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Each year during holiday times I try to conjure some book-related gift-giving advice.
This year, having no fresh inspiration, I’ve been procrastinating, but in my procrastination, I have stumbled on what I think is a truly inspired idea.
The inspiration for the idea comes from what happens when a child is expected to give a parent or sibling a gift but has procrastinated. So using resources on hand — markers, construction paper, etc. — they make a “gift card” good for a future something or other (e.g., breakfast in bed) that the receiver of the gift can cash in at their discretion.
I mean, of course, I never did anything like this. I don’t know where my mom got all those “I will do the dishes without complaining” coupons.
So, here’s my suggestion, one I sincerely hope you’ll follow through on. Give your loved one a book shopping “experience” at your expense. Make them a card, promising the book-buying day of their dreams and then follow through on my step-by-step guide.
For this experience, you will need to identify a restaurant, a bookstore and a cafe, ideally all within close proximity.
The experience starts with lunch at the restaurant where you and your companion will talk about books, what you’ve been reading recently, your favorites, the books and writers you’ve always wanted to read but haven’t gotten to yet, that sort of thing. You have two goals: A delicious lunch, and whetting your appetite to go look at some books.
Next, head to the bookstore. Plan on spending at least a full hour (if not more) at the store. You and your companion’s mission is to comprehensively browse the store. Here’s what I mean by browse:
1. Every section that could plausibly hold a book of interest must be visited. You and your companion should work separately on steps 2 and 3.
2. In each section, start with a quick sweep, letting your eyes fall on anything that grabs your interest by cover, title, author, subject or anything else. Pull the books that catch your eye a centimeter or so out from their companions so you can find them again.
(Step 2 is extra fun at used bookstores where you never know what you might come across.)
3. Go back and spend individual time with each of the books you flagged on the initial pass. Take them out. Read the cover matter, maybe start in on the first page. Do whatever it is you do when you’re considering a book.
4. Once you and your companion have each selected 4-6 books, rejoin and share your selections with each other. For each, you should describe to the other what’s interesting to you about it. Take all the time you need.
5. Both you and your companion should then choose books for purchase because, after all, this is the gift you promised them. Maybe even buy two copies of the same book and read them together.
Finish your day at a cafe with a warm beverage and cookie, muffin, or other pastry. Get a little comfortable, crack open those books you bought and start reading. Read together for at least 30 minutes.
The time having flown by, the sweet treat down to crumbs on the plate, the final drops of the beverage gone cold, tell each other your first impressions of what you’ve been reading.
Lastly, vow to do it again soon.
Happy holidays!
John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.”
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr
2. “Tom Lake” by Ann Patchett
3. “The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead
4. “The Night Watchmen” by Louise Erdrich
5. “Trust” by Hernan Diaz
— Emily M., Wilmington, Delaware
A list of well-crafted, widely read literary fiction. I’m going to stick with the well-crafted, but try to give Emily a book she might not have known otherwise: “The Known World” by Edward P. Jones.
1. “Micro” by Michael Crichton
2. “That’s Not All Folks!” by Mel Blanc
3. “World Made by Hand” by James Howard Kunstler
4. “Lucy by the Sea” by Elizabeth Strout
5. “The Last Devil to Die” by Richard Osman
— Barbara N., Evanston
I want the right book for someone who would seek out a 25-year-old memoir of the guy who voiced Bugs Bunny (among many others). This brings to mind the cult classic, and quite hilarious, “Evolution Man: Or, How I Ate My Father” by Roy Lewis.
1. “The Measure” by Nikki Erlick
2. “The Outsider” by Albert Camus
3. “Liberation Day” by George Saunders
4. “The Great Believers” by Rebecca Makkai
5. “Our Missing Hearts” by Celeste Ng
— Brad S., Glenview
Since Brad is open to short stories, I’m going to take advantage and recommend “Jesus’ Son” by Denis Johnson, a book that’s not for everybody, but for the people it’s for, it becomes a favorite.
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com.