enjoy or have made them think of you and best of all it's free! Unless like me, you cannot bring yourself to part from one of your favourite books then it’s a couple of pounds to buy the book from a second hand bookstore!
Another homemade gift idea is a simple homemade bookmark. This could be filled with photos of you and the recipient, drawings, doodles or even quotes from their favourite authors! You can really get creative with this and could even make a couple!
My final idea is perhaps the most simple but one of the most impactful, simply buy them a book that you think they will like. Everyone loves knowing you have thought about them and decided on a book you're sure they'll love.
Happy gifting!
Featured Image: Epigram/ Alex Boersma
What gift will you buy?
