Books as Holiday Gifts

There's a movement underfoot to encourage us to buy books as holiday gifts.

Random House is launching a "books=gifts" campaign. In the upcoming weeks, you'll see this campaign in the New York Times Book Review and the New Yorker as well as on websites, ads on Facebook and YouTube, and in e-mail blasts. Dean Koontz will say, "Books make great gifts because your friends and family need something thrilling to read other than their 401(k) report." Maya Angelou will say, "Books make great gifts because they're a celebration of family and friendship." Look for similar messages from well-known authors.

A group of bloggers has joined together and adopted the pledge to buy nothing but books for the holidays. They've put together lists of suggestions and other tips at BuyBooksForTheHolidays.com.

As I've mentioned before, I'll be doing my part here at Literary License. Beginning December 1st, I will be posting Twelve Days of Books with twelve great gift ideas for book lovers. For the most part, these ideas are not specific books, so you don't have to worry about gifting a book someone already has (a big problem when you're giving a present to a book lover). I've been working on the list for months now, collecting ideas in all price ranges and from many different sources. I'll post one idea a day for twelve days, and on December 13th, I'll post all twelve ideas in a single post. These are gifts that you, as book lovers, would love to receive, so you might want to pass on the link to people wondering what to get you this holiday season.