This December I wanted to post some recommendations from indie booksellers for their favorite books to give as presents. (I wanted to do this every week but the time caught up with me.) With the publishing industry suffering crazy cutbacks and book sales in a slump let’s put our few spare dollars to good use and all give books for the holidays (as a friend put it “we need a bailout for the book industry”). Get a little book to squeeze into a sibling’s stocking, a graphic novel travelogue to make broke friends feel like they’re on vacation, or give your favorite Jewish cook a gelt trip. As the writers here can attest, a book is more than a way to impart information, a book is a way to tell someone how you’re feeling in someone else’s words. A book is a mix tape.
As I once heard Russel Banks declare at a reading in Portland, OR, stories in books (as opposed, say, to film) speak directly to the reader, making them a uniquely intimate medium. Through books, Banks said, authors get inside your most private thoughts. Not literally of course, though I bet there’s a great Scifi story there… Also, unless you’re watching a Branagh film, reading a book is the only time you’ll spend 10 hours inside a story. If for no other reason, give a book to monopolize your friends’ time.
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Jennie SMASH! // December 18, 2008 at 7:28 pm |
Oh, look: There I am, caught totally unawares in the library again.