Friday, November 23, 2012

Books are a perfect gift ... and a great way to avoid the crowds


At times, friends and relatives can be hard to buy for. Some seem to have everything. Due to age or illness, others may be less mobile than in years past. Some don’t really want much. Families scatter across this huge country and selecting a gift, packaging, and shipping can be a chore.

A book, however, is always a great gift … especially if you take the time to match their taste in fiction or nonfiction special interest. Suddenly, your thoughtfulness becomes part of the gift. Whether your relatives or friends are interested in the Civil War, literature, romance novels, Westerns, paranormal fiction, railroads, guns, cooking, collecting old comic books, antique automobiles, or anything else, there's always a book that will bring a smile to their face.

Books are the best entertainment value. They provide hour after hour of personal pleasure, and then they can be passed on to another person. When I give a book as a gift, I  write a personal note inside that won't get tossed out like last year's Christmas card.

Children's books are great gifts. We search for autographed storybooks for our grandkids. Local bookstores always have children book promotions around the holidays, and this is one area where we actually like to join the crowd. A great find is when the author and the illustrator both sign the book. We've done this for several years, so now our grandkids' bedrooms have dedicated shelves for signed books. The icing on the cake is we get to read them a story from one of these books whenever we visit.

Here are Amazon links to bestselling books in a few categories. There are many more categories a click away, but you can also search for books on a specific subject.


If you have a Western enthusiast in the family, giving one or more of these books can bring a smile to their face … mine as well.